CONvergence was great. I had a few goals for the week: stay active, don't eat too much garbage, and maintain my weight. I managed the first two -- I definitely stayed active, and kept the junk food to a bare minimum. I didn't maintain my weight this week, though. I actually dropped 4.6 lbs. WOOT. That, my friends, is a successful week for me. Add to that my participation in the Aikido demo at con (in my Renaissance Festival garb, no less!), which was just plain FUN, and my introduction to a few more members of the dojo, and I have to say, this was a really amazing experience.
I made it back over to the dojo last night. It was pretty toasty in there -- no air conditioning, closed up all day, on the third floor of an old building in St. Paul. I'm a major heat wimp, so I consider it a tremendous testament to the awesomeness of Aikido AND the people of that dojo that I didn't allow the heat to deter me from getting to class. It was a great class, too. We learned a couple of pins, which felt pretty cool to execute. Heck, it was even cool being the one taken down and pinned, because I was able to feel WHY those moves work the way they do. There's a moment when your opponent takes control and shifts your balance, and you just know you're going down. I found it exhilarating. The first pin ends with pressure being applied to your elbow, which SMARTS, but definitely immobilizes you. I appreciated when my partner encouraged me to TRY to pull away or wiggle free, because my struggling didn't help me, and just made that pin sting a bit more.
It was a great balance in class last night -- three of us were relative newbies, all from the Geek Physique program, and the other three were more advanced students, who were paired up with us so they could work with us and teach us what they've learned in their studies. And the sensei who led the class is a fantastic teacher -- he really breaks things down, to make it make sense, and makes me think, "Yeah, I can do this." I watched everyone doing the rolls last night, and although I wasn't feeling quite ready to try that yet, I'm already thinking of ways I can ease into it, and just freaking learn it. I want to be able to do it. So I'm going to make it happen, and do what I need to do to get to that point. It's a short-term goal, and I think it's attainable. And when I hear myself saying something like that, I think back to when I was a good 120 lbs heavier than I am now, and marvel at how far I've come.
"Who's Overstuffed?" said Pooh.
"All right, Pooh, you're not Overstuffed. You're Physically Superfluous."
"Oh, I wouldn't go that far," said Pooh modestly.
Day by day, I'm working on becoming less... Physically Superfluous. But more importantly, I'm working on becoming stronger, more flexible, more capable. I'm learning things right now I didn't know I needed to know, but now that I'm learning these things, I wonder how I got along all this time without knowing them. As a curious-minded person, that delights me in ways I can't begin to adequately express. I've always said I never wanted to stop learning, but right now I feel like I'm genuinely being exposed to brand new things, things in which I have absolutely no expertise, so I'm a total novice, and you know what? I love it. As much as I love being right, and knowing things, I love the challenge of walking into something and saying, "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Teach me."
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