Else what's a heaven for?

I thought Fri night's birthday party would be a Eurotrash extravaganza, ( but these are climbers ) I was a good girl and went home after 4 drinks and maybe I was home by midnight? Which is good bc I woke up at 4:30 and started packing for my day of climbing.

Only once have I ever been more creeped out in an urban environment than I was Sat morning at Port Authority: while waiting on line for a bus ticket, the guy behind me was smacking his lips, talking to himself, and saying derogatory things about women. With an enormous pack on, I couldn't hear exactly what he was doing - if he'd been touching my pack, I couldn't've felt it and I was quietly freaking out. And then the only thing open in the area was Au Bon Pain and I had an undercooked and overly fatty sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. ugh.

My favorite guide evuh was in town for a few weeks, which is why I booked a trip even before I knew the weather forecast. It was pouring when we met at Rock & Snow, but as I said to SR, after Rainier, a little rain doesn't scare me. I told him my objective for the day was to learn something and gave him my list of weak areas. Climbing anchors are something you can review while standing under an overhang, so that's what we did. ( minutiae only of interest to me ) It really was tree shibari: fuckloads of girth hitches and most rope tops I know tie their rope the same way people store their cordelettes.

I was very, very pleased with what SR taught me bc while gear placements are an important part of leading - it's what keeps the leader from hitting the deck - anchors are even more important, bc it's what keeps the entire party safe. In all the books I've read, none seemed to lay out the system in a way that was, well, systematic.

Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that I made a classic Igor mistake when I hired SR: ( local guides are best ) All in all, I learned a lot and did a little climbing, so very much what I wanted.

I was wiped out and slept oddly deeply on the bus home. Came home and ordered a rotisserie chicken, which I ripped apart. There are wolves with better table manners than I showed.

Sun we had Mother's Day brunch at a French place she chose (bc Alain Ducasse is the owner) that rode the line between cheesy and good. They had a strolling accordianist and someone making balloon animals. The food was decent: I liked my mom's escargot and I liked the mixed plate of pate and duck. My lamb shank was much too heavy, so I left most of that, and enjoyed a few bites of the chocolate souffle. It's in my work neighborhood, so I suppose I'll go back with my-lunch-buddy-who-likes-French-food.

Ovo was great, as it should be as one of Cirque du Soleil's newest shows. ( Read more... ) I want a climbing wall like that!

My sister is supposed to sign a new lease for a new, fully-furnished apt any day now, so she needed us to help her move her Stickley dresser into the car. ( I'm what passes for strong in the Stine family )

Last night, I dreamt ( of impotence (rated PG-13 for violence and sexual content) ) Who knew the French and the TSA could be so friendly?

In other news, motivated by exam-fear, driven by caffeine and too much Dragonforce, I finished my monthly project, which usually takes me 4 days, in a bit under 4 hours. Too bad my boss was too busy napping, meeting with clients, and discussing our future to turn it around, but it means I'll be home studying this morning, and then the rest of the week. I hope that's enough to do the trick.

First thought of the day: life's like jello. There's a time when you put in ingredients that will cause it to taste a certain way; there's a time when you put it in a mold after which it just won't fit elsewise; and then there's the time when you can't really change it anymore, it is what it is. *sighs*

My cousin commented over the weekend that the lump on my shoulder looks fluid-filled. If so, there's naught an acupuncturist can do, so I'm calling the aerialist-dating doctor later today for an appt bc I think it's gotten large enough to interfere with my shoulder function. Also, not going to the acupuncturist means I can avoid my mother.

I was reading State Dept travel warnings recently, which reminded me that I'm still not comfortable with my safety for wilderness travel by myself. There's a free rape prevention class at a local martial arts school that I figured can't hurt. I assume it's a marketing tool for their 8-week women's self-defense class; the only question is, will it waste my time? It's four hours and they mention they talk about legal aspects - if it's just talking about how soon you need to get to a doctor etc. well, for my purposes it's useless. Also, it's not easy for me to get to, but if there was good information... Well, if it wasn't so difficult to get to, I'd've taken their 8-week course already I s'pose.

Speaking of travel, I find it remarkable that 2 weeks in China, Iceland, and Montana all cost roughly the same amount. Iceland isn't =that= much cheaper these days; it's the car (and the Exum guides) that are expensive in Mt. The plane fare isn't THAT much for China - not sure why it's so pricey.

There were news reports yesterday that my company will be doing a new round of layoffs, getting rid of the same number of people as the last 2.5 layoffs. Can we be done with this already? Esp. since in the last month, 4 big producers in our dept left for competitors. *le sighs*

Edit: This icon is so much more interesting now that we've gotten the sequel.

Weds afternoon, I heard EAHPhD putting on his coat to leave. I asked him a quick question when he walked past my cube, and he commented he was going to see a movie. I asked which, and he told me he was going to see Quantum of Solace. Bc I'd tried to see that last Monday, I said, "Oh! At the Ziegfield! at 4:45!" "Yes, y'wanna come?" So I did.

I liked it. I'd heard vague lukewarm things about it, so my expectations were low, but I liked the continuation of the origin tale, along with the to-be-expected lush locations. The bit at the opera was cool and I liked that they had a car chase, a motorcycle chase, and an airplane chase all one after the other. Didn't like the new Bond chicks nearly as much as Eva Green and I don't remember having any clothesgasms. oh well. My one complaint is the thing schrathe noticed, ( spoiler ) That bit is getting old.

Thurs, my mum served turkey, ( and other food ) A Vietnamese friend of my mum's explained the concept of cooking the stuffing IN the turkey (with an orange). Most years, I take an obligatory taste just to see if I like it (and don't); this year, my brother and I came to literal blows over the leftovers.

We watched the new Indiana Jones afterwards. I liked it, perhaps bc my expectations were very low. After discussing it with Bbro, I realized the reason it was so universally panned is that it was all fan service, esp for Yalies. (My sister was pleased to see Berkeley go by during the motorcycle chase and my dad kept saying, "I used to study in that library all the time!" during the, uh, library scene.) Me, I liked all the little bits - Indy saying, "I have a bad feeling about this," and the straddling the two jeeps bit, and the sword fight. All that. We also realized that if you removed ( spoiler ), the movie would be vastly improved. Also thought Cate Blanchett was completely wasted.

I was starting to think my critical movie watching skills had been damaged or something, but I wandered over to where my brothers were watching Get Smart, saw the last 15 mins, and thought it was so incredibly stupid, I'm forevermore avoiding it. Also can't stand Anne Hathaway's "work".

Fri night, we watched The Forbidden Kingdom. My fave martial artist warned me it was a kids flick, which kept me from hating the movie, but I still found the action sequences far less thrilling than a fight with Jackie Chan and Jet Li ought to be :( Some of that might've been the supernatural elements. My favorite bit was the evil chick's hair - my sister and I had a long discussion about what I could do if my hair behaved one tenth as well.

I guess four day weekends are long enough to require a two-parter :)

Remember what I said about how my subconscious sends me dreams of comfort and a chance to do things I can't do while awake? Last night, I dreamt that I was back in my aiki jujutsu class, except that soke's wife was teaching and I was incredibly happy to be back in class. I even went back to bed hoping to fall back in that dream and I kept doing so, which is why I got out of bed an hour late.

'course, in dreams, it doesn't hurt to get slammed against the ground. *sighs*

Dear Kate's Body-

Just bc I haven't slept more than 6 hours in months does not mean that if I go to bed early, I want to wake up early too.

No-love,
Kate

**

A quick Google search and flipping through McGee's section on baked goods yields nothing, but I'm really starting to think I need to try baking my quickbreads for longer and to heck with soft moist insides. ( This next part is kinda gross. Suffice it to say, the carrot cake is gone. ) I don't get how it spoiled so quickly! It came out of the oven at 5pm on Sunday, it was out for a few hours before being frosted, and then Monday it was on the counter at work for two hours. This is ridiculous.

I felt crappy when I left work, which could've been psychosomatic or could've been bc I slept in cars more than beds over the weekend (from driving up to Cambridge for the day). My neck was sore from sleeping wrong over the weekend and my legs hurt from the race. I felt that if I skipped aiki jujutsu last night, and didn't intend to continue, I shouldn't bother going to next week's either, so I agonized over skipping class. I think I made the right choice. I got rid of clutter, if by clutter you mean 2 of the 6 open bottles* of wine in the house and a Netflix offering that had been hanging around too long, and feel better this morning. I think I've been doing far too much socializing for this introvert. And if I start sleeping more, I suppose I will have to get a sleep mask or something.

* Each bottle had a glass left, so no, I have not become a lush, WINGMAN.

Two recurring thoughts from tonight's class:

1) Tomorrow is going to suck, given that I managed to land on my head at the beginning of class and my quads were already sore by the end of class.

2) What is it about quasi-Asian arts that makes them so poncy? After all, We don’t have to claim dinosaurs in our family tree if we are actually descended from perfectly respectable geckoes, and all that.

At least I found out why my shoulders/back were sore last week - slapping the mat. We spent a third of class doing kempo, so less real falls, but I found that it only took one or two to get me to remember how all this stuff works. And I enjoyed sparring with the new student - he seems to have chilled out.

Edit: I need a good tagline for this icon, but somehow Beckinsale's fake British accent doesn't translate to the page very well.

Edit2: Before I forget... apparently it's the defenses against a sworded opponent that are asymmetrical. And I still need to work on keeping my head down.

I was still considering punting, grabbing a slice of pizza and buying groceries as I was walking to class. After all, with only five left before I quit (with the bunny's permission), why should I waste time being uncomfortable and unhappy? ( I went anyhow )

Soke's a pretty smart guy. He lined us up again and gave us a little speech about how he wants to get a core group of students who regularly show up and can all practice the moves. He kept saying the word fall, and looking at me, and made a comment about testing to get to the next level. (I am the only white belt who has been there for more than one session.) Then he said he would take some of us for individual work and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who needed to be brought up to speed.

It was exactly what I needed. Soke spent an hour taking me from the most basic parts, the breakfall and the roll, and making sure I could do each with confidence, building up to falls that start with a little hop. ( My notes ) I felt awfully guilty that he had to walk through so many basics with me, but it made all the difference in the world. I know that he would never throw me in a way that I could get hurt, so I'm willing to try it with him. And sure, I felt it when I landed, but with repetition I came to believe that I could take it, even though I was out of breath. When he switched me to work with another student, I was a little nervous - but I knew I could take it. And I did. And bc I knew that I was taking it, I didn't feel guilty about dishing it out, and suddenly the moves actually made sense. Not that I'm any good at tossing people over my hip or anything.

I'll bet soke wanted to prove that even I could be taught to fall, so that the other slower members of the class would have more faith too. Well, and maybe he got bored of our dysfunctional class and having to teach the same darn things over and over, bc until you actually feel the moves, you're never going to get it.

I got my slice of pizza and in celebration (and bc my fridge was empty), I bought all sorts of nice fruit and dairy. When did I become the sort of person who buys organic milk and eggs and butter??

So now the question is, do I stick around? I'd been looking forward to getting home before 11 on Mondays and being able to come home and stay warm. If I buckle down and learn my Japanese, I think I could test two weeks from now and earn my blue belt. *le sigh*

( Footnote )

I really really didn't want to go to class last night, and found myself arguing that this class won't matter when I switch, but I finally dragged myself there late. oddly enough, soke had decided to do a class on "self-defense" and I was the only female there. When I came in, they were practicing responses to being shoved. When I was 10 and took judo, even my mother complained that I needed to be more aggressive. It only took soke 15 classes to say, "You need to be more aggressive." *le sigh* Both my partners last night kept saying, "Hit me! Hit harder! No, really hit me." I'm sorry, I was taught not to hit guys in the crotch area. Then again, while we were practicing getting rushed, it dawned on me that I now know what to do next time my favorite Harvard rugby player decides to do a football tackle on me. Still, I found it annoying? to keep getting hit and wonder if martial arts is really for me.

Soke talked about getting attacked on the street at some point and he had a few comments on the law regarding self-defense. It seemed to me that he missed the whole issue of martial arts training being considered a weapon, e.g. when he described a guy who started shoving him, he described his patience in not hitting back instead of talking about how the other lawyer would portray his being a martial arts instructor.

The other thing that I found mildly perturbing was the discussion of choking out. I mean, I know people who asphyxiate for fun and I was more calm about it than some of the other students, but it really doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Oh, the annoying student was back. *sighs* He of course had to ask how to get out of a bear hug, which we'd actually covered a month ago. Soke showed us another way and, I know this is a terrible thought during the ten days of awe, but I'm glad he demonstrated on the annoying student, so he could get his foot forcefully stepped on and his inner thigh smacked. I mean, he wants to know if it works, right?

It's a good thing I decided that jujutsu is going to be one of my two hobbies once the half marathon is over, bc last night's class was brutal. I missed a class bc of my vaca and the week before I was too hosed to go, and I seem to have lost tons of ground. ( How do nilla people do this stuff?? ) Bleh.

Speaking of the half... I looked at the calendar and realized I have to run 15-17mi this week. After not running last week (or much the prior week), this is distinctly unappealing. I think I'm too stressed (and exhausted from two nights of being unable to sleep) to enjoy anything: I have a date to go climbing tonight (now THAT's a first date, although is it still a first date if he admits in advance that he's met someone in the interim and isn't on the romantic market anymore?) but I sorta wish I could stay home and tackle the 200 emails about this coming weekend instead. Not to mention the 30 about events I'm planning, the 10 personal emails I owe, the essays I'm supposed to be reading for my friend who is applying to b-school, the oh nevermind.

Speaking of climbing... my canyoneering cum insane kayaker friend tells me I need a 5mm wetsuit for the rendezvous in Zion in October. Why oh why don't I know anyone my size from whom I could borrow one for the weekend? Bad enough that I discovered why Olympus stopped selling the Stylus 410: ( unabashed lust )

Speaking of travel... I had a good long think and have already decided not to take any time off for the mf'ing bne next year. They've already had to shut down one (good) route on Kilimanjaro bc of global warming, I don't want to wait for the next to go. I'll just have to study hard or something.

Edit: OMG! I'd been debating punting the rendezvous, but it just dawned on me - rendezvous in Zion means In'n Out for Kate!!!!!!!!! SQUEEE!!!!