Midday Musings

Getting up from my commuter train seat this morning to disembark only took a split second, as it should.  No one stared at me.  No one even noticed.  I was just like everyone else.

I slept fine last night, pill free.  I was awakened by the need to use the bathroom, not by jolts of pain.  I love the initial days after a pain shot – no matter how painful the shot itself often is.

Already daydreaming about tonight’s trip to the gym and my last long staff practice before I’m at the venue.  The road trip south begins in less than 48 hours, and the whole family’s going.  It’s an exciting first!

I have my better half available to cheer me on, and my son will be competing for the first time.  Since this is the most affordable tournament of the circuit this year, I think I might try to talk my pre-teen into getting out of the audience and competing instead.  Her long staff form is pretty good in its own right.  She learned it well before I did (while I was learning sword) and had a great time telling me what I was doing wrong when I first learned it.  I’m sure that any correction I give her, when she learns sword as a future black sash, will be seen as payback.  But I’ll deal with that misconception when I get to it.

I’ve been noticing a lot more – just random things: the bright blue on the scarf of a total stranger dressed all in brown; hearing the moving zipper on the purse or backpack of a passenger a row behind me on the left while nodding off; seeing the vendor from a block and a half away set up her cart in front of the courtyard of the office building (I’m normally crossing the street just a few yards from her before I notice if she’s selling that day.)  In short, physical mindfulness is a trip.  So is trying to be a duck.

The program director of the gym is definitely testing that impatience trait of mine.  I sent a follow-up email today, proposing to just rent space at the gym and make an arrangement for students of mine to be able to enter for free just to take my class, if she doesn’t want a kung fu class to be an official offering of the gym.  Her communications have suggested a resistance to an official affiliation, without closing the door.  I’ll see what she finally says – and how long it takes.

I know, I know.  The water’s rolling slowly… but I’m trying.  Quack. 🙂