Getting ahead already

Things have been so busy these days. While I was able to get two classes in yesterday (one in the morning, and one at night), I can't get to class on Saturday, and I wasn't able to get to class tonight due to other commitments, so it's a good thing that I was able to get the first two sections and their reverse of my new form already, as that would be about 2/5ths of my form right there, from what I can figure.

Since the upper level color belt cycle is back to the beginning again, and I've already done the most advanced stuff (just did the most advanced one last cycle), we're back to the beginning with Songham #4 and the corresponding one-steps. Man, I dislike learning one-steps again, but as an instructor I'll have to know them anyway, and since this form is much shorter than the stuff I've already done, I guess throwing the one-steps back in is not that big a deal, and they are easy anyway. In fact, this form is that much easier than what I've done most recently that Ryan gave me both this week's section and next week's section together. So, I've already learned segments 1 and 2, and their reverse. Learned the first one-step as well, and again, piece of cake. Board breaking too-- to go to the next level, I have to do an elbow break, and either a front kick or side kick break. I can do that with no problem. I did the elbow break in the morning with ease, and a front kick easily at night. Since they are doing the bahng mah ee AGAIN, I am SO bored with that, and asked Ryan if there was the next form of the single BME to learn, and he said that I already know what I need for color belt levels. Bleeh. I don't want to be THAT bored for 8 weeks, with the form being pretty easy thusfar. So, he did mention that Leadership was being taught the kamas. They have some other name in Korean, but I forget what it is...I'm sure I'll find out soon enough. Anyhow, of course I jump at the opportunity to try that and learn that, so I go to the supply cabinets and grab a pair (I am the office manager, for lack of a better title, after all), and he taught me some basic cuts and one move that looks kinda like swimming. ;-) I'm not used to doing anything double-handed, so this will be a good challenge.

At night during Leadership, since Ma'am is at Nationals, Ryan taught class, and we went over some options on how to teach segments in a big class, when you might have 2 or more different forms that you have to teach different people in the group. It was a good exercise, and since we were reviewing my form, I got some good reinforcement of the segments. The kicker (no pun intended) was sparring. We all know how much I dislike sparring, but it has to be done. And it's always a challenge to go up again the kids, and the ones in Leadership are the best in the school, but they are good sports and supportive. I would actually consider many of the kids to be my young friends and buddies, even though I'm old enough to be their mother! :-S So, the first round-- up against Mr. U, and he gets me right in the forearm where the bruise was just starting to heal up from the other guy last week. Bleeh. So, the next round was against my buddy Alex V. That one was kind of fun. I almost kicked him in the face. He's much faster than me, but I think I got a few good shots in, and Ryan was saying that I need to get out of the way more instead of blocking, and I think I'm getting a better idea about evading instead of going head-on. The last round was against Nina. That little spitfire is a lot more powerful than she looks. We went at it, and at one point she lost her balance and fell. It almost looked like I did it, but I didn't. Well, one of the last hits she got in was this killer kick. I went to block it with my right hand (and do note, like most people, I am right handed), and sure enough, that kick blasted the one part of my hand that was not covered by my glove, the whole palm muscle directly under my thumb all the way down to my wrist. OUCH! It stung something fierce and was throbbing. Of course she apologized, but MAN! I even iced it when I got home for a long time, and the pain still didn't go away. It's still painful. Not as bad as last night, but it's definitely bruised big time. It would be just my luck to have the little bit of hand exposed messed up, right? So, I can't lean on that part of my hand, and holding certain sized objects are a little difficult. It'll heal, I know, but MAN, it smarts.

Things have been busy at work. We got a huge shipment of gear in, and I was trying to go through and decipher the invoice forms, and then figure out how to invoice for some custom uniforms. I got the hang of one once I text-messaged SW, but then I couldn't get clarification for some of the others. So, I think I have to wait until tomorrow. Oh well. There were still things that I didn't get done, and I ended up running late leaving today, trying to get stuff done or organized, at least, before I left. Well, at least there is tomorrow. I just hope the freaking copier doesn't bug out on me again tomorrow like it did today. That certainly didn't help matters.

Drew was one of those people who got a custom uniform. It's not totally personalized, as it would have his name on the back if that was the case. Instead it's like mine, but instead of his name, it says, "Princeton, N.J.". I thought he'd be excited to get it, but it was a bad day for him, so he was not happy. He said he wanted to stick with his old uniform, but the problem was that a)it's his Cubs uniform, and the knee in the pants has a hole and b) he's outgrown that one pretty much that he needs the next size up. With him being in Masters, he needed a lettered uniform, so since they are heavy duty, I was fine with that. It'll last him for a while. Hopefully tomorrow, he'll be more in the mood for it.

I really hope that this cycle isn't too boring. I mean, Ryan gave me the okay to skip class tonight (I wasn't sure whether I was going to go or not due to some things going on at home), since I already got this week's AND next week's segments. I could probably learn all of it in a month, no doubt. So hopefully the kama will keep things interesting.