No brown belt for me this month

It turns out that I didn't have enough classes taken at the brown stripe level yet to be eligible for pretesting. That's just fine with me; I really don't feel ready yet. Sensei gave me some things to work on: work on making movements forceful: explode the kick, the block, the punch out, instead of placing it out. Work on knowing my body's limitations and working with those parameters to improve (last night I yelped a few times while kicking, because I'd hurt myself--my hamstrings were really abnormally tight last night). I want to further refine my timing on my form, too.

My balance was definitely better, which was a relief. Still need to work on it. I was talking with Delia about it, and she says her balance is definitely always better on one side, too.

We worked on marching basics, which made me sweat hard. I am still having trouble with the shift--I tend to turn on the ball of the foot on the trailing leg, which is wrong, wrong, wrong. Should turn--well, not exactly on the heel. But when the hips turn over on the shift, it's as if they pull the trailing leg after them. Hard to put into words. My challenge is that my Achilles tendon is too tight (argh) which makes it difficult to do the shift correctly. Also need to sink deeper into the stance. I'm better at keeping the shoulders square, I think, than several others in the class. I think I'm also pretty good about keeping the back hand high and tight against the ribs--usually. It's a lot to keep track of. Exhausting, too, if you're doing it right. But it's fun.

So, I'm not testing this month, but I'm entirely happy about it.

New video set to Ministry of Magic's "Ascendio"

( I like this YouTube video quite a bit, and it's set to one of my favorite songs. )

All right, friends list. Tell me not to panic.

Rob just called. He has lost his job at Ultimate Electronics.

His boss had tears in his eyes when he told Rob the news. It's nobody's fault. It's just the economy. People aren't stopping at the store and buying big screen TVs. He has to start the job hunt all over again.

More to come later, but for now I'm just in shock. Rob's boss said they'd approve unemployment, but we don't know how long the benefit will last since he wasn't at work there for very long, just six months. We do have some savings.

I know the drill, and we'll start taking all the steps we took to contract the budget last time around. Thank heavens we had not yet cancelled the unemployment insurance benefit on two of the credit cards.

But you know what absolutely kills me? We just put braces on Fiona's teeth. The first payment is due July 1. We wouldn't have gone ahead if we'd known this was going to happen.

I want someone to take me out drinking soon. Hey, another martini night, anyone?

Wine helps

so does a biiiiiiiiig bowl of ice cream.