Fishgirl Speaks

Official Grand Opening

Ascension Martial Arts Center will celebrate its grand opening on
Saturday, February 13th, from 1-4pm.
Food and prizes, you bet!

We've been running classes since the beginning of the year, but decided to give ourselves a tiny bit of time to doll the place up before throwing a party. Chinese New Year seemed an appropriate time to kick things off in the official sense. Come by if you can!

748-C Coleman Ave in San Jose, CA.

Fellow bloggers, if you care to spread the word, it would be much appreciated!

Things That Make You Go Hmm

Last night at CrossFit, we worked on deadlifts. The amount of weight used in lifting is relative to each person, of course, and sometimes we'll reference bodyweight as in able to lift your own self. Last night we did seven sets of three reps each, adding weight each time. Around the 5th set or so, the coach asked if we were close to bodyweight yet. I asked "Where are we at?" to which he replied 133. I said, "Ha! you're funny. Thanks, though. We'll need another 20 pounds or so for that." I told him that I have deceived many into thinking that I am lighter than I really am.

Moments later, I wished I could have responded somewhat differently as I truly do not care about numbers. I've never owned a scale, and only work with how I feel and how my clothes fit. A societally conditioned response, I guess. That aside, I realized on the drive home that while I may have been 20 pounds lighter 20 years ago, I still wear the same size clothes. How much muscle is 20 pounds? Geez, I must have been a wimp in high school.

How's it Going?

Hey blog, what's up? Yeah, I know. I've been pretty busy. I've finally owned up to the fact that I have four jobs. And I've been trying to push the workout schedule a little more. And keeping up with friends. It's all my own doing, I know, but I seem to like that particular edge - busy enough to be exciting without dancing too far into stressed-out territory. It's taken a long time, but I'm definitely better at the not stressing so much part. Here's the latest:

Job #1: The mainstay, my "day job." Recently switched to a four day work week and loving it. Now I have a day freed up to focus on

Job #2: The jewelry and graphics biz. My oldest job, now that I think about it. Friday is now studio day, so I can take advantage of my awesome little shop out back (except when I go to the beach). I'd link you to my page but it's horribly out of date. Something I've been working on steadily, but it's been taking a long time because of

Job #3: The newest, whodathunkit venture - Ascension Martial Arts. Yep, the hubbie and I are doing our own thing. It's pretty exciting and fun when I'm not working out frustrations with my own training history. It's all the stuff I love to do - organizing, marketing, brainstorming, teaching, physical activity, and some graphic design, of course. Occasionally I have to miss a class because of

Job #4: Teaching at 3 Beads & A Button. It's a concentrated high energy focus, but I love the oohs and aahs when students are absorbing new and fun info. It's great to see people realize what they can do with a few simple tools and explanations. Mmm...shiny beads.

Lots of working out helps to keep things in check, plus it just feels great. Oh, and I've recently come across a book that has made a big difference for me. If you've seen me lately, I'm sure you've heard about it :-) For anyone remotely interested in getting more out of their food, I heartily recommend it. I had gotten to a point where I was pretty sure that food was supposed to do more for me than it was, and I needed some help. The author, a professional triathlete, is very straight forward in his presentation, and has tasty, easy recipes to follow. I'm actually excited about food for the first time in my life.

Bowling nights and movie nights have kept me in touch with lots of people, thankfully. I chose to cut back on movie nights at Britta's so I could stay focused on 1-4 above, although I did get in some really fun sessions earlier in the summer. Cold Comfort Farm has never been funnier! Bowling night is just once a month and is late enough I can still get a workout in, although last time I had an all-running workout and could only manage one game. Oof!

Still juggling cats, of course. A little yardwork here and there - freed up the bamboo behind the hot tub from 10+ years of detritus. It can now sway in the breeze as it should. The wisteria is loving the studio. I have pictures around here somewhere. So, that's what's happening.

How are you?

A Day Off

I needed an extra day, so I took yesterday off. Aaaaahhh.

The way I've scheduled myself, there isn't a single day during the week where I can just get up and have a leisurely breakfast, reading and coffee-ing as long as I like. I did that yesterday, along with some light puttering and playing with kitties. Then Charles and I went to the gym, did a little kung fu, then took the lunchtime yin yoga class - first time for both of us. Yin yoga aims to find complete relaxation in any given pose. You spend some time in each pose using as many props as needed to feel comfortable enough to release everything. It's almost like a meditation class, and is a fantastic exercise in just "being" as opposed to "doing" which is my usual state of being. I think it's almost everyone's usual state of being. I felt fabulous (and taller) when I came out of there. Yin yoga for everybody!

After yoga, we ran a few errands including dropping paper off to the printer for our wedding invitations, and grabbing falafel at the drive-in across the street. If you've never been to Falafel Drive-In, you really ought to make the trip. They are wicked fast, very tasty, and reasonably priced (although I swear they used to be a lot cheaper). It's the kind of joint where the man taking your order calls you "boss" as in "Your order's ready, boss!" They had a sign out front saying they were featured in Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network. I'll have to see if I can find the episode somewhere.

After lunch, I worked on unpacking my studio stuff. Amazingly, I think everything is going to fit just fine...everything that I'm keeping anyway. There are a few things that will find other homes. I cranked up the tunes on the surround sound, and puttered away until about 7pm. The studio is very well insulated, so it takes minimal effort from the heater to keep it cozy. The floor is the only part not insulated, so I found an older pair of slippers that will now be my studio feet.

Post puttering, I went back into the house, had dinner and read my book for a bit. Then I poured myself dessert - a white Russian - turned on the telly, and began sketching wedding rings.

I could use more days like these.

Zen and Zappa

Recess Continued

Remember when I wrote about recess? I've been having a ton of fun most recently with yoga and CrossFit over at Planet Granite. Some CrossFitters from Marin who are friends of the Sunnyvale instructor hosted a gymnastics seminar in San Bruno last night for a bonus round of recess (new! with Flashbacks!). To sum up the 3 hour experience:

Whee!
Ow.
Wait, what?

And now, the more detailed version:

We started warmups by jogging around the perimeter of the springy floor (think floor routines from the Olympics). Talk about a flashback! Long ago, like most little girls at that time, I took my share of ballet and gym, and immediately remembered that perimeter jog.
Some more warmups:

• stretch jumps
• wrist pushups
• "wounded eagle" stretch
• shoulder rolls
• forward rolls
• falling straight back flat onto a thick pad
• back rolls down a "cheese wedge" (another pad)

Then we divided into groups for a four-rotation session that included these fun things:

• balance beam
• pommel horse
• mushroom thing - similar activity to pommel horse
• back roll working towards handstand
• handstand to falling flat on back on mat working towards front handspring
• run and spring board onto giant squishy pad working towards front flip
• bars and rings (swings, glide-kips, back-hip circles, strength moves) - more flashbacks to the playground and the extensive time I spent on bars
• parallel bars (by now my shoulder were toast so I just worked on holding myself up, nevermind hand walks or dips)
• handstand to forward roll
• handstands on parallettes (think big handles that stand on the floor, like itty bitty parallel bars)
• crazy shoulder roll thingy between two mat/blocks

Oh yeah, then we did a "workout" based on these activities. Ours included some parallel bars stuff that I passed on because ow, ow, and ow, and an insane set on the parallettes that went something like this:

• hold an L for 12 seconds
• push up to a handstand
• 3 handstand pushups
• come down and hold a straddle for 5 seconds
• push back up to a handstand
• 3 more handstand pushups
• then down to an L for 12 seconds

Please note summation point #3 above.

Very few could actually do the parallette set, but what was really cool is that two coaches would spot each of us through the movements, so I could totally pretend I was doing it. In fact, all of the coaches and the people were friendly and enthusiastic. There was a ton of stuff to get through in a short amount of time, but with plenty of coaches, good organization, and an eye on the clock, we all got to try some super fun things.

At the very beginning of the class, one of the coaches mentioned that we'd be feeling sore in new and different ways the next day. Heck, I was feeling that on the way home!

Photo courtesy of CrossFit Oakland.
I'm in the middle, and Charles is off to the right.

Recess!

Last week, I quit my kung fu school. The long and short of it is that the path the school is taking does not mesh with the path I want to be on. I'm still a student with much to learn, but for now I'll be training and exploring on my own (and with Charles).

For the first time in, say, 15 years, I have nothing regularly scheduled during the week. Yep. You read that right. Nothing, nada, zip. How fabulously freeing! you think. Well, yes, and at the same time, it makes me itchy. It's not that I don't have things to do. There are always things to do. There's just no schedule to tell me when to do them, no group of people to meet up with who will be doing similar things. Oh wait! I still meet with a group of kung fu students and we work out on Sundays. OK, I have one thing scheduled.

On Saturday, a friend said to me of my new situation, "It's nice - you'll have some time just to think." Actually, I'm kind of hoping I can use some of this time to learn how NOT to think. Most of the time, my head is a maelstrom of activity. I think that's why I watch TV, as I'm still in search of my own shut-the-hell-up button. TV is handy that way.

In the meantime, I'm declaring recess. Remember those days? When you'd get a break from cramming your brain full of numbers, words, and concepts and you'd run around on the grass and in the playground, playing different games all the time? I have a few ideas to keep me moving and expand my martial artistry and physical education:

• Crossfit (totally psyched about this one)
• Yoga (here and here)
• Capoeira
• Pilates
• Belly Dancing (hey, I dig the music)

I love that all of these have a drop-in option.
I'd also like to dig deeper into some of the stuff I've already learned, like:

• Praying Mantis
• I Chin Ching
• Drunken Style
• Eagle Claw
• T'ai Chi

Yes, I still have a backyard to work on and a studio to build. I also have an old scrapbooking project that will probably get pulled out this week. Always, always things to do. But, hey, if you get a recess and want to play too, just let me know!

Breathing Now

 

Last Saturday, June 21st, I tested to my fourth degree black belt. It's an ass-kicker of a test, to be sure, but at 7 a.m. it's even more, um, testy. Having spent about three years preparing for this test, it's a mighty big relief to have it over and done with. That doesn't mean I don't have plenty of work to do, but at least I can breathe a little bit for the moment.

Denver

A couple of weekends ago, Charles and I flew out to Denver for the Big Weekend of Fu. The Grandmaster visits the different schools year round, but the summer Denver visit is when anyone advancing beyond 1st degree black needs to test. The Diep family (all in uniform, above) tested from 2nd to 3rd black and Charles tested from 1st to 2nd. I'm in uniform because I was on the testing panel...heh heh. The other folks in the pic are also students - they came along for moral support. This was all on Sunday after the giant festival on Saturday.

When I say giant, I mean a large gym full of between three and four hundred students from various schools across the country. Grandmaster was releasing some new material, so we all had to go check it out. Fast strikes and lots of pressure points, hiyah! We had a total of 14 students from the San José school travel to Denver.

This was a short trip - no time for even a Hobee's photo! I'll be around for awhile, but in three weeks, Charles goes to China with the kung fu crowd. He promises to photoshop me into his pics.

Next up: the basement project!

Idaho

Time for a little catch up here...

A few weeks ago, Charles and I traveled to Idaho for a kung fu festival and to visit with his family (i.e. "meet the family" for me). The festival was pointy good fun, using sun moon forks which are sharp everywhere. A skilled practitioner will not only inflict damage on her opponent, but will also NOT injure herself.
That's me in the back to the left, and the Grandmaster himself on the right.
Pointy good fun!

After the festival in Boise, we drove to Pocatello to visit with mom June, brother Paul, and his family. I think it's safe to say the the nieces have "Uncle Chuck" wrapped around their little fingers. He got plenty of "when are you going to cut your hair?" from everyone, but I think Caitlyn (left) and Makayla (right)decided I was pretty OK when I suggested they braid Uncle Chuck's hair. Heh.

We relaxed a lot, and got lots of show-and-tell from Mom who is quite the crafter - beading, quilting, knitting, and spinning. We had a combined Mother's Day and assorted birthdays sort of casual party at Paul's. He lives seven doors down from Mom, so it made visiting with everyone pretty easy. Can't forget Aunt Dorothy, June's long-time friend who is essentially an aunt by proxy.

Later we took a quick tour of the area, including the local mall, which was a little bit ghost town-esque. Witness the lone gumball stand:

Charles took me to the local park, which was lovely. We drove past a really good swingset - the nice, long chains - so we parked and partook.

While driving around I saw the perfect sign for the obligatory Hobee's shirt photo. It's for a funky old motel:

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing, mini-vacation with good company. Here's Paul, June, and Charles:

Next up: Denver trip!