So there is yet much updating to be had, and I hardly remember when I last went, though I am still in the season of anxiety over this observation, though there is I suppose a temporary reprieve in that it's a better day that the hammer falls, even though I feel thoroughly and completely unprepared somehow--I get the sense that I can be a real prick when it comes to explaining some of these math things, and that I tend to overthink things while underdoing them.

Beyond that, I hardly recall the past few days of training, as until tonight I'd gone four days in a row of kendo, though it ended with a whimper of surrender after the latest godo-geiko outclassed me by meters at least. So there are just two practices left before I fly off home and for shiai, which should be interesting to say the least--just me and other scrubs. I'm at one of those strange stages in my training, where thinking doesn't help--just more doing is what I need, though I must confess that my ego still figures too much at least as far as the other mudansha are concerned--but maybe that's just reasonable--there's something deeply satisfying about whacking the kote of the crazy-seigan-no-kamae (I'm too embarassed to really figure this out, but it's like he's lifting for a hidari-kote, except it's too high and while it does apparently seem to protect his kote, it really doesn't *pop!*) of one of the other mu-kyu. The others are scarier, though wobbly too--my main issue is speed which comes from being overtight and overtense. I further think that I'm overfocused on small- or half-waza because of the upcoming tourney--I should at this stage still stay focused on big, beautiful kihon and I think at the dojo they tend to forget how beginnery people are. I should spend more time on kihon and worry less about keiko. Big, beautiful men.

This weekend's trip, meanwhile, was for figure skating, about which I was decidedly wobbly and ungraceful, much to Wifey's amusement at my falling on my butt repeatedly--the kids though had an amazingly great time--real plucky some of them, even if they have not yet learned that keep-away is a fun game only if their victim (me) is trying actively to get-back the kept-away (a glove). It's nice to know that I can still outrun them all, though, even in Docker's AirCushions.