By the way, that is great that you got to meet Jer face-to-face. I have been following his blog for years, through your blogs, and I feel like I know him a little bit. Nice to know there was little awkwardness. I met a friend I made by phone once, and we had been talking a lot for months, so that I felt I knew him well when we met. When we finally did get together, it was great, but it was hard to look at his face. It was almost like his face didn't match the face I had imagined while talking on the phone. He said he felt the same about my face. It didn't take long to get over the feeling, though.
Toe, Judo sounds like everything I imagined. You are going to kick someone's ass one day, I can sense it. I like the image of you, El, and future-child doing Judo together.
My tolerance for pain is so low, I am not sure I could take that kind of training. I enjoy Aikido, or at least did when I was studying it 9 years ago. I am so uncoordinated, though, that I never mastered a lot of the rolls and falls that we had to learn. For some reason I have a deficient ability to roll head over heels or somersault, which is required in Aikido. My sensei was so patient, it never seemed like a problem for me to continue with the program, but I know I was not doing so well, ultimately.
As I type, the sun comes out. I feel at peace, but there are a lot of stressful things going on with my work at the moment. Nothing I can't surmount. Maybe that's why I feel peaceful, because I know I can handle this. Yesterday I was feeling kind of hopeless about everything I need to do, and about life in general, but somehow today I feel great. They always say that when you feel depressed, just remember that the feeling will pass. So hard to remember that when you are at the bottom of a pit, as I have been at times, emotionally. So easy to laugh at the bottom when you feel up.
Why do I feel so good? I think it's because I ran 3+ miles this morning. Or the fact that the sun is out after days of rain? Or maybe it's the progress I made on a project I have. I don't know. Better just to enjoy the feeling without analyzing, because Jesus, I felt like shit yesterday.
I am off the clock, for the moment. But I have a lot of work to do and need to get back on. Just wanted to say hello and let you know life is going on. The garden is growing well. My tomatoes are starting to show, and the red cabbage is forming tight little heads. Damn it, I love growing food.
I don't think we need to apologize or explain why we don't write for ages at a time. We ebb and flow.
So, I met Jer from Smiths Famous Farm. He was in Bethesda working, and we met up during lunch and had lots to drink. It was super good, and not weird in the way you might imagine meeting someone with whom you only know through the prism of reading each others blogs (for many, many years, it's gotta be more than ten years), with only the sort of notion of what they look like, and no notion on how they sound. It was exactly like talking to the person you imagined that person to be, if that makes sense. There was no weirdness or darting eyes or mistrust or anything- it was just two old friends acting like old friends even if it was the first time they've met.
Judo has been a blast so far. I have to say that it's not easy to keep doing, because the risk of injury is a lot higher than say boxing, and frankly it's harder. I was sparring with a guy the other day, and as he took me down, he rolled over his wrist and broke it. I felt terrible about it, but it's just one of those things that happens. It's a rough sport, no doubt about it, I've gotten whiplash, numerous bruises, and numerous rug burns. Last Tuesday we did these hamstring exercises that had me limping for four days- I had to skip Thursday because my hamstrings were so busted, and only now (nearly a week later) are my legs feeling normal. Gentle way my ass!
I love it, though. I keep thinking that when El and I have children that we'll take judo classes together. It's a lot easier on little kids, since they're physically small and flexible. They don't have nearly as far to fall, or nearly as much mass to really hurt themselves when they get thrown.
So, that's that. Things generally are okay. We did a little hike this weekend in the Shenandoah which was nice until El stubbed her toe pretty severely. The weather was kind of ridiculously nice.
