Holy Crap!

It's 9:00 already? Today just kind of happened. And I'm not really sure if I was here for any of it. I didn't do much. I don't think. But here we are at the end of the day, so something must have happened.

Last night I observed a Ryu Te, martial arts, class. I liked some of what I saw and also disliked some of what I saw. I don't know exactly what the best criteria for picking out a dojo is, but here's something I do know: No matter what dojo you go to, no matter what style they teach, a representative for that organization will come up to you and try to sell their system to you, and their system, no matter what system it is, is the most complete system offered anywhere other than eastern Asia. The other systems are all too flashy with no real substance. They emphasize this aspect of the martial arts by neglecting this other aspect. These other systems are all impractical. . . The head of this dojo I went to last night was a real salesman. He asked two questions, "What didn't you like about your last dojo?" and "What other dojos are you planning on visiting?" Then he depicted his school so that it sounded exactly the opposite of my previous experiences. He told me everything that was wrong with the schools I was planning on visiting. He put me in an arm lock (he called it an arm bar, but it wasn't really what I would call an arm bar) and bent me over at the waist to show how effective his style was. He was a pretty good salesman. But I don't like being sold to. . . Also, the class didn't really include any conditioning or strength building exercises. All of the students, even (or maybe especially) the advanced ones, had large bellies that shook when they laughed. I asked the instructor (sifu?, sensei?, I don't know his title) if he had some sort of routine he taught or recommended, and he said not really, because this system didn't really rely on strength (for some reason I thought of the instructor guy from Napoleon Dynamite right at this moment) so there was no point in building up your muscles. . . What? The way I look at it (though, the more I look, the less certain I am that I'm right), studying martial arts is supposed to develop the entire person physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Even if I don't need to be strong to use this style effectively, wouldn't it be good for me as a person to be in good physical condition? . . So, I'm not sure about this place. I haven't mentioned the good stuff about the school. But I think I've exhausted myself on the subject.

This morning I went to a yoga class. Most yoga classes seem to offer the first class for free, so I'll probably do a circuit through as many of the free introductory classes as I can find. The class itself was quite good. Having an actual person there to correct my mistakes and offer encouragement tailored specifically to me was incredibly useful. . . On a quick side note: When I said that yoga class would be a good place for me to meet people, I had meant yoga class would be a good place for me to meet female people. And when I say that yoga class would be a good place for me to meet female people, I mean that yoga class would be a good place for me to meet female people that haven't yet reached menopause. When I say that, I am completely inaccurate if I'm discussing the yoga class I went to this morning. . . A kind of funny little factoid about this yoga group is that it meets in a local wedding chapel. I chuckled to myself a bit when we were laying on our backs with our arms stretched out to the side, kind of crucifiedish, and we then turned our heads to the left where there was a big stained-glass depiction of Christ as the good shepherd. I'm not sure if that kind of connection is irony or blasphemy, but. . . Heh, the yoga class had a part during which we all were supposed to say namaste, which literally means "I bow to you" but has more of a 'best wishes' or 'peace' or 'good tidings' or some general message of well-wishing/gratefulness, to each other. That part of the class reminded me of the "peace be with you" part of the Catholic service I went to a while back. It's amazing how similar these very, very different ways of life can be.

I finally have a bed here at my sister's place. I'm sitting on it as I type. It'll be nice to be able to sleep without waking up to catch myself from falling over the edge or to rearrange the couch cushions. We also seem to have gotten my Internet issues taken care of, so I can now access the web from my laptop and will hopefully be updating a lot more regularly now.

I'm grateful for yoga instructors who can relate to a guy trying to figure out what to do with an English degree (20). Maybe I should become a yoga teacher. . .