Pre Test For The Browns

It was an up and down night.  

In the beginning of class Sensei handed me my new custom Blackbelt.  wider and stiffer than old beater and now filled with groovy Kanji.  One side has my name and one side has the school name.  I told my wife later that one side said taco bell and the other said sandwich monster.  

Our two Browns are slated to take their testing for their Blacks tomorrow in the afternoon.  All the BBs are invited to go along, but it means that I have to take a vacation day, get a hotel room, and drive quick a bit.  I really want to be there for these guys, but my wife left on vacation and I need to prep to meet her.  It doesn't leave a lot of time to get things done.

An additional factor messing up the drive North is the PNW fires that are still out of control.  Driving to Yakima is going to be horrible.  I wish the best luck.

Class consisted of me working with the two youngest girls on basic blocks and kicks based on a deconstructed kata.  That was the longest 45 minutes of my life.  I don't see it getting better anytime soon.  Keeping my patience together is now the hardest thing for me.  Both of the girls feed off of each other and the giggles make me turn into a grumpy parent for sure.  The other kids rapidly lose patience and look bored and sullen as I try to get the kids to pay attention.

Barring their constant inability to keep to task they actually do fairly well under the gun. Their childish boredom and frustration with rote work gets nicely channeled into violence against me when we get to do pad work.  They are so small that I have to squat in a deep fudodachi for some time.  Man are my legs sore.