Giving Thanks

It's that season of Thanks Giving. Some of my friends have been making daily posts about things for which they are thankful. I haven't had the time or energy for daily posts, but I thought I'd take some time today to tell you some of the things for which I'm especially grateful this year.

My job. Sometimes I don't give enough credit to my job. First of all, I HAVE a job! I love my coworkers, they're the best. And I love everything else that I get to do at my job!

My family. I absolutely adore my parents. They are the shiz. I really appreciate their love and their support--letting me "shop" in their pantry, my dad coming over to fix the furnace at my apartment, my mom taking me out to lunch. Seriously...the shiz. And all my other family as well! My birthfamily, my cousins, my Jacksons, my grandma...everybody. You. Are. Awesome.

My roommates and my friends. I think sometimes I take for granted how many friends I have. I am so grateful for their love, for their interest in me, for their kind words, for their invitations to activities even when I can't come. I am very blessed in the friend department.

Taekwondo! I am incredibly grateful that I've been able to get back into Taekwondo this year, and that I've been given the opportunity to teach, and work toward my second degree black belt. It's a challenge. And it takes a great deal of my time. But the opportunity is one which I value very much.

My afore-linked volunteer work. I've actually been feeling particularly grateful this week that I've been given this ability and means to help people in such a personal way. It's important to me. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the trust that has been given to me to shepherd people in need.

My Church. I can't make a thankful-list without this one. I am grateful always for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the security in my life that is offered by my faith. This is a huge one I could go on and on about. =)

Let's see--some other things for which I am grateful:

-Heat in my house!
-Tithing settlements.
-Well, just my ward in general.
-Awesome books. I love books.
-Awesome movies. (ie STAR TREK)
-Weekends!
-The piano, and my ability to play it.
-Learning how to cook.
-NaNoWriMo making me write.
-The Ensign. It's awesome.
-My cell phone. And having the internet on it.
-My awesome, awesome, awesome car. I LOVE my car.
-The season of Autumn. That smell, that crispness in the air, the colors of the leaves, all of it.
-Hot chocolate.
-Well, chocolate in general.
-Being able to have a fire in the fireplace with the flip of a switch. Sooo nice.
-Fun-filled days.
-Being a girl. Even though I hate it sometimes, I really do like being a girl.
-Bloggers. I love reading blogs. Especially adoption blogs, and my friends' blogs.
-The holiday season.
-Going shopping with my mother.
-Getting to speak at conferences. (TEDx is in 2 weeks! eeek)
-Pea coats.
-Hand sanitizer.
-Music! All kinds of music, from MoTab to Metallica. And listening to it really loud, in my car or at home with my roomies.
-Dating an awesome guy. =)

There is much to be grateful for, all year round. But I'm glad that Thanksgiving gives me the excuse to air some of them out. Oh, and make pie. I'm becoming something of a pie snob, but I honestly think homemade pies (when done right) are better than storebought pies. And I do love to make pie. =)

Happy Holidays!

Pics!

The long-promised pics of Writing Camp! The roomies and I, writing away.



My novel is coming along quite nicely. I hit 30,000 words yesterday and have pressed onward. Having good times!

NaNoWriMo: Week One

My dear friends, we are coming to the conclusion of NaNoWriMo's first week. I have spent the last seven days writing, and I have to tell you, I'm feeling great.

Anna, my fabulous roommate, has become my writing buddy, and I think writing buddies make all the difference in the world. Our dining room table has become writing camp. We have a lamp (it kind of feels like an interrogation light, not gonna lie), and all sorts of cables. Music and food abound. We share ideas and lines and plots from our novels. We encourage each other. We spend our late-nights together at the table, writing.

It's going pretty well before. I've stayed ahead of the daily quota, though not as high as I'd like to be. Although if I'm being honest with myself, I'm doing REALLY well considering the chaos that is my life right now. Last year I wrote more, but last year I didn't have work AND taekwondo AND dating AND roommates to hang with and whatnot. So I think I'm doing myself proud.

The story is coming along nicely. I'm really happy with most of the characters, and the plot is developing in some interesting ways. So I'm just plugging along and having a good old time.

I'm hoping to post some pictures soon--I want to show you the funsies that is our writing camp. =)

Onward!

Board Breaking Extravaganza--check out the awesome videos

This weekend at Beyond Sports, we're having a Board Breaking Extravaganza! Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Well, it is! We've invited all our students to come--and to invite all their friends to come too! Everybody comes, and we spend the first part of the event teaching them how to break boards--or in the case of our students, how to perform a new break they've never done before. We practice and get ready. Then we spent the next half BREAKING--everybody who comes gets at least 2 boards, and they perform the breaks they've been taught. We're going to go through half a forest's worth of board, I tell ya.

So, for black belt test, we all have to break 10 boards. That's right, 10. Those testing for their 1st degree plan out in advance which kicks and hand techniques they will use to break their 10 boards. They plan the setup (which is more important than you might guess) so that their breaking makes an interesting performance, without a bunch of shuffling in the middle. At testing, they have 5 minutes to set up their boards with their board holders, practice, and break all 10. If any of their boards don't break, they lose points. If it takes longer than 5 minutes, they lose points. Points are awarded for good technique, power, and the boards breaking.

This weekend is a dry run for testing. All the kids testing for their black belts in January get to do all their breaks, just like they would for testing. It helps us evaluate where they're at with breaking, and if we need to adjust any of their choices.

For me, things are a little different. At black belt testing, I will be sent into another room. My head instructor will set up an arrangement of boards (and bricks!). Then I will come back into the room. I will have 2 minutes to break all the boards (and bricks!) I get judged on having good technique, but I also get judged on how challenging the techniques are that I choose (on the spot!) to break with. I am judged on my performance--how flashy I can make it, on the spot.

This weekend, though, I get to pick my breaks. I am doing 10 boards also (no bricks...my hands aren't conditioned enough quite yet!) Last night I sat down to decide what breaks to use this weekend. My instructor told me to choose things that will challenge me. And so I have!

First will be a blindfolded jump back kick. (This clip made me laugh! Now imagine, no gear--WITH blindfold--through a board.)

Next is a double jump front snap kick. (Couldn't find a good vid, sorry)

The next one is kinda fun. I will toss a board into the air, and as it comes down, I will break it with a ridge hand.

Following that, I will break 3 boards with a palm strike. This is how I will break bricks at my black belt test.

And last I will break 3 boards with a triple spin hook kick. (This one is crazy-sauce, but will be awesome if I can pull it off.)

All I have to say after all that is: board breaking is awesome, and Taekwondo is the shiz!

Halloween!

Halloween is a ridiculous holiday, but it still can be incredibly enjoyable.

It's easily the biggest holiday celebration at my workplace, which is kind of random. On Friday, we had a huge Halloween party. There were contests for desk decorating, best costume, and pumpkin carving, and we had a great barbeque, with trick-or-treating for kids and adults alike. Cindy and I, the Front Office Team, won the pumpkin carving contest with our cannibal pumpkin:



The costumes at work were pretty exciting, I'm not going to lie. I never hoped to win, but it was still fun--especially because I got to be in my PJs all day. =)



On Halloween itself, Grady and I went up to SLC. It was his first time meeting the Peeps, or my college friends. We watched "Little Shop of Horrors" and then we took Trax downtown to Studio 600, a dry dance club that was having a big Halloween party. My friend Justin was a huge hit--he was Optimus Prime for Halloween. This was an AWESOME costume. He was like a Disneyland character, everybody wanted pictures with him. We found out after we got there that there was a costume contest--and Justin won, hands down.



We had an awesome time. We danced for awhile, but then we went and spent most of the evening in the karaoke room. We had pizza and virgin bloody pina coladas. We played a little foozball, goofed around, and just had fun. We almost missed the last train home, which was a little alarming. Being stuck in downtown Salt Lake City at 1 am without any way to get home would NOT have been fun. Fortunately, we caught the last train and headed home. All in all, a great evening.

I hate airlines, airports, airplanes, et cetera and so forth

Travel log:

7:30am EST. Woke up. Immediately panicked, as my flight left at 7:05am EST.
7:31am EST (5:30am MST) Called Mom. Mom said, stop panicking, pack your stuff and start driving, I'll call the airport. (God bless my ever-patient and loving mother.)
8:00am EST. Started driving. Mom called to say she had put me on a flight at 11:10. Started driving faster. (They charged $59 to put me on that flight--the money panic set in.)
9:45am, I took a wrong turn.
10:00am I realized I had taken a wrong turn. Tried to call my mother, but I had no reception. When I reached the END OF THE ROAD (major panic) I turned around.
10:05am stopped at a gas station for directions. The guy laughed at me.
10:15am got back on the correct highway. Started speeding really bad.
10:30am started looking for gas stations so I could refuel my car. Couldn't find a gas station within 10 miles of the airport.
10:45am Mom told me to suck it up, pay the ridiculous price of refueling by the car rental company, and just get myself to the airport.
10:55am FINALLY the Hertz shuttle took us to the airport.
11:00am The Delta guy at the self-service kiosk would NOT let me see an agent at the desk until I had at least tried the self-service kiosk. This guy was a retard. He kept telling me to take my time, calm down, and he'd 'work the magic' on the self-service kiosk.
11:05am the self service kiosk sure didn't work, so the Delta guy finally let me get in line for an agent.
Now, there was one girl working the desk. Two other guys were just standing there talking. I'm sure it was only five minutes or so, but it felt like five HOURS. I even heard her say, "Gee, am I working here alone today?" They laughed, finally finished talking, and one guy meandered over to the desk. He clicked away at his computer and finally asked if he could help me. (I had totally lost it; I was balling my eyes out.)
11:10am He determined that I couldn't make my flight (no duh, you stupid--). He told me at that point that there wasn't another flight leaving for SLC until 9:00pm. Obviously, the water works were flowing. He was like, "Ma'am, I can't possibly help you when you're crying like this. You need to stop crying." Then he looked around and called out, "Could somebody get me a box of tissues please?" That didn't actually help very much. Anyway, he decided there might be another option (click clack at the computer for another AGE). Then he said there might be a flight, but he couldn't confirm it for another fifteen minutes, so I should go sit down, take deep breaths, and come back.
11:20am Texted Melissa, Anna, and called my mother--who didn't answer--and tried with some success to calm down.
11:30am back up at the counter, the guy got me tickets (yay!) that still wouldn't get me home until about 9 (boo) but at least I wouldn't be leaving AT 9. Furthermore, since I had told him I missed my flight because I had gotten lost (and probably out of fear of the waterworks) he was able to get the fee waived, so they didn't charge me all over again for this new flight (hallelujah!) Then with a condescending smile he said, "Now, don't miss this one!" (Jerk!)
11:45am got through security (blah) and found my gate. Went to the bathroom and washed several hours worth of tears off my face.
Waited.
1:30pm Boarded my plane.
2:00pm Finally left Philadelphia.
4-something pm, landed in Atlanta. Traversed the airport, got a wrap at the same place the parentals and I had wraps on our NYC trip.
6:00pm boarded my plane. Got stuck between a grumpy dude who took over the armrest and never ever relinquished his claim, and a hippie lady who drank nasty-smelling tea and kept laughing really loud at the movie I wasn't watching.
8:30pm MST, landed in SLC. HALLELUJAH!!!
9:00pm, went to visit my grandmother in Bountiful because she'd been planning on seeing me, when I was supposed to have been coming into town at 10 AM and still wanted to see me. I swear, I was so dead, I'm not really sure what we even talked about.
10:30pm, made it home. Unpacked my contact case and my pajamas, cuz that's about all I could handle right then.


I'm now going to pretend that the whole thing didn't happen. I went to sleep in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, and woke up at home this morning. Sunday didn't exist. =P

Also, if you'd like to hear more about my actual experience while in Pennsylvania rather than the debacle of getting home, check out my other blog.

Hel-looo Pennsylvania!

Travel log:

Woke 6:30am, thought about going running as planned, hit snooze button, slept again.
Woke 6:55am, showered, dressed, finished packing.
Departed house 7:35am, best mom EVER drove me to SLC Int'l Airport. Got thru security w/o a hitch, waited. (plane supposed to leave at 9:41am)
Boarded plane 9:32am
Plane takeoff 9:55am
Slept for the first hour or so
Woke up when the guy next to me tried to apply lotion, but in the plane, it kind of exploded everywhere. Gave him my napkins and helped him clean up. Then talked to him for 10min.
Worked on my keynote address for an hour.
Finished a scene in my novel.
Slept again.
Landed 4:00pm EST/2:00pm MST.
Waited. (really had to pee, too!)
Disembarked--and couldn't find a bathroom! The whole freaking airport's being remodeled. Finally found one by the baggage claim, and it was way nasty.
Took the shuttle to Hertz, 4:25pm
Rented a car for the first time, 4:40pm. It was supposed to be a Hyundai, but it turned out to be a Mazda 6. Pretty pleased with that one.
Tried to get to the Reading Terminal Market, 5:00pm. Incidentally, I would advise against trying to navigate downtown Philadelphia at rush hour. After being muy frustrated, I gave up and headed out. (Have to admit that I have mad driving skills that after getting lost trying to find Vine St, I was still able to get myself back onto I-76 and headed in the right direction.)
Got stuck in traffic behind a wreck 5:30pm
Stopped for food, 7:00pm. I had eaten breakfast at 7:00am MST, drank some Fresca and ate a biscotti cookie on the plane...and that's it. I debated seriously about just waiting til Lebanon, but couldn't stand it anymore, so I stopped. Had a roast beef gyro at Arby's--decent, too.
Arrived at hotel, 8:00pm.
Started playing on the internet, 8:25pm.
And here I sit.


Tomorrow morning I'll be working on/finalizing all my presentations. In the afternoon we're going to Hershey for a taste-testing tour/trick-or-treating, where I get to see Ian for the first time in over a year. Then tomorrow evening is my keynote address. Eeek!

Good News Bad News

The good news

• I leave for Pennsylvania TOMORROW! I'm so so so excited.
• I had a great write-a-thon weekend with Sam last weekend, we got a lot done.
• Got to see my birthdad and fam on Sunday!
• My roommate followed through, woke me up, and got me out of bed to go running (well, this morning it was a brisk walk). We are 2 for 2. I'm determined to keep up the schedule while in PA!

The bad news:

• I'm still not feeling very prepared for my keynote address on Friday night. I have a few notes, and a plane ride. Hopefully it will come together?
• I really hurt my knee at Taekwondo last night. It's still killing me. Sometimes I hate my body.
• Because of the aforementioned pain, I didn't sleep well last night (resulting in me still being in bed when it was time to go running) which means I'm really, really tired this morning. Being really, really tired limits my productivity, both on the keynote address front, and the novel front. *sigh*

NaNoWriMo

I have a deep love for NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month. I've participated for several years now, with great enthusiasm.

This year, I'm cheating. You're supposed to write 50,000 words of a NEW novel, one that you haven't started, and preferably one that you don't care about that much, because you're going to be cranking out 50,000+ words in 30 days, which means that quality is not necessarily a priority.

However, I'm hip-deep into this novel I'm co-writing with Sam, and I've come to the decision that it would be ridiculous for me to start another book at the moment. So I'm cheating. I will be writing 50,000 fresh words, but they'll be a part of this novel that we've already begun.

Last night, I told my roommate Anna about NaNo, and when her interest was perked, I realized that I really really really wanted her to do it with me. There's just something about company during moments of insanity. Having someone to rant to about characters who misbehave; someone to have late night write-a-thons and runs for caffeinated beverages. Strangers on forums are no substitute for a flesh-and-blood companion. So now I'm really hoping that Anna will join the ranks of NaNo-ers who will be madly scribbling away this November.

Cravings

You know those days? Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, those days.

All I want today is chocolate. Lots of it. Good chocolate, crappy chocolate, I don't care. But it's all I want. Food? Pass. Water? I guess so, but only if it's washing down some chocolately goodness.


PS: On a side note, I've been cracking at the novel this morning...haven't made a ton of progress, cuz my coworker is MIA again, but we're looking forward to a very productive weekend, and I'm stoked.

Tournament!

I just finished my grad school application--put it in the mailbox, can't touch it again finished. In light of my current stage of freaking out, I've decided to blog.


The tournament on Saturday was a lot of fun! It's been three years since I've been to a taekwondo tournament, and I'd forgotten just how much I love them. I think that (for me) they're even more fun as a black belt, because I get to be so much more involved. You know me--I'm an organizer. And nothing needs organization more desperately than your average taekwondo tournament.

Our contingent from Beyond Sports arrived just before 9, just in time for an impromptu judging/refereeing training. We HOPE that most black belts know how to judge the normal TKD events, but it's not always the case. Anyway, then it was off to compete in forms. The black belts go first in forms so they then can judge the color belts. For similar reasons, they usually spar last. It also works as an interest grabber/event climax, respectively.

Anyway, my competition in forms went really well. There were three in my division. The first girl was obviously brand new both to her black belt and to Koryo, her form. The second was a guy who performed Keumgang, the second degree form, and he did fairly well, but nothing extraordinary. I also performed Keumgang, which I learned about a month ago and fell in love with. There were several small goofs on my part, but overall I think I performed well. I received the gold medal!

Then it was off to another ring to judge color belt forms. That went by quickly and without much excitement. However, I was then asked to help judge demo teams. I'd never done this before, and it was exciting. Demo teams are an interesting, multi-headed, and variable creature. Three schools competed, and each performance was very different. There are a lot of unison techniques, and the better the unison, the better the score. But I learned that live music definitely adds to the atmosphere! Very fun.

Next came sparring. I started as the center referee in one of the rings. In Olympic TKD, you have three corner judges who are responsible for scoring points. You also have a center referee, who is responsible for ensuring that all the rules are obeyed, and dispensing point deductions when they are not. I've been a corner judge before, but this was my first time as a center ref at a tournament. It was very interesting! Definitely keeps you on your toes.

I had to opportunity to cheer for most of my teammates during their fights. They all did quite well, with few losses, and even those were close calls. Mine was among the very last sparring matches.

My opponent was a girl named Liz from Logan. She is a front-legged kicker, which isn't something you see in Olympic style very often. About thirty seconds into the match, she kicked me across the face with a front leg hook kick. We had to stop the match (kyeshi=medical time-out) so I could recover. But when the ref asked if I wanted to continue I said, "Yes sir, let's go."

Sparring is as much a psychological game as a physical one. When someone hurts you, you have to get right back up and get them back, otherwise they get the upper hand. Coming back in, I attacked--and pretty much chased her out of the ring and onto her butt. This response, I've seen watching other matches, can sometimes be taken for anger--like you're mad that they kicked you. In my case, that's rarely the case. But sometimes a little acting and lots of ferocious kiyaping can win the match.

Anyway, we continued on into our second round. I kept getting called for pushing. We can only punch with one hand; if you get caught punching with both hands, you can receive a half-point deduction for pushing. I really need to train this habit out of myself, because it was costing me points that I didn't have to give. Her style of kicking was frustrating, because I couldn't use my usual compliment of counters against her. We were down to the wire, and from the screams I could tell it was very close. She came in once again with that front leg kick, and I turned to back kick--and kicked her square under the chin.

Time was up, so they called the match in my favor, but I didn't feel triumphant, I felt rather guilty. She was off having an asthma attack. *sigh* I don't like to totally demoralize my opponents--and I've done that more than once--because I like sparring, and I want everybody to like sparring. Anyway, they took her off to the medic, and my coach soon dragged me off that way too to make sure I was okay after the head kick.

From the medic's impromptu station, we watched as the breaking competition got under way, and I had a chance to talk to Liz for a few minutes. Turns out that she was coming back from a 3-year hiatus from TKD--this week. !!! I can't even imagine. I mean, I was gone for almost that long, but I've been back and reconditioning since May. I can't imagine coming back and that same week fighting in a tournament--her FIRST EVER Olympic-style tournament. Foolish, foolish coaches. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes, and I don't know if it made her feel any better, but at least I felt like less of a monster!

Our team reconvened at TGI Friday's for a celebratory meal, and lots of pictures. We were able to discuss things that we did well, things we need to work on, but mostly we just enjoyed eating for pretty much the first time all day, and enjoying each others' company. I loved the camaraderie, and I hope that we can encourage more of our students to come out to tournaments. They're a blast!

I hope most people are more observant than this. Otherwise, the world is in trouble.

Last night, I was going over my sparring gear to make sure that I had everything I needed for the tournament (TOMORROW!!), making sure my name was written on everything of mine, and dumping out all my excessive gear that just makes my bag really, really heavy.

Anna and Crystal were in my room with me, chatting as I processed the aforementioned gear. I happen to keep one of my old belts (blue, to be precise) in my bag, for stretching and slow kicking exercises. They were curious about the exercises, so I demonstrated a supported side kick on the wall, and with the belt, that means I can go pretty darn high. After demonstrating, I went back to my gear.

Crystal looked at me for a moment and said, "Wait, you mean you're really a black belt? Like, a real one?"

....



PS: Wish me luck at the tournament tomorrow!

An empty house is very, very quiet.

I just got home (10pm), tired but pleased by my work tonight, only to find nobody home. How lame-sauce is that? When I get home at night, I love having roommates here to chat with, to talk about our days, to listen to their daily dramas...you know, girl-chat. Having nobody here is...lonely.

So I checked up on emails, chatted with another friend for a minutes...and now I'm just sitting here. All alone. In my empty house. I'm hungry, I'll probably cook "dinner" here in a minute. Maybe I'll watch a movie.

But sheesh! Where is everybody?

The good news...

• Autumn is wonderful, autumn is beautiful, and autumn is HERE.
• Sam and I have been making great progress on our novel thus far this week.
• Grady comes home tomorrow!
• I'm competing in a tournament this Saturday!

The bad news

• It is really, really cold in the office. I'm constantly trying to keep my hands warm, and they're already starting to chap.
• I STILL haven't written my liberal arts statement. Hopefully Mom will help me...
• Life is still crazy-busy. I feel like I have no time for socializing. Somehow I have to get this sorted out!

General Conference

All I have to say is that Elder Holland is the man. Seriously.


But with regards to circumstances, I also want to say that I love General Conference weekend. It has such a great atmosphere. Saturday morning session I watched with my ward, along with a big breakfast. Very fun. Between sessions I went shopping with my Mama, whom I love dearly, for some new clothes (desperately needed). Then we watched the afternoon session at my parents' house. In the evening, I drove up to Salt Lake to spend the evening with some gal-friends, Ellen, Melissa and Dixy. We went to the Blue Iguana downtown. I don't think it was as fantasmic as Dixy hyped it up to be, but it was good and we made use of some excellent coupons.

After Priesthood session, we rejoined the menfolk, Matt, Justin and Christopher. We eventually made our way to a corn maze in West Jordan, where fun was had. Melissa and I spent the night on a mattress on Ellen's living room floor--oh the fond memories!

Sunday morning, Justin made us egg mcmuffins and we enjoyed the session (although, because of rain, my scrapbooking stuff stayed out in the car. Oh well). During the break, we watched The Singles Ward, which I haven't seen in several years. It was even cheesier than I remembered, but still funny. Melissa left us then, but during the afternoon session, we had a delicious minestrone soup made by Ellen, as well as a peach cobbler. Mm! That session was the aforementioned testimony borne by Elder Holland.

Basically, I just love the excuse to be with good friends, eat good food, have that crisp fall air (and in this case, a rather Seattle-like precipiation) and enjoy the ministration of the gospel. It's the perfect weekend.

PS: Gregory...I missed you. I don't know if you'd have joined us for conference, but I wish you could have been there for some of the other merriment, regardless. Loves!

Addendum to Hair

I do have to admit that with really short hair, it'd be pretty hard to do this:

pics from my friend Dixy's wedding back in May. This was a good hair day for Valerie.

Most days, I hate my hair. It's an ongoing problem.

We had a few guy friends over the other night, and somehow we ended up discussing hair (I think it was one small portion of a LONG discussion on dating and relationships). The young men expressed how they like long hair on girls. They find long hair to be more feminine and more attractive.

So, I've been growing out my hair. The purpose of this is multifaceted. The first reason is simply because I haven't had 'long' hair in a long time, and I wanted to try it out. The second reason is more complicated--my mother, bless her heart, has had the same hairstyle for about 20 years (although she's presently growing out her hair, and I'm very proud of her). Under absolutely no circumstances do I want to fall into that trap. I want to always be young and dynamic in my hair and dress (we'll see how that actually turns out). After wearing my hair the same way for 18 months or so, I decided that it was time to try something different. Since my hair couldn't get much shorter, it was time to grow it out. Beyond those reasons, however, was the simple desire to have 'long' hair (that's a relative term, of course) for my wedding...whenever that happens. However, it takes a long time to grow out hair, so it was worth starting.

My hair has been growing steadily, and I'm actually quite proud of the length I've attained. I can almost make a ponytail. I'm so close! I really really really want to be able to make ponytails again. I don't find them all that attractive on myself, but they will make Taekwondo so much less hassle. =)

However.

Almost every day, I think about cutting my hair. I really liked my old style. It was cute, it was spunky, it was very me. I don't know whether it would be considered feminine by these guys, or any of the guys I've gone out with. But I felt very attractive with this particular hairstyle. I am tempted all the time to return to it. But then all these months of hair-growing would be wasted. That's what I remind myself.

I don't want to be one of those women who has long hair, gets married, and then chops it all off. I think that's tacky. But I've had short hair consistently since I graduated from high school, so I don't think having short hair would be all that unusual for me.

My goal is to be strong for awhile yet. I want to be able to make ponytails. =) And maybe if it gets a little longer, I'll like it a little better. At any rate, we'll see what happens.


PS: I think boys are lucky, that they don't have to deal with this madness.

Good News Bad News

Over at the Domestic Dork, "Good News Bad News" happens every Sunday, but Holly posts a lot more regularly than I do, so for me it just sort of happens whenever I feel like it. =) Here goes.

The good news...

• The color belts have Belt Test tomorrow at the studio. It's been about three years since I helped with a belt test, and I'm actually kind of excited. It's fun to see what our students are accomplishing, fun to sit up on the board and participate. It will be a long, but ultimately rewarding, day.
• Today is our end-of-the-month BBQ at work. I love these! And I think we're also celebrating all of the September birthdays...which includes me.
• My parents are coming home from Washington this weekend. I've missed them.
• I am officially going to be competing in at TKD tournament in October, and I'm freaking stoked. I'm sure I'll get my butt handed to me, but I'll have an awesome time doing it.
• It's Friday!

The bad news...

• I am so busy I can't even think straight. The only day this week I won't be at the studio is Sunday. (However, perhaps I should have included in the Good news, that I'm still enjoying it...just not enjoying that I never see my friends...or my novel...or really anything else...)
• I STILL haven't written my Liberal Arts Statement.
• I am missing the national board meeting of FSA tonight, and I'm frustrated and upset. We were suppposed to meet two weeks ago, but they up and moved the meeting to the day before belt testing, when I absolutely have to be at staff meeting for TKD. A friend on the board will be presenting my materials, but it's just not the same, and I'm grumpy about it.
• Work is boring. Thus...I'm blogging. I need to be more productive!

Check out the Domestic Dork for more bloggy goodness!

In the event of an emergency...

At my apartment, we apparantly have a short circuit. One corner of our kitchen keeps losing power. We've thrown the circuit breaker a few times, which helps, but it just goes out again. *sigh* the joys of apartment life. At any rate, it started us thinking about fire hazards, and what to do in the event of an emergency.

One of the things we did was to ponder what we would take out of our house if it were on fire. I said to my roommates, "Decide on 5 things you would carry out. You have to be able to carry all 5 at once, cuz you only get one trip."

We decided that purses didn't count, they're attached, but if you have to add anything to the purse, those things count against the 5. We also determined that the 5 things have to be easily accessible--whether before or after we had the conversation they became so.

Here are the 5 things that I would carry out of my house if it were on fire.

1. My laptop.
2. My journals.
3. My scrapbook.
4. My scriptures.
5. My Dan certificate


Here's my thinking. 1. My laptop. All of my everythings are on my laptop. My novels. All my digital pictures that have never been printed. All my school work from college. Everything. Yes, I should back everything up, but I haven't. Besides, there's just a lot! If I lost my laptop, I think my world might come to an end. Just saying. 2. My journals are irreplacable. I have three of them at my apartment, and they cover the last 8 years of my life. They would be a devastating loss--I would feel like I had lost those years, because the record would be gone. 3. My scrapbook is not necessarily irreplacable; as long as I had my laptop, I would have all the pictures. But I've put an awful lot of work into my scrapbook and the memories within. So I'd take it too. 4. I would feel pretty sacrilegious if I didn't take my scriptures out of a burning building. So I would take them. =) and 5. The certificate from the Kukkiwon (international DUDES of taekwondo) that says I'm officially a black belt--and it costs a fortune and many many months to get replaced. So since I couldn't think of anything else I would save, I'd save this.

This is the thing--a fire would be, in any case, a devastating event. The loss of all my earthly belongings is not a pleasant thought. I would be so sad to lose all my books, all my furniture, my books, my piano, all those books, my clothing, my books, all my papers and documents and records, my books... But the point of this exercise was to identify those things that are most irreplacable and precious, so that if we had mere seconds to grab a few things, we would know immediately which things were most important. It saves time and perhaps a fair bit of panic in the moment.

The only downside--a fire is at least as likely to occur when none of us are home, and we're unable to save anything at all. *sigh*

What five things would you save in event of an emergency?

Black Belt Testing

This blog post is dedicated to black belt testing. Not interesting to you? Don't read it. ;)

I need to see if I can find you any photos from my first black belt test. It was pretty sweet. I tested for my first degree black belt (in taekwondo aka as first Dan) in August 2005. That seems like forever. So it's about time that I test for my second degree. =)

I want to tell you about some of the cool things I get to do to test for my second Dan. After all, I spend a majority of my "free" time at the studio these days, which means this is a pretty big part of my life--which means, dear reader, that I want to share it with you. There are about ten different "categories" I will be tested in. I'm not going to tell you about all of them. Just the REALLY cool ones.

1. Forms. "Poomsae", as they're called in Korean, are a set series of movements that represent a variety of attackers. There are a LOT of forms--at our studio, each belt rank moving from white to black learns a new form. They get progressively more advanced and more challenging as you work up the ranks. Which also means they get COOLER. I have to show all the forms I learned as a color belt and first Dan (about 15 or so) plus two new ones for second Dan. I've learned one that I will be tested on. I'm stoked to learn the other one! I'm coming to really love forms, which wasn't true a few years ago!

2. Bo Staff Fighting Form. Do you know what a Bo Staff is? It's basically a stick as tall as you are. Well, as tall as I am, in this case. This is new for me, and I start learning it tomorrow--a form like those mentioned above, but with a bo staff. I think a staff is one of the most practical weapons to learn. Katanas and nunchuku and sais are cool-looking, but when would you ever actually use them? But a lot of things can be used for a staff, even on the street. So I'm excited to start learning.

3. Breaking! This is SO STINKING COOL. If you've never seen a breaking demonstration, you really should. We break things (boards, or sometimes bricks) with our bare hands, feet, elbows, etc. To test for my 2nd Dan, I have to break 10 boards--that's right 10 boards--using techniques as dictated by my instructor. That's actually more challenging than it might sound. Before now, I've gotten to choose in advance which kicks, strikes, etc I will use to break my boards. Gives you a chance to practice. But now I don't know which techniques I will need to use, so I have to practice everything! Most likely I will have to break 3-4 boards at once with a kick (a jump back kick, perhaps?) And my master has warned me of several others, including a triple spin hook kick, which I've accomplished ONCE. EVER. but will continue to work on. I just want to emphasize how totally awesome breaking is. We'll probably go through several trees' worth of boards that day. With killer kicks and hand techniques. SWEET MUFFYCAKES.

4. Self Defense Demo. This has the potential for so much awesomeness. Each of the black belt candidates have been put into a group. Within the group, we have to develop a "demonstration" that shows the practical application of all the self defense we know--and in my case, what we can come up with on our own. For those testing for their first degree, it's a lot more simple. The self defense techniques that they have to show off are dictated to them, and then they get to choose from the established curriculum as to what further techniques they demonstrate. My portion is a bit more challenging, as you might expect. First of all, I get to demonstrate knife and gun defense--which means my fellow student will attack me with a [fake] gun and knife, alternately, and I have to demonstrate how to defend against them. Secondly, I've been instructed to include a lot of throws/take-downs, both those in the curriculum and some of my own. We have to develop scenarios in which we would use all of these different self defense techniques. And there's a certain amount of showmanship to it as well--we have to make it look real, practical, and powerful. When done well, these demos are freaking amazing. I'm so excited!


That's all for now. Those are less than half of the things I get to do for testing, but they're the ones I'm particularly excited about. Incidentally, my black belt test is in January (which will come faster than either you or I can imagine). If you're local and interested, consider yourself invited. It's going to be awesome!