Masters of Martial Arts Expo

Today was awesome! We took some amazing classes with some wonderful instructors for an expo that our school hosted from 11-4. The Rochester school has officially been open for 2 years and Sifu invited several practitioners to teach as a way to celebrate. We had the opportunity to study some Aikido with Sensei Aldus and observe as he and his student worked with swords and did some partner work and strikes. They rolled a number of bamboo looking mats and then soaked them in water - making them "flesh like" and then placed them on stands. Then they would do a series of strikes - slicing though the mats several times with clean swoops of the sword. Sifu said that it was pretty easy to knock the stand over- more so than actually completing the cut. It takes great skill to do what we saw today. I can't even imagine practicing with a REAL sword. Very intense focus! Then we studied some Brazillian Jujitsu, Kali Arnis - which meant working with sticks with a partner. Then in the last class of the day we learned a Karate kata. I love learning forms and we actually were shown the entire form. A lot of the hand positions were different than what we study in Kung Fu - but it was awesome to really focus and try to flow though the form. It was amazing to watch Sensei Hurtsellers do the kata. I love to watch someone who has studied the art for so long. Besides my amazement with their physical movement, I like to watch their focus. You can just tell by looking at their eyes, that they are in the deepest form of concentration and visualization. He is also a great speaker like Sifu and I find myself very inspired every time we have the honor of his presence at our school. So another inspiring day yet again!

Inspired

Today I went to visit a friend who I haven't seen in several years. We grew up dancing together and I found out the other day she got hit by a car. They had to amputate her foot and knowing this, I was very worried about visiting her to find out she was going to be in rough shape. I was so worried that she wasn't ok. I can't even begin to imagine getting hit by a car. When we walked into her room - we found her a bit tired but in great shape. It was amazing that all she lost was her foot. Her right leg is in pretty rough shape, but with surgery, will be ok. But that was it! No other injuries. On top of that, she was in good spirits about it. Saying how lucky she was that was all that happened. I couldn't be more inspired by her good spirits about the whole thing. I think about how lucky she was - how much worse it could have ended up and how lucky she is that she is ok. It is a healthy reminder to all of us that complain about our day to day BS that things really aren't that bad. Here she is, hit by a car and now without a foot and totally optimistic about it - and she really should be. She survived!

A Good Vampire Movie?

Doug and I recently watched "Let the Right One In" - a swedish vampire flick where the main characters are two children. It was shot beautifully. No spoilers here - if you haven't seen it - you should!

Seriously? WTF American Apparel?

There are no words... this ad... it haunts me

MJ!!!

Ok, I have to admit that I loved Michael Jackson growing up and I still love a lot of his old songs. I remember visiting my grandparents when I was probably about 5 and I told everyone I was going to marry Michael Jackson while we watched the music video for Billy Jean on MTV. HAHAHA.. I still can't help but wanna dance when I hear "Billie Jean" or "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough". Shit, we even did a tap dance to a Michael Jackson medley of songs. OH MAN! And we were each dressed like different Michaels from different eras or videos - I was the MJ from "Scream" - pleather pants and all - with my sweet braces. HA. We had the red jacket with the white glove MJ, I think that was Marie!!! Smooth Criminal MJ, Bad MJ... jeez I can hardly remember. SO freaking hilarious! Sure, some of his later works were pretty bad and all that stuff about being a little kid lover was pretty bad. But I can't help but give the guy a lot of props. An amazing career paired with a tragic life. Someone who hates their appearance so much they would alter it so drastically, clearly is a very sad person.

I'm finally on Twitter... and not sure why

Yeah, I finally broke down and started a twitter account. I usually jump on this kind of stuff pretty early, but something about twitter put me off a bit. More content for me to put out there that no one really cares about but me. HA

Bye bye nasty ass couch

I love my dogs, but they seriously ruin our stuff. Our couch was so gross that I wouldn't sit on it. The years of drool, pee and who KNOWS what else was on that thing. The sweet part about our house is that we can seriously throw anything in front of it and someone will inevitably take it. Sure enough, big red was gone within an hour. I am honestly a bit sad to see it go - even though it repulsed the hell out of me.

Watermelons and appliances - oh my

After a trip to Ikea, Doug and I ended up at ABC Warehouse looking for a receiver to replace the one that burned out over a year ago. I grew up listening to the sound coming out of my television, so home theater is DEFINITELY not a specialty of mine. We ended up with a new receiver but I can't get this image out of my head. The place was loaded with freaking watermelons. Turns out we got one when we bought the receiver - weirdest promotion ever. Hoping they didn't advertise that on the radio. Watermelon with the purchase of an appliance. Man - times ARE hard!

Honeymoon pics

Finally got them up! Ever since the wedding it has been nice to NOT think about any wedding stuff. Although we are going to be featured as a real wedding in the Kansas/Missouri publication of The Knot. That will be lots of fun. I just finished filling out the questionnaire and it will be on shelves in November.