Day Thirteen: It's Been a Day of Tiny Trials

Some days I get the feeling the Universe looks over at me and decides, "You're too happy. Time for some hell to reign down on your positive outlook! Take that!" (then bad things start happening)...

Not pictured: Impending Doom

The worst thing about having predominantly awesome days and lots of awesome stuff happening all over the show is that any day where normalish type irritations and bad times occur they seem so much worse by comparison because the baseline is so high. Several good things were meant to be happening this week and instead the opposite has happened. In the long run the impact is null but right now it's giving me sad face.

Fitness: Rest day from the gym. Some muscles (especially around the shoulder area) are still very tired.

Aikido: Wow, got totally rumbled tonight. By 9 o'clock and 3 hours of being thrown repeatedly onto the tatami mats I just couldn't muster much strength to keep staggering to my feet (stupid, tired quad muscles!) That being said, my primary concern about the grading is that I can't remember the Japanese names for half the things I need to be tested on (sure I can do muna-dori kotegaeshi very well but if I don't know what it's called I'm just going to stand there and look stupid). Plus I'm in a massive funk with Aikido. I'm having issues seeing the proper connections in power - hard to explain, even harder to master. Aikido is passive so you use no power, you only guide - but you have to join and flow with it and being able to read people's internal connectivity is a skill that still ebbs and flows for me. Currently on a pretty bad ebb.

Derby: No skating today. Derby folk posted a video of Fia Fasi Oe and some others skating around downtown... and the sun was shining... and if I'd had my skates I would have been out like a shot. Except then all my other teammates went home for various medical emergencies and I ended up working late like a schmuck.

Diet: Work breakfast/lunch again, plus half a dozen dumplings. It's Chinese New Year, and I have Chinese in my team. They're great. Then two sticks of licorice for snacks, and then chicken and fried rice for dinner. I ate some broccoli and cauliflower waiting for the chicken to cook as well. I don't remember feeling hungry at any time today, although I felt very full after a mammoth sandwich and several dumplings, but for some reason I don't feel like I'm eating enough. I don't know if I'm having confusion or if my muscles are really that demanding that they need more sustenance. I thought they just wanted a nap.

Sleep: Still cutting it too close on the sleep. The fluros here don't help, they trick the body into thinking it's day time and if I forget to switch to incandescents then my body stays awake awake instead of slowing down due to the duller light quality. Seriously - I left the fluros on one night (ages ago) and all of a sudden it was 4am and my body felt fine. The photo receptors have far too much say in our sleep / wake cycle I say. But anyway, it must have been six or six and a quarter hours sleep last night but I could probably use seven tonight. I don't remember wasting too much time when I got home but there you have it - 11.30pm and I still need to shower before sleep (rolls eyes at self).


I really need to reign it in on the sleep. It's actually probably the hardest goal I've set - so many nights 9pm is early to be home by, realistically 9.30 / 10pm and I always need food and a shower when I get in, aside from having not been home since 6.30am that morning. My training schedule isn't even up to full speed yet.... eep!