It should be in the bag

I was really ticked off that the ATA still hasn't updated all the tournaments in place. They have some C tournaments in before they have my B tournament in, so those points from that last regional haven't kicked in yet. Phooey! What a pain! Well, I know it'll kick in, but just for security, and to try to put it over the top, I participated in the interschool tourney today. Not much to say about it. Sandy couldn't make it due to another commitment, and she was missed. I went in early so that I could stretch and practice, and SW informed me that instead of competing at 9AM, I'd be competing with some color belt tweens instead at 10 AM. Fine, whatever. I had no other plans since Drew's soccer was cancelled due to wet fields again. (He's missed SOOOOO much soccer due to wet fields and bad weather since the season started. He's only been able to go once!) So, that's what I did. I practiced a little bit, helped out a little bit (did scorekeeping for the 9AM ring), etc. I did get chewed out a little as we barely had enough gold medals for the kids, and I hadn't checked ahead of time. I forgot, and I was only asked yesterday as I was leaving where the medals were being kept (and they were where they were the last time we had competition.) I apologized all over the place, because it totally didn't occur to me, but she later said it was okay, and understood the oversight. Anyhow, "picture day" was yesterday and today, so that was going on at the same time. I got my photo done too, but it was only for the wall. It looks pretty bad, because a) I'm fat, and you know a man was the one who insisted on the white uniforms instead of the black ones (we don't have them in the ATA except for the XMA stuff) and b)I had it taken AFTER competition, so my hair is all slicked back and looking kinda greasy. Oh well. It's done, and SW will have it like she wanted.

So, back to the tourmament. While Sandy was unable to make it, Karla came in, and SW recruited her to help. Karla is the same age as I am, but she's a 2nd degree black belt, and the 2005 state champ in all events for her age and rank. Yikes! (Yes, we have a good number of state champs at our school.) She was there just as a filler more than anything, and just to keep up her competition skills. She didn't do much in weapons, so she got 3rd in weapons, and I got first. She kicks butt with forms,and she got 1st, and I got 2nd. Since sparring wasn't important to either of us, and we wanted the kids to have a good experience, we somewhat threw our sparring rounds so that they could have 1st and 2nd place and we tied for 3rd naturally. Hey, part of the idea of a tournament, especially for the kids, is that it's an exercise in learning about self-confidence and self-esteem. They needed those wins more than Karla or I did, so we were happy to do it. And the girl I had to spar actually got some good hit in. She was more of a puncher, and got some decent punches in, so I think she legitimately win. I did get a few points off of her in the sparring round, but I didn't try as hard as I could've, but she held her own.

And that was pretty much it. I think that my 1st place in state ranking should be secure now, and even I've solidified my probable 4th place ranking for the state too. Hey, at least I can say I'm in the top 5, even though there's only 4 people ranking in sparring! LOL

I did get an interesting comment today from Jodi. Knowing what belt I am at, and being another person who tracks the stats of people at our school, she encouraged me to "totally" continue to compete next year as a black belt. She felt that I didn't have much competition, and that it'd be cool for me to continue with all of them, and I could "totally do well in that category". Color me surprised. I was thinking of possibly hanging up my gloves and concentrate on getting my certification and judging creds instead of competing. But maybe I shouldn't! I don't know. I guess I'll just take things as they come, and see how it goes. I was reviewing my posts from a year ago, and a lot of it was about me wondering what got into my head with joining leadership and starting competing. I don't regret joining leadership. While I'm still far from ready to start truly studying to certify, I'm more comfortable in the instructor classes now, and having taught Cubs classes as well as helped out in the other color belt classes, and entrenched myself into the instructor group. The competition thing...well, not too many people of my age and rank compete, at least around here. So, yeah, I do have a good chance to continue the quest in state rank. Of course, Jodi thought I could go compete for Top Ten (National/World level), but I don't know about that. It's something that I'll have to think about and ask about with Susan. I'm not sure I'm cut out for it, but perhaps I am, and don't have enough faith in myself to think so.

I'll just concentrate on getting through the regional that is this summer, and getting my black belt for now. I think that's plenty right there.

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In the meantime, I'd like to add something here that was brought to my attention by Penelope.


Blogging Against Disablism Day

First, to clarify, this is based on a UK site and the term "disabled" is not the same as the US. In this case, it's really blogging against disablism discrimination, to be more exact. Being that some of my TKD friends are connected with disabilities in one way or another, and that includes myself with Drew, I thought I would contribute to this. On this, I'm going to look at it from my TKD perspective. On my regular blog, I'll probably look at it from other angles. If you or someone you know fits this category, I encourage you to participate.