Packing

I've been packing. I catch my plane tomorrow evening. With the time change and flight time I should be in Florida around 5 a.m. No need to get a hotel so I'll poke around the port for a few hours and get some breakfast before checking in at the ship. I think I'm ready. I just need to double check that I got everything and buy some new Teva's - you know, those sandals that you can wear in the water and have good grip. I have some but the Velcro has worn out so they sometimes just pop undone. I'm mainly hoping that my stuffy ear won't start hurting on the plane. I'll probably take some aspirin before we take off just in case and I suppose there's always alcohol. I don't drink too often so it probably wouldn't take much to be effective.

I'm not sure if I'll post or not while I'm gone. We'll just have to see about that.

Bon Voyage!

Caught up

I went to my friend Patti's house and watched the last two episodes of the L Word that I had missed.This is the final season and they are pulling out all the stops in the ridiculous department. I'm finding it highly amusing! I've always just watched it alone after getting it on net flix and I have bought a few of the season boxed sets. It's really fun watching it with someone who knows the show and the characters. We were busting up and commenting on stuff all evening.

I'm leaving for my cruise this Saturday. My ear is still plugged but, oh well. I'm not going to let that stop me. My shoulder is much better though.

Sore or Injured

I mentioned yesterday that I was sore from doing that crazy-cool lesson over and over. Well, it looks like it's more than just sore. I went to bed with a heating pad on my inner shoulder and when I woke up this morning and tried to move it I was in pain. I thought, "crap, I injured it!" It got better throughout the day and now it just feels sore again. So what's the differrence between sore and painful and injured? I guess it's a matter of degree. It hurts more than last night but a lot less than it did this morning. My range of motion and ability to lift with that arm is a bit limited. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Hard lesson

Yesterday I took the kids to the zoo. I go back and forth on zoos in general because I hate to see animals in captivity but it's so great to get the chance to see them in "person" so to speak. Son could get some extra credit in his biological anthropology class if he went and completed a work sheet on primates. I'm still ambivalent about the zoo concept but we had a really great time together.

I'm sore. I taught this self defense lesson that I could never see actually using to defend myself but it is super cool. It ends with what's called a scissor leg take-down. Basically you launch yourself feet first and throw your legs around your opponent in a scissor motion that takes their legs out from beneath them, causing them to fall on their back. But you fall too and in a way that's harder to control than the person getting taken down. We put out extra mats but by the last class I was sore and tired from demonstrating it. I'm going to soak in a hot shower then hit the hay. Did I just say "hit?" I mean gently tuck myself in for some well-earned, peaceful sleep. Night.

Oscar

This year I had seen four of the five movies up for best picture. I did not see "The Reader." I liked all four but of those, here's the order I would put them in:

#1 Milk
#2 Slumdog Millionaire
#3 Frost/Nixon
#4 Benjamin Button.

It was fine that Slumdog won. I was glad to see Sean Penn win best actor for Milk. He did an incredible job in that roll and I really appreciated his speech. I think overall it was a good year for movies.

A nice weekend & self health care

This was a great weekend. I could give you all the details as to why, but then I'd have to kill you and we don't want that do we! Although my ear is still plugged, it doesn't hurt or anything and it didn't turn into a noticeable cold. I researched a bit on line and it seems that this is not uncommon. I started taking a decongestant this evening to see if that might help. My son reminded me that he had these same symptoms a few months back and that it took about a month to clear up even though he went to the student health center for treatment.

One weird thing from this is that my hearing is tweaked in that ear. I live next door to a church that has bell ringing sounds every half hour most of the day. The sound now has this dissonant echo note right after each gong. When I cover the plugged up ear it sounds normal. As long as it doesn't seem serious, I usually allow things to clear up on their own or with a little help from natural or easy over-the-counter remedies before I go to a doctor.

I leave next Saturday night for my Caribbean cruise so I'm really hoping that this won't effect my trip.

Outside tears

I'm reading a book called "Hanta Yo" by Ruth Bebe Hill. It's a story that starts off in the time of the Plain's Indians just before they had contact with the white man. This book is so well researched it's incredible! The traditions, ceremonies and way of looking at the world are interwoven into a story with rich characters. She intersperses actual Dakotah words and phrases that get seamlessly translated in the text.

There was a part of this book where one of the characters is thinking about tears of joy. She said they fall from the outside of the eye where all tears of happiness fall. I started thinking about this and I believe that this is true, although I had never considered this before. When I've laughed so hard that I cried or when that emotional joyous feeling brings tears, I do think that that is where they fall from. Tears of sadness seem to come from the inside part of my eyes. I found that very interesting.

Knife Fight!

Did I get your attention with this blog title? Hehehehehe. I'm feeling about the same. It's just that left ear stuffed up.

Now for the knife fight. I had a demo team practice tonight. I just recruited four new members and it was their first practice. They're all pretty young - about 5-7 years old. What's great about the young ones is that if they get out there in a performance and are really fierce, they steal the show. My older team members come up with some technically difficult and powerful routines. We hear ohhs and ahhs for their work but the audience is always charmed by the little ones so I keep recruiting them because they all get older and lose the kid charm.

I was trying to come up with a new routine for them. We use rubber knives in our regular training for my advanced classes. The kids really wanted to get the chance to use them. One kid said it would be cool to just find the weapons on the ground. That gave me an idea so now I have two knives on the ground tied with fishing line. Two kids pretend to be walking along and spot the knives but when they bend over to pick them up the two other kids pull them away; like the old money trick. Then the "pullers" pick up the knives and hold them up in a menacing way. The first two kids look surprised then reach behind them and pull two knives of their own out of the back of their waistbands. Now the the pullers look surprised. It goes on from there but they never do "fight" with the knives and at one point an older team member just walks up and takes them away saying "kids shouldn't be playing with knives" so the end up battling hand to hand.

It went really well. These kids are excited to be in our performance group. I really enjoy using my creativity in this way and seeing what my students come up with themselves. I love taking my team out to perform in the community. Our next gig will be for a group of mentally challenged adults who always LOVE our shows.

not sure

I can't tell if I'm getting sick or not. My left ear is still stuffy and I'm feeling a bit run down but not in an alarming way. I guess I'll know more when I wake up. I think it would be worth being sick for a few days if that would mean my ear would get un-stuffed.

Cha-ching

It was slow at the tax office today. I only did one return but I did end up giving my client an ad card from my studio because she said she'd been thinking about getting her daughter into martial arts.

I had time to do my own tax return. I got myself a pretty good refund - more than enough to cover my cruise. I also bought travel insurance today just in case.

I did a self defense class this evening for a girl scout troupe. They were mostly 7 & 8 years old. It was really fun and the parents seemed to appreciate their daughters getting this valuable information and a chance to practice some important skills

I've had a white noise thing going on in the left side of my head for the past four days and today that ear feels kind of clogged up. I hope I'm not getting sick! There have been a lot of sick people around me lately. I'm drinking my medicine tea and taking other measures. At least if I were to get a cold now, it should be over with by the 28th - trip day! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Inspired

Like I said yesterday, I've been watching videos of comics. It's been very inspiring. I spent a lot of last night and today randomly coming up with funny stories about my life and, what I think of as, interesting ways of relating them - sort of role playing the difference between what I showed on the outside and what I was actually feeling on the inside. I'm really excited about doing this stand up routine on the ship. Who knows, it could be the start of a new hobby or even - dare I say - career? I guess I may be jumping the gun a bit, but a girl can dream; can't she?

Rox and Anne, thanks for the Judy Tenuta recommendation. I had forgotten about her. I looked her up and watched some of her material. It was hilarious and so well delivered.

Oh shit, I almost forgot

I've been watching a bunch of you tube videos of comics - mostly women, mostly lesbian. I'm trying to hone my stand up skills early, before the Olivia Cruise. I just shut off Kathy Griffin (not a lesbian but very gay friendly) when I realized how late it is. She was making me laugh talking about her Emmy acceptance speech where she made a point of saying that unlike other performers, Jesus had nothing to do with her win. It went on from there but she was so thrilled at the outrage and huge amounts of publicity she got out of it. This was from her "Straight to Hell" show.

I was going to call it a night and I realized I hadn't done my daily blog entry. So here it is! Monday, Feb 16th.

Moon walking

I've signed up to do the Olivia Cruise Star Search. The winner gets to perform on a future cruise with all expenses paid. When I first thought about it, I was thinking of making it a comedy routine about a manic multi-tasking woman. I think I have too much material.

I was trying to narrow it down today and then started thinking about how to make an entertaining entrance. I know how to moon walk and I can spin a bo staff pretty well (martial arts style.) I practiced doing both at the same time. It looked pretty cool and amused me very much so I'll keep playing with that and work on firming up the rest of the material. I'm planning on taking my video camera so if it ends up going well maybe I'll post it here.

Sleeping in

It seems most of this week I have woken up fairly early and pretty much hit the ground running. This morning I woke up without the alarm at about 9:30. Then I laid around daydreaming and light dozing for another hour. Then I grabbed a book and read for a while. It was so nice. This has been a really lazy, delightful day.

Joking at the tax office

There were two good friends who came together to get their taxes done today. I took Betty and my colleague, Laura, took her friend. Our desks are pretty close together and the four of us had the best time doing tax returns. They were really funny and Laura and I joke around a lot anyway. Then the friend says out of nowhere "Did you hear about the girl who goes to her Gramma's house and says 'Gramma where's your medications. I found out they're laced with LSD!' And the Gramma says "Fuck the meds man, we got to do something about the giant Dragon in the kitchen!"

I just busted up. The way she told it, and the blank look on Laura and Betty's face made me laugh!

Excursions

An email came from the cruise company that said we could start booking our excursions for the four stops we make on our Caribbean cruise. When I checked it out, there were already waiting lists for some of the adventures. I got on it this afternoon and now I'm looking forward to learning to Scuba dive, hiking in a rain forest, taking a catamaran to an uninhabited island for some snorkeling and beach combing, para-sailing, and something called flow riding. This is where you ride an artificial wave. Water is pumped onto a cushioned wave shaped surface. You can do it laying down, on your knees or standing up - which looks really cool to me. Only 16 more days to go!

Professional errand runner?

Here's a job that I wish paid enough money to be a career. I actually enjoy running errands. We were out of coffee cups at the tax office so I volunteered to walk to the local market and pick some up. It was nice out and I enjoy walking so it felt like I was on a break or something. I also like driving. I really don't mind when I have to go from place to place and pick up things or go grocery shopping or stop by the post office or bank. You know, those everyday errands that just need to get done. I'd rather do that than do paperwork or sit in front of my computer working on stuff. I guess people pay for personal assistants but I wouldn't want to do their paperwork kind of stuff either.

Maybe there is something out there that would utilize my skills and fine disposition in this regard. I'll have to think on this. Hmmmmmmmm

Goats are for losers

Since the main reason I have this blog is more of a journal for myself, I have decided I like posting pictures. Plus, I can do it a lot quicker than I could before. Anyway, here's a picture of me playing with my old band. Well, you can't see the band but they're there too. I'm pretty sure em took this picture about 3 or 4 years ago. Anyway, I miss playing music with a band. I know I have no time for it now, but still, I really loved that feeling.

Speaking of bands, Daughter and I were driving in my car and listening to the Queen CD she got for Solstice. The song "We are the Champions" was playing. My daughter asked what they were singing in the chorus on the line "No time for losers cause we are the champions...of the world" so I told her. She started laughing and said she had always heard "Goats are for losers....." I laughed so hard and the next time that line was sung I totally heard "Goats are for losers..." which made me laugh even harder.

Milton Berle is quoted as saying "Laughter is an instant vacation." I agree. I'm grateful for my daughter, laughter, having had the opportunity to perform in a band and instant vacations.

Cartoon me

I was messing around today trying to come up with a unique picture to put on my business card. I had this one taken recently by a professional photographer. I cropped it, balanced the color then, just for fun, I put it in cartoon form. I don't know, I ended up liking it and finding it amusing. It seems more interesting than what usually gets put on advertising. The cards were pretty cheap so I ordered some. I'll see what I think when it actually get it in my hot little hands. I'm grateful for self amusement.

By the way, that's my "Don't mess with me look."

Spirits on a roll

I just go back from a gathering of lesbians who got together to talk about spiritual concepts. There were about 40 of us and we met in the home of an artist who lives in, what I think is, the Beverly Hills area. The topic was happiness and it was very interesting participating and hearing other people's thoughts. I like that it didn't devolve into the "just think happy thoughts all the time and you'll be happy." There was discussion on how some had overcome adversity, some of which seemed pretty painful, but that there were gifts from difficult experiences. Some books were mentioned that I may check out.

This was a really nice group. There was much laughter, story telling, alternate views and support. I will definitely go again.

A day well spent

My computer is running pretty slow today. I think I'll shut it completely off tonight. I'm grateful for fried catfish, talking things out and reminders. Oh yeah, and tuning forks.

Something good about a goverment agency

I got my passport today. I was told 7-10 days for the expedited service but not to call unless it took more than three weeks. 7 days later and it's in my mailbox. I also had good service when I called for some information last week. Maybe this isn't the norm but I'm very pleased with this particular government agency. I called today to find out where my supporting documents were as they didn't come with the passport. The woman checked and said they are coming separately in a couple of weeks. I let her know how impressed I was with my service and she seemed glad to have someone tell her that. Everything is in place now for my Caribbean cruise. I'm really excited. Woooo Hoooo!

Good at what I do

It's nice to feel competent. I had stripe tests at my studio for the past two days. I love seeing my students make improvements. Since it's one-on-one during each student's test, I get to really focus in on them and how they are executing certain techniques. I'm really good at explaining or demonstrating how to make each strike more effective. I often see my students improve 100% in the 10 or 15 minutes I spend testing them. It's very satisfying for both of us. It's amazing to see the look one their face when they take my suggestions, incorporate it correctly, and feel themselves suddenly delivering a strike with more speed, power and/or fluidity than they ever expected.

The only less-than-stellar thing that happened was when I was helping a 24 year old female student who had to throw this fairly tall 18 year old guy. She was not getting him off the ground very well so after trying to help her verbally I got up and demonstrated the technique. I knew he had been resisting being thrown which he did with me also. I showed the female student how to use her hips to get his feet off the ground. I think it startled him how easily I accomplished this so when I actually did the throw he didn't use the break fall technique and landed pretty hard on his back. He got up right away and said he was OK but I wasn't so sure and could tell that his pride was involved. After that though I had her throw me. She executed the throw three more times really well. The look of confidence on her face was great! The 18 year old guy tested next and made some really huge improvements as well so I'm sure he'll be fine.

Geese and Typos

I have seen big flocks (gaggles) of geese in the past two days. I was teaching at my studio and I heard this honking noise. It's not that I've never heard geese but this was very loud. I walked out the back door and there they were flying east. There was a good 50 or 60 of them which is way more than I've ever seen in this area. The next day two or three groups came over then merged to the north. It was a beautiful sight but I was thinking I'd hate to be crapped on by a bird that large. Yuck!

I've realized that I'm very susceptible to typos. When I'm finished writing a blog post, I'll proof-read it then publish it. I always look at my published post because, for some reason, this is where I catch most of my typos. I'd say 90 percent of the time I end up going back to correct and re-publish it. I don't know why miss them before. I'll do that with comments too but there's no going back to correct except in another comment.

Today, while doing a return, I entered the person's birthday as 1997 instead of 1967. The program wouldn't let me go through with a refund anticipation loan and it took me and the most experienced processor some time to figure it out. I wasted so much time, both mine and my clients, for this seemingly simple mistake although I was able to find a way to get them a bigger refund than they were expecting. They were really nice about it and I gave them both t-shirts. I could have completed another simple return in the extra time it took. The hours I work there go by quickly and I like talking to my customers but I don't enjoy entering all the data. Maybe this will help me with being more precise or something.

Communication - or lack thereof

I was out for my run this morning and musing about things. I got to thinking how tricky communication can be. You speak to someone and think you know for sure that that other person knows how you feel. Then at some point it comes out that the thing you thought you said got received in a different way. Sometimes it ends up being quite different from the original intent. So it made me laugh when I went to this blog and checked the comments. Rox and Anne wrote that they'll still be there when I get back. I thought - Get back from what?

So I read my last blog post and sure enough, if I had been anyone else, I would have thought that I was signing off for a while. When I said "This blog post is it for me" I meant the last thing I was going to do last night because I had hit the wall. See how tired my brain was? Hopefully my three or four readers (I don't keep stats) won't tune out thinking it might be eons until the next exciting blog post. So that's communication for ya. I'm enjoying posting every day.

Brain Pushups

I've hit the wall man. I had an extra challenging day preparing taxes then ran off to write my newsletter and get ready for my evening martial arts classes. I got home and started helping my son with his algebra homework. It was stuff I knew how to do but my mind felt like it had done it's last push up. This blog post is it for me. I think I'm just trying to do too much so I'll be cutting back to two days a week at the tax office. Checking out now. Ciao!

Beach walk with a friend

I got to sleep in this morning. It was nice waking up and not feeling rushed.

I called a friend and we went for a walk on the beach. We both had some emotional stuff that we needed to talk to someone about so we were there for each other. I got so much out of our conversation. She asked the right questions and helped uncover some ways of looking at the situation the were amazingly helpful. She said that so far, no one had responded to her situation the way I did and that she felt some relief and clarification as well. What a gift that is. I'm grateful for this friendship.

Saturday's post

I got in late again so I officially deem this my Saturday post. I had a good day. I met with my bookkeeper who is getting used to my ways after two years and just goes with the flow now instead of being anal about my fairly loose record keeping system. I've met her half way on some things so were getting along swimmingly. I don't recall ever using the word "swimmingly" before. I like it.

I played a board game with my friend Anna and her girlfriend and then we watched a DVD of a Heart concert. Man, that is a great band. I'd love to see them in concert again.

My kids were at their friend's 18th birthday party and many of the homeschool Mom's I used to hang out with on park days were there. I stayed for a few hours and visited. It was really fun. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed talking with these folks almost every Wednesday for years. I'm grateful for a pleasant day.