Pushing It
"Dad, what are you doing?" my son asked me last night. I was taking clothes and putting them in the hallway on the floor near the head of the stairs so I could get dressed without waking the wifey.
"I'm getting my stuff together for tomorrow." I replied, dropping my gi and pants on top of a pair of longjohns.
"Where? Fabian Sensei's in Princeton?" he said, his eyes bugging out a little. He's been to practice with me and knows it's outside.
"Yeah buddy. Gotta sand down my bo staff, make sure there aren't any splinters." I dropped an extra pair of socks on the pile after checking the weather on my computer.
"Dad, how cold is it going to be?"
"It'll be around 28 degrees when we start at 9am."
"MOOOOOOOM, Dad's freakin CRAZY!" he said, turning to go into my room to tell on me, smiling.
yeah, it was pretty cold out there this morning, I'll definitely admit it. Felt good tho. I had a pair of longjons on under my pants and an extra sweatshirt over my turtleneck all which was under my gi top. A hat and gloves and I was actually pretty toasty. We started with our warm up exercises - jumping jacks, stretching, pushups, etc. Thank GOD I've been working out in the gym the last several weeks. Did some sword exercises that my body remembered well before my brain did that went rather well. Switched from wooden bokken to metal iaito to practice the kata that, again, my body remembered quite a bit faster than my brain. This is by far my favorite part of the practice so I was happy that we did a bit more today than we normally used to.
Switched sword for staff and got to twirl a 6 foot staff around my body, my head, and around behind my back and I only dropped it ONCE! Amazed, but very glad too. Forgot quite a bit, but after being shown, I remembered and could execute most of it easily. I love sword, but I'm better at staff. Dunno why, just happens.
Moved onto the last part of the work out, my least favorite, jujitsu. It has nothing to do with the people I do it with or my Sensei. It has all to do with the fact that I feel like a big, uncoordinated dork when I do it. Tho I have to say, after we practiced the basics outside - hand releases - we went inside to his small inside dojo and did the more advanced stuff and it all felt pretty good. I had to stop at a certain point, mostly because I was afraid of the throws and the fact I hadn't done them in a while and didn't want to hurt anyone in my confusion. He had me practice some other basic throws with the beginner students, mentioning his intention was to get me back up to speed as quickly as possible.
It's been almost three years, and I'm not sure why I stopped going. Granted, I got a new job in a different state, but I wish now that I had stuck with it longer. Felt good to get back in and throw some people around, and to be thrown around as well. Missed a few guys that I enjoyed seeing and who extracted a promise for me to come as much as possible in the future. I'm planning on going for the rest of the money except the sunday before my birthday (If the whole internet wants to get together, I want Guitar Hero - the one with the drums). I have a lot of sore muscles, but feeling good in that I didn't forget as much as I thought, I got to see some good people again, and I'm feeling pretty f'ing good about my physical fitness lately. Today's workout definitely proved that to me.
She said yes…
Mike over at UnravelingMysteries.com wrote a great post about the day of his wedding, and I realized I never posted about my own anniversary on New Years Eve.
Fae and I have been clean and sober for a long time - she just celebrated 19 years in early December. So when we were thinking of getting married in the winter, we both decided that New Years Eve would be a great time to do it. We had it at her house, with about 50 friends and family. Not a whole lot of room to move around, but it was done the way we wanted it. The Justice of the Peace that performed the ceremony was wonderful in that he had a workbook that he sent us about 6 months prior to the ceremony, and we spent a week or three picking passages and other things of note to literally plan our own ceremony.
I went to the hotel beforehand to get dressed and spend some time with my family. Got caught up in all of the visiting and got to the house late. "Guys, downstairs. Girls up here. Matt I love you, go away!" I heard shouted from the 2nd floor.
Beat a hasty retreat downstairs needless to say.
She looked beautiful. She made me her husband and she became my wife. We said our vows in front of a big bodhisatva statue in her parents living room and I was made the happiest man.
So now it's 14 years later.
And she still thinks I'm pretty cool. We went to dinner in New Hope, PA at a place called Havana. She had the surf and turf and I had the seared tuna with soba noodles and tempura avocado. Weird sounding, but delicious! Had a really nice time just sitting and talking with a nice roaring fire right nearby and lots of privacy. Something we don't have much of 
Happy Fourteenth Anniversary Honey. I am so glad you said yes, way back when.
update of several things
First and foremost, I did do some work on my book - I fleshed out the story paragraph into a paragraph per sentence. Interesting thing is how it's changing the original idea in subtle ways, as well as how I'm introducing characters who I have to go back and flesh out as well. For anyone even thinking of writing something big but can't get started, this article is working really well for me.
Secondly, I am going back to my jujitsu class. When I worked in Princeton for 4 years, I found an excellent mentor, friend, and sensei in Fabian Sensei. He teaches a style called Hontai Yoshin Ryu - sword, staff, and jujistu and I loved it. Problem is, I got a job in White Plains, and Princeton is in the total opposite direction. I've been kicking the idea around for a while of going back, and when 2 of the guys I trained with emailed me out of the blue, it made more sense, so I'm going back for my first class in almost three years, tomorrow. It's going to be around 30 degrees, and the class is outside. Yeah, that's going to be WAY fun. I'll be sure to update you 