Friday and Labor Day Weekend

Friday was another hard day of classes. I took four because my knee was still a bruise at that point, and my arms were dead tired and sore from compensating for my knee in ukemi. Every time I got up off the floor it was like doing a push up. The hardest part of any class when your arms are tired and you have one good knee is wiping down the mats on your hands and knee(s). Nonetheless I enjoyed all of the classes. Douglas Firestone is a great teacher. He is such a funny guy on the mat. Everyone was learning and being entertained at the same time.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day. I trained with Doug the deshi, and we took it easy on each other to avoid any more injuries. The second class I trained with an interesting man with a solid, but very slow technique. He asked me if I was a dancer because I moved well on the mat. I was very flattered. Then I played with Lorie, a girl who takes the children’s class. She’s a real sweetheart and has a great ikkyo.

Sunday was a lot of fun. Everyone was jovial on the mat and I had a great first class. Donovan taught an ukemi class. I was pretty much able to to everything except the knee walking, (which I sat out because of my bruise) . The next class Donovan taught weapons. I found out once again that I don’t know how to hold a jo properly or stand in hamni just so. It was a lot of precision work. Donovan really knows his weapons. I pretty much relaxed for the rest of the day and watched an action film with the deshi’s in the evening.

Labor day there were no classes so Sanji and I went to Pinkberry to eat the best frozen yogurt in existence and then Miguel and Doug and I took a subway to the Brooklyn bridge and walked across it. We took lots of pictures, some of them rather amusing. Once we got back Sanji and I went to the supermarket so we could get ingredients for a cake. This time he baked it while I supervised. Lemon and strawberry (very good)

Tonya