Day 777: Triple Threat

Oh yeah. Today was...well.

I got to school and did what work I could before I gave another school tour. Apart from living at school (the mail man accused me of doing so again, as did one of the deans who is not Dean Dallon), I am also default tour girl. I'm always there, so I'm a great pinch-hit for tours, it would seem. It's cool meeting new people, plus I'm getting to know my way around school pretty well. Got the whole spiel down, and that's what counts.

Angela, Kent, and I celebrated bacon cheese fries Friday by sharing a box of them for lunch. After lunch, it was errand time for my boss. It was also horribly rainy, so I went to her office downtown to pick up mailing labels. Then I headed to the office to get ready to mail eighty or so letters (including some banhammer open records requests to all those people who were mean to me on the phone). Only once I got to the office, I discovered that there were no envelopes. Never mind that I'd bought a box and there was a preexisting box of the things. They were all gone. So I had to hit the office max to get me some envelopes. I got the self-sealing ones this time, because hell if I was gonna lick that many envelopes. When I got back to the office and started working, I discovered what ho, but that it was sunny!

Oh well.

I worked long and hard stuffing envelopes (I even remembered to sign everything before I sent it, too) before DM Tomie called, because...I've decided to take up ninjitsu! Or whatever martial arts style it is that he teaches. Because I need more exercise. Real exercise. Not that bellydancing is exercise. I love it, but in some ways it's still a little too girl and touchy-feely to me. (The other day, Angela asked me if I'd picked my goddess name. I was confused. Then I realized what most people call a stage name bellydancers call a goddess name. Go figure. No goddess name for Nagi.) Also, BenTen's post on Facebook about getting her spar on made me miss, well, sparring.

So Tomie called me up when I got off work, and I followed him into Council Bluffs. Now, I've been downtown before. Even though I got a little lost looking for my boss's office today, I can pretty much scoot around to both courthouses and Old Market downtown, and that's really all a little law student needs. What I did not realize is that when Tomie said Council Bluffs is over the bridge, he really meant just over the bridge. I'd never been there before. I can see why some people call it ghetto, but whatever.

I did not, in fact, get the crap kicked out of me by twelve-year olds. I did practice with the "young adult" class since, let's face it, they're more my size. Although there was one boy who was below my size. I haven't done push-ups in forever and forgot how much I hated them in PE. But I had fun. I'm feeling the effort now and will probably feel it tomorrow, but it was good. I learned dodge-rolls (whee!), break falls (ow), some basic groundwork (got to pummel a guy who was a good three belts above me, even though he could totally take me - it felt like I was winning until he decided to put some effort into it), and then we free-sparred. Good times. The kids were really nice about it, and it was a humbling experience, having a ten-year-old show me the ropes. I think I catch on better since I'm older and have vaguely better coordination, but they're not nearly as paralyzed by self-consciousness or fear. So I'm going to have to practice on my own, but it'll give me an excuse to exercise. Can't keep getting shown up by kids, right?

It felt good to spar, though. Those kids have good instincts, but apparently I haven't completely lost my touch.

I watched some Peacemaker Kurogane tonight, and goodness gracious, but I do love that show. Every time I see it I love it a little more, even though some of the buddhist magic parts are, admittedly, a little kooky.

After PMK, I took a bath, because Tomie recommended it, but let's face it - I'm not patient enough for baths. I can't just lie there and...soak. I had relaxing music on and everything, but I got bored. What I need is a vat of Tiger Balm. Also, I miss post kung-fu rubdowns. A lot. Just sayin'.

Angela went a little wild poking on the internet for jewelry, and we also looked for bass guitars for her, because Will says he has songs for us, and I'm pretty excited to, you know, be in a band. Because third year of law school is always the best time to take up crazy new hobbies, right? On top of the crazy hobbies I already have.

It's been a good week, when the tally comes down. And tomorrow night is Shakespeare on the Green, so I'm pretty excited.

Also, Justin emailed me. It was good to hear from him. He's a blue belt already! That's pretty hardcore.

I need to do my daily writing and then hit the sack - temple first thing in the morning!