Awesome weekend...

I know, I know, the title says "awesome weekend", but I am going to go back a little bit to Wednesday because, I think that is where the streak of awesome days happened.

 

Wednesday - Worked sucks, but after work, my softball team won (bringing out record to 1-1) with a score of 23-8. It was a good old fashion beat down.

 

Thursday - Speaking of beat downs, I passed my test into 1st brown belt. 6 more months and I'll be testing for 1st black. I can't wait. I did pretty well on the sparring portion as well = ).

 

Friday - Conditioning class was rough this week. In fact, it's rough every week. Friday was a rather stressful day at work. I ended up leaving a little bit later than I had wanted to, but I avoided having to work over the weekend which was really all I cared about. After work, Victoria and I just chilled out at my place, ate dinner, watched a movie, and fell asleep.

 

Saturday - I want to my first Shaolin tournament. I participated in every even that I was able to except open forms. I didn't know there was an "open forms" event. I would have done 1st road of Golden Leopard had I had known... anyway. I took 1st place in 1st Brown level forms and 3rd in Chen tai chi. You might be thinking "3rd, that's not so hot". Well, when your competition is Sifu Paul and Sifu Mikey Tran, both guys that have been doing this way longer than I have, 3rd is something to be very proud of.

 

My sparring sucked ass this weekend. I was really not happy with it at all. Although I got some good hits in, I did not win any of my matches. One of my friends told me that I wasn't myself and I agree. I guess it was just an off sparring day. Oh well, can't win em' all.

 

Master Joe gave a talk about sparring techniques to use to basically "unfocus" the mind on being so fixed on the "if he does this, I do that" strategy. I wish I would have heard that before my sparring matches = ). It's stuff that I had heard already but always like to be reminded of.

 

In light of my crappy sparring and Master Joe's talk. I am starting to incorporate Open Focus back into my daily routine of things. If you see me on a regular basis and know me, please bug the shit about me about open focus. Thank you.

 

The best part of the tournament though, was being there with all of my friends and some who I consider family. I cannot express what great things have come from this school and this thing that we all do together. It was great to be part of the competition, but it's also great to cheer your friends on and see what awesome things they too have accomplished. There are lot's of pictures and I will post them... AS SOON AS PEOPLE SEND THEM TO ME.

 

After the tournament was all over, I went over a party at Victoria's place. It was small, but a lot of fun. I stayed over there that night.

 

Sunday - I went to Target to get some new stuff for the guest bathroom as it was looking pretty bare. After that, I got a bug up my ass to get a new bed set. I went to 6 freakin' places and didn't see anything that I liked. I think that I may have to turn to the info tubes for this one.

 

When I got home, I just did some stuff around the house like laundry, cleaning, vacuuming. Victoria came over and we hung out for a bit, then I went to the Black Belt Banquet at Dave & Busters. That was a lot of fun. It was really awesome to spend the evening with people that I not only work out and train with but admire and look up to.

 

Master Joe put together a short video about his history in this art. It was so great to see him as a younger guy in sparring matches, in competitions, doing forms, and just really doing what we are all doing now. It was a really fun night.

 

When I got home, Victoria was there just chillin ( she stayed at my place when I went to the BBB ). We just chilled for the rest of the night and eventually fell asleep.

 

Not to kill the mood or anything, but... now, I'm ... at... work... feh. The cycle begins anew. The only thing keeping me going is the new leopard class that starts tonight (aww yea...).