I couldn't do it. Can you?

The sun is shining today and I'm grateful. I could use a little vitamin D after a few days of cold and rain. But then I shouldn't complain too much since cold is relative. Our Texas cold is nothing compared to the hideous snow and cold others have had.

Today has been pretty good so far. I was tired when I woke up this morning. Not sure why but lately I'm just tired. It may be that I discovered I was out of my iron pills. Now that I'm back on them I hope to be better soon.

I woke up with a sore foot, especially my big toe. Last night at my first class as a red belt I attempted a new drill and......let's just say it didn't go exactly as planned. In the drill you're supposed to jump and kick the opponent in the groin as you fall onto the ground. Then you perform a take down from the ground with your legs. You've seen this in movies I'm sure.  The first time I tried I landed a little wonky on my left foot. It's sore and bruised, but no real damage. Thank goodness. I'll be working on that. Good news is I totally got the take down so IF I can just figure out how to jump, round house kick AND fall without killing myself, I'll be golden.

Work was the usual. Busy, stressful. Blah blah blah.

After work I changed and headed to TKD. Wednesdays there is a new weapons class which I have been enjoying. Learning more and more about the staff and knife defenses. So at the class the black belt that leads it is in his early 20s (I think) and the kid is a-maz-ing. He's won all kinds of competitions, etc. Tonight he had us warm up and stretch and then we spent 20 min working on and holding different stances. Think squats and lunges SLOW and DEEP and holding a staff with arms extended. We also did a one leg stance where you stand on one leg holding the staff down to block the ankle, opposite arm up in a fist position. I actually held that one fine for the whole 30 seconds. But the horse stance was HARD! Ugh. It was hard and my legs were shaking by the end of it.

He said we should get good enough that we can squat in a horse stance low and deep enough to rest our staff in our lap and balance it there. Ummm....sure. Some day, maybe. But, not yet. You can try it if you want. Just get a broom handle and squat, legs wide until your knees are at a 90 degree angle with the floor. Place the broom handle in your lap and lift your arms out straight in front of you.  Hold for about 20 seconds. Feel the burn. Ha ha. It takes a lot of balance and core strength. I could get there, but couldn't hold it for any amount of time yet. Some day.  Instead I stood in horse stance with my staff out balancing it on my arms. I was able to do that, but not the "very advanced" move. Ha ha. After those exercises, we had about 15 minutes for material and I worked on learning my new staff form.

After class, it was home and dinner and homework. Kids are in bed and here I am getting ready to hit the sack myself. Did I mention I've been tired? I'm also sore. I love being sore, but it is tiring. Son is up trying to finish a paper for his geography class. Sigh......I'm trying to teach him NOT to procrastinate. He comes by it naturally. I can't tell you how many times his dad waited until the night before to do projects and papers in college.

That's it for today. Good night! And let me know if any of you can do that horse-stance broom handle move.