Friday Report

I got up with the alarm and a reasonably decent amount of sleep, and although that feels good, I was more excited by the fact that it was Friday.  The week has been long and tiring and I'm looking forward to a little mental relief.  Of course, we'll be working on trim on the doors and ceiling tonight, but we've put it off so long that we really need to lean in on the work when we can.  

Note to self - We just had the new stairway drywalled and textured.  

I periodically reach back and read what I was doing in times past. This acts as an informal diary for stuff going on in my life.

Today was some basics and forms.  I think Andy gets bored of doing the rote basics, so he makes something up for each of us to work on depending on skill level.  For me he ads in some stuff from the next level.  Since the normal stuff I do can get repetitive the few changes are a bit of relief.  It offers a window into what's coming up and kind of challenges me as well.

The rest of the class was forms, but I ended up helping Dr. C with her Il soo sik.  I acted as the shu (that guy that gets beat up) in hopes that it would help me sink some of that stuff in.  Nice.

Found out that there are only four questions on the closed book test.  Nice.  I have to draw some characters and know a few other things, but I feel very confident today.  

Catch UP

I'm a little behind in posts, but since we got back from vacay life seems like it's moving pretty fast.  I got to meet with Bill on Sunday to work out for an hour and then it was Monday evening class and so on.  Here we are on Thursday and I'm not sure what I can remember from the last few days.

I finished my second essay and turned that in for review and started studying pretty hard on a new area - the Moo Do values.  Thankfully there are only five, but I needed to learn the English and the Korean.  I think I've got those down.  

I've turned Tuesday into my test day.  Just before lunch I run through the whole thing just to test myself a bit and suss out my weak spots.

Ho shin sul (the wrist grabs and escapes) continues to be my weak spot.  I can to all the techniques, but to remember them on my own is a killer.  When I practiced on Tuesday, I felt pretty down in the dumps due to my reliance on my notes.  I felt better on Wednesday and today because when we did the drills in class I did fairly well.  I also did well on verbal testing.  

So, I think I'll keep banging away a bit every day on the wrists and the one-step sparring.  This weekend Bill and I will be able to work Saturday and Sunday so that should help quite a bit.

Weekend Update With Frosty

Hey all.  Just a quick note.  I'm trying to squeeze as much practice in as I can.  The count to the test is 60+ days.  One of the new Dans I mention here, Bill, says that he'll work with me as much as possible, so we got together yesterday for an hour of practice.  He's very complimentary which makes me feel wary because I don't feel the same level of matching confidence.

We went through Il soo sik and Ho shin sul which aren't a real issue but need constant refinement for all the tiny bits and pieces.  Colette came down and reminded me that all the paperwork needs to be in pretty quick.  Then she said we can take the closed book test in the next couple of weeks!  Talk about getting back to studying!  I need to get some terms reinforced and learn a few more!

I just need to work on everything to death!

After Three Weeks Of Vacation

stolen from internet

Three weeks of vacation.  I went with a target to have my Il soo sik memorized and the same with my Ho shin sul.  ISS is good, but not smooth and I have the first nine of HSS down, but everything else is dicey.  

We got back from the East coast in the late afternoon with the pall of jet lag and basic exhaustion hanging over us.  The girls that take care of our cats did a good job with them, but a few things escaped their stewardship.  One of the bedroom doors was open and the cats decided that was a better place to use the bathroom than their regular sandbox.  While we unpacked, we had to lean into a pretty significant cleaning effort.  I won't go into to graphic details, but we are two days into washing.  

It hit nine pm that night and we could barely keep awake.  My wife noticed that one of the cats was in a piece of luggage and I jumped up to get him out of that so he wouldn't use it as a third bathroom.  I sprinted around the bed and my front foot found our fancy new flooring which apparently emulates a frictionless surface.  That foot shot into the air, and I slammed into the floor with full force.  I was in so much pain that I couldn't move for a second.  Let's just say that I didn't slap, or I fell poorly.  At least the cat didn't pee in the luggage.

I was stiff and bruised in the morning, but back at work and the regular schedule was nice to embrace.  Today I was up at the crack of dawn and went to class after testing negative.  Have we finally got to the start of normal?  I can't wait to go to class without a mask again.  

I'd contacted Bill last night and he gave me a heads up about the test of the week.  We needed to know the first four concepts in English and Korean.  First thing after bow in is Andy hitting me up for just that info.  Whoop!  I didn't look like a total trainwreck thankfully.

We spend the rest of the class working on ISS and I wasn't horrible, needing a few fixes here and there, but it was just so nice to be working again.  Tomorrow is forms!