Rawr...

Yesterday, the biggest click ever. I don't care that it was a whitebelt, though it will feel better when it's someone more experienced-- but he was passing my open guard, I was on my side/hip with the top leg over his back, and some ghost of jiu jitsu past inhabited my body, causing me to switch from leg on top to hook under femur and then elevator him fluidly, like the proverbial knife and buttah. Seriously he flipped over like ... like whatever gets flipped- flapjacks? whitebelts?

And then today-- a baseball bat choke from knee on belly, from Donald's series. Not something I'm used to doing, but it was floating there in front of me like it was outlined in yellow highlighter. And I had the opportunity to teach a few details of the kimura from side control today, then Jim (a 3 stripe brown) showed up later and independently confirmed everything I'd said. *Preen, preen.*

And then at lunch, gripfighting and takedown wars. Not so much with the resounding click there-- though I had to laugh, twice I tried to jump guard on Christy (who's about a foot taller than me) and instead jumped "half guard." Not like pulled her down into half, but jumped up onto her leg like a crazed shih tzu, and clung there like a monkey on a tree trunk. She laughed (nicely) and didn't crush me, surprise surprise. I did imitate an anklebiter dog at one point, rolling with a nice guy (a purple?) whose name I don't recall... we were gripfighting, and somehow someway I ended up on my knees, nose to his kneecap, so I figured what the heck-- grabbed his legs at knee level and just drove forwards, shoulder to shin, till he timbered. It was messy, inelegant, and flamboyant, but felt sweet nonetheless.

Then, the kids' martial arts class I assist at... herding the cutest cats on the planet. We're moving into a judo unit and the whole footsweep thing is fascinating them. Some get it very instinctively (Kai, Mischa) and then some struggle a little more (Oscar, V, Big 'Un). Don't ask-- some of them have funny nicknames (like the 4 yr old Julia, nicknamed Mami.) I just follow orders. And let me tell you-- when Robert, the instructor, wants to take you down, you are going down. Conversely, if he doesn't want to be swept, trying is like trying to reap a treetrunk. But it was great fun.

Stopped in at Whole Foods very quickly for a 10 minute meal with my husband... mmmm, raw salmon and veggies and wasabi.

Tomorrow, an ethics seminar... class 3x... I'm sleepy already but promised a chocolate-chip banana bread for my friends Kirk and Richard tomorrow morning.