Things I overheard while talking to myself

Well, an email from the dojo about the annual Kendo Federation dues was enough to light a fire under my ass and make me write an email to the sensei explaining where the hell I've been for what must be two months. Damn me for putting it off for so long when I'd gone over what I was going to say in my head at least a dozen times.

I think he'll understand, since I'm kinda new at this whole balancing work and life act, and the main reason I hadn't mentioned to him was that the day the class is happens to be the same day as the time I usually spend with my dad, and considering I'll probably be moving out of the area for college it's precious to me, really. I know it kinda hurt my dad to have me running off on Saturday and the Thursday class isn't really an option, so it really was between a rock and a hard place for me.

*sigh* It's a hard compromise, but I promise I'll pick it up in college, which if it's in Boston has a great Kendo club. Still, I don't like this situation and feeling like I'll hurt someone no matter what they do. Still, I think I'm making the right choice, when I'm in college I'll be able to go off to these without sacrificing time with my dad. Still...

.___.

I'm way too amused by the English dub outtakes on the Rurouni Kenshin DVDs. Especially when they screw up the Japanese terms like "Amakakeru-ryu do htagen ftagen..." Hiko's actor is probably the funniest, since even when he messes up he keeps jabbering on gibberish (the above example was him).

I should probably go to kendo tonight, but I'm honestly not sure if I can make it down in one piece. I didn't get much sleep last night and am pretty worn out, not to mention menstural cramps. On the other hand, if I don't go I won't be able to for another week since now my Saturday is filled up watching the neighbor's kid. I probably will end up going despite that. As a wise warrior once said:

"If you cannot fight on your last legs that you cannot fight at all."

A Hachidan (8th rank, the highest awarded rank at present) that my sensei knows was required to create a saying when he obtained the rank, and it was something within the range of: "For every 100 practices you discover something about yourself."

Or, as my sensei elaborated, "You basically have to practice until you almost die to really get kendo." I wonder what I'll discover this time...

I'm now sporting several large blisters on my hands and feet from kendo practice, but I have enough endorphins going that I don't really care at the moment. I think I made good progress today in terms of coordination and sensei agreed with me. When I started I was having breathing difficulty but halway through I seemed to get a second wind and was able to breathe easier and felt myself get suddenly a lot more focused. Once school gets out I think I'll be able to go more regularly and have more time to practice between classes. Got hit in the head without armor accidentally by the shinai due to a miscommunication (IE whether I was supposed to go on his right or my right) but no harm was done. The guy I was practicing with was very helpful and was pretty patient with me and didn't mind if I had to ask him to repeat the directions again. I guess newbies get cut a little slack especially when they don't know half the terms, which is good. So far they've been making an effort to explain what's going on as much as possible without slowing everyone down. And once someone else new joins I'll get to help them and all will be good. ^_^

I also got Dewey, the guy who sold me the Prizm (who's nickname appears to be "Babycar" at this point, which just seems to come naturally to me) fixed the seat belt on indicator light that had been malfunctioning and annoying the hell out of me. He appologized because the seatbelt now doesn't retract as fast as it did, but that's fine with me. At least now I won't have a red light flashing in my face all the time that I'm driving like before.

And when mom and I got home there was a deer in the yard behind the barn. The thing was munching nonstop and didn't seem to mind us watching it (if it even noticed us) and might have been a weanling that got the hoof from its mother given how skinny the thing was. *smile* One of the nice things about living in the middle of nowhere is that you get to see stuff like that on a daily basis.

Ooh, need to remember to buy bread for the Russian party tomorrow. Maybe I'll get garlic or something of the sort...

In the interest of finding kanji that phonetically spell out my last name for kendo, I'd like to know what these two characters together mean, just to make sure it doesn't mean anything bad. Phonetically they sound out as "Karahan" the approximate transliteration of "Callahan" and are made of the characters for "Sky" (also can mean empty) and "Sort." Any quick feedback from Japanese speakers would be greatly appreciated.

I finally managed to get over to that Kendo class and I'm happy to say that I'm sore yet excited! Getting the paperwork out of the way quickly (name, phone number, address, soul, promise not to sue, etc.) with my dad signing it, I was then shown how to properly tie the darn hakama straps since the book I bought neglected to indicate just what to do with the extra straps and how to tie the front. Needless to say they fit much better after this was resolved. I also had my suspicions about the bokuto confirmed, being that the same (which in reality is just a bit of cloth wrapped around the hilt that isn't actually required) is loose and may require repair. But I was told it was otherwise very well made and good for individual practice. Or, as one person said "heavy duty."

The actual lesson was interesting, since I oscilated between feeling like an idiot at first and gradually getting more used to it. I was glad to see I wasn't the only beginner, though at the moment I'm the foremost junior out of 10 people. Oh well. I have to start somewhere. It was fairly easy to follow since the teacher was letting me know what they were doing, and I decided that I would keep my mouth shut when he explained things I'd already known from research. Best not to come of as a smartass, I thought. I then basically got the total n00b lesson: How to swing the shinai properly, how to move correctly, and how to give the yell (which of the three was the easiest since I'd done that on my own and ended up weirding out the neighbors in doing so). I was also given stuff to work on on my own, which I'll most certainly do over the vacation I'm now in.

I was encouraged by the fact that the sempai (senior-most student in the class) who was instructed to show me the proper forms while the teacher was prepping the more advanced students for a tournament next week was generally very pleasant and managed to both correct my mistakes and not make me feel like the dumb highschooler I am compared to the rest of them, who are mostly college students. When I stopped and was changing back into my normal clothes I was a bit surprised to find that most of my torso had been dyed a dark blue by the top. The other girl in the class heard my "What?!" and replied: "Ah yes, the first time you end up looking like a smurf."

And as I told my dad on the way back, I'm in pain but it's a good type of pain! It's not the "Ow that hurt I'm never doing that again" type, it's the "Awesome! I'm coming back next week!" type. But I'm definately glad that I had the impulse to call about it way back when. Hopefully it'll be very much worth it.

I have only one thing to say after about half an hour (I lost track of time) of attempting to get the Ki-aye or shout out of me:

Ow.

But not in a bad way. Sometimes I don't like that burn, but this time it actually feels good. I was on the deck, which I think I'll make into my practice area since I've already discovered that our ceilings are too low in the house and now the weather's nice enough to do it. I also just washed the keikogi after reading the "wash before wearing" tag I hadn't seen before. Oops. Oh well. I did manage to do the Ki-aye right (at least it sounded right, the sensei might thnk otherwise) since I was afraid I couldn't do it considering how relatively quiet I usually am. One of the neighbors did glance at the house looking puzzled when she walked by. I might just mention casually at one point that the repeated yells coming from our deck are me practicing. I guess I should have expected that.

So I think I'll try to go on Thursday to the class if it works out. But for once, pain is good! And yes I did the necessary stretches before I practiced in case anyone's wondering. My arms just aren't used to this sort of thing.

And I want to retake the pictures before I post them because it looks like I'm slouching in them. Yeah. I'm picky. It's pretty rare for me to let my picture get taken period since I'm very camera shy. Also hopefully my bangs will look normal again soon (I just got them cut). But they will be up eventually.

And since I realized I might as well be speaking another language when I talk about this to some of you:
Kendogi: The entire uniform
Keikogi: The top half of the uniform
Hakama: The bottom half, a sort of split pant (think Kikyo only mine's black)

Well, the kendo equipment has been ordered and will probably be here by Monday if not sooner. I was looking at a website recommnended by the teacher and saw a complete set (shinai, hakama, kendogi, and a bag to carry it all in) that I decided was worth getting. That and it wouldn't require shipping for all the parts seperately, only 1 shipping cost.

And thank god it's Friday. *collapses* Now if only this cold would go away...

I'm happy to say I'm glad that I went to that kendo class if only to observe, since I'm practically sold to at least try it for a few months. I felt a bit odd at first being probably the only person under 18 there since I'm sure most were in college, but none of them gave me any flack *perhaps due to the fact that I look like a lot older and didn't get busted for going to an R movie last night as a result* and the teacher impressed me. He was just as pleasant in person as on the phone, I'm happy to say.

Watching the practice was interesting. A few kids are apparently going to a tournament later in the week, so I was told it wasn't the usual sort of practice they have. I was told that jumping in wouldn't be too hard and that I can go at my own pace, and mostly be doing the basics like one kid I observed for a few months before actually sparring with anyone. The thing I think I'd have the most trouble with is giving the Ki-ai (probably spelled wrong) or yell when going, since I'm not used to actually raising my voice in most situations. Might be something to mention to the teacher and maybe get some advice.

Granted I haven't signed anything yet and will sit on it for a bit, but the atmosphere and generally what they were doing seems like something I'll want to at least try. Still need the equipment, but they gave us a list of websites that they recommend and seem to have fairly good quality. Still not sure if I'll try Iaido as well since I only saw 5 minutes of that class, so I'll sit in on one of those as well before doing anything.

The lesson: Impulse sometimes ends up being a good thing! The reason I say that is because the drive to call the teacher came up out of nowhere and seems to have had fairly good results so far. Let's just hope it stays that way.