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Breakfast? A yogurt smoothie.
Brunch? A strawberry-banana-chocolate protein powder smoothie.
What now?
Oh, nothing, EXCEPT FOR BLACK BELT TESTING.
We weren't supposed to eat anything for 24 hours. We could, however, drink whatever the hell we felt like. Thus, last night's dinner was a concoction similar to our little brunch (it was too early to be considered lunch), except it tasted better.
We (my brother and I) show up at about noon, like we were supposed to. BECAUSE FOR ONCE, WE'RE ON TIME. We sit around for a while, study the things we're supposed to memorize, and finally go on into the classroom that isn't being used. There are lots of annoying black belts from the other studio there already, so we sit around and watch them goof off and do stupid little things. At around 1, Pete pokes his head in and yells that everyone needs to put their top uniform on (rather than just the t-shirt) and that the black belts need to go to the other room. THANK YOU.
They do their little thing in the other room, us jr. black belts sit around, practice, goof off, whatever. And we all memorize something that, though Master Lee said we would need to know, never actually get asked. It was, frankly, quite dumb. They're running late, of course, so we don't get to start running until 2:30. Last Sunday I didn't really pace anyone, or get paced by anyone, but today Daniel (the tallest out of all of us, and 15 years old) is pacing me. My shins start hurting like hell about halfway through, and even slowing down the pace doesn't really help.
It kind of exacerbates it all, actually.
Anyhow. 37 minutes for me, 34 for my brother, and more for Daniel and Wendy. Everyone else was running 2 miles, rather than four. Daniel probably would have come it just as I did, but he didn't sprint up the bridge and back to the studio, like I did. Not bad, and all in all having him run with me probably was a factor in getting the same time as I did last Sunday. Likely I would have slowed down because of my stupid shins, but with him I was motivated to keep running. I guess I'm like that.
I get back, Pete wraps me up in his fairly large self and says he's proud of me. And people cheered when I came in. It made me feel special, for once in my life. Woopee.
Then we have to get dressed and meditate for TEN FREAKING MINUTES. I hate meditating, mostly because I feel so utterly unaware of everything, with my eyes closed like that. And I always feel like I'm not sitting straight, or I'm leaning to the side, or something. Aaaand, after about 5 minutes, the world starts to spin. Well, I know it's not because I'm still sitting on solid ground, but it sure as hell feels like it. I wonder why.
Testing is uneventful. I messed up on orange level ten basic motions, and forgot to yell on one of my forms. It's okay, I'm sure there are some who did worse.
Speaking of forms, I had to do mine with Wendy and Daniel, both of whom go much slower than me. Wendy especially, damn her. I mean, I totally and completely understand why it's important not to go obscenely fast. But if you don't go fast enough, you won't snap properly, duh. That's really her problem. For her breaking, she ended up shoving Pete across the room rather than breaking the board. Lack of snap, there.
Breaking was spinning hook kick, skipping side kick, back kick, flying side kick. Oh, and a brick. Hammerfist, of course.
Most everyone got things within a few shots. Samantha went first, and really sucked, but was to be expected. She got the break the smallest brick. Those are the kind made (sorta) of mud. Sorta. They're really easy to break, and if you rub it against almost anything some stuff with chip or rub off. Alex broke everything in prettymuch one shot, including the brick. He broke the same kind of brick I did. They're concrete, I think. One shot, as well.
Jaron, poor kid. He did really well for the boards, except for being underestimated by the guy holding the flying side kick board. He's a pretty thin little guy, but he jumps like a freaking kangaroo. Well, an olympic long jumper kangaroo cross, maybe. So he practically jumped over the board. Har. But the brick thing - not happening for him. He couldn't break it in one shot, so they called Wendy and asked her to tape his hand up. She did, and he still couldn't break it. A few more tries, and they give up and switch his brick to the easier one. By this time, as is to be expected, he is crying. He breaks this one though, no problem. But he broke it a little bit with his wrist, so it's all scratched and bruised.
Joseph was uneventful. Got his hand taped too, but he broke a regular one, I think.
MEEEE. Spinning hook kick - the board was too high at first, so I looked like a dork and completely missed. I broke it the second time. Skipping side kick was easy, but back kick I had to try about three times, because my aim was off. Flying side kick was easy too.
AND THE BRICK. AHAHAHA. I BROKE IT IN ONE SHOT, BABY.
And we're talking the concrete ones here, not those sissy little sandstone-like ones.
Wendy's breaking was described above, and Daniel was pretty good. He had to break an even bigger brick, and he did so without a problem. He just has this HUGE bit of his wrist area swollen into a little egg-shaped thing.
Most people ended up breaking with their WRISTS. I think I may well be the only one who didn't absolutely kill their wrist/hand. Weird.
The ceremony was.. boring, at best. The tea was really more like iced tea, and tasted like it was brewed with cinnamon, not tea leaves. I practically wanted to choke it all back up and spit it at the masters.
Oh, yeah, everyone passed. PROOF THAT ANYONE CAN GET A BLACK BELT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
Yeah, even you.
My belt actually has my name on it. It's awesome looking. I'm so happy for myself.
And you know what I figured out today?
Pete is a pretty important person to me, somehow. I really like him, and if he ever left or anything, I'm pretty sure I'd cry. And that's saying a lot, because I usually don't really like to cry about these things. And he's such a nice, fun guy.
He's like a big, fun-poking teddy bear. And he kept on telling me he was proud of me, after I got my black belt. And he said something that wasn't a joke/poking fun. Prettymuch that he was proud of me, and that I should keep on going, and if I got bored or fed up with it, I could take a break for a little while.
Lots of hugs from him. And he picked me up so that I laid across his two hands, and spun around.
That guy is awesome.
And I'm really tired.
Ashlyn @ 8:23 PM
