Out of the Pan, into the fire...

Sorry I haven't been around in a while... it's been busy.  The best news (from a jiu jitsu perspective) is that I'm finally off my duff and going to compete again.  Tomorrow, in the WBJJF charity tournament benefitting Rescue Her, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women in the sex trade escape and learn to support themselves.

Let's see, brief recap... in mid-February I had some time with my aunt who was recently widowed and the gang of cousins, and then a girlfriends' weekend with my two friends from grad school, Janet and Shelley..

We spent a whole weekend on the eastern seaboard, looking at the beach, getting a mani/pedi, eating lots of indulgent food, drinking wine, and laying around in the hotel room on facebook and catching up on House of Cards!  And of course, gabbing..











This is the indoor heated pool on the roof of the resort where we stayed...

Work has been slightly less insane, thank goodness.  I've been training more consistently too-- averaging around 5x a week, playing nothing but guard, guard, guard.

Went to the Pan in Irvine mid-March for a week.  It was a wonderful opportunity to cheer friends on (I did not compete but Ketra from my academy won gold in blue belt adult middle heavy) and also to see my bestie, Heather, who is fighting a brave battle with breast cancer that's giving her a run for her money.  I'll be going back to Cali a few more times this spring and summer as well.

While I was at the Pan I got to meet Jonathan from Kauai Kimonos, Derek Okahashi of 31Fifty, James Foster from Lotus Club in Seattle, and I was able to train at Oyama (Giva Santana's Lotus Club hq) and GB Irvine with some super nice people.  Also had a few ugly interactions with Sijara of TLI, but whatever, water off a duck's back, and it taught me not to get caught by myself in the future, because she wasn't nearly so brave if her words and behavior were public.  Don't think I'll be going back for Mundials but we'll see...maybe nogi worlds instead.

I did get a visit from some Chicago cousins who are looking to move to Austin, hooray!  Here's me with Kristina, Patti, and Katie...

The last week has been interesting because I've stopped the guard obsession and tried to remember how much fun it is to play top, in prep for the tournament.  I find that cutting weight is MUCH easier now that my hypothyroidism has been diagnosed; dropped about ten pounds in the last two weeks.  Distress for my friend is part of it, too.  But I feel good and healthy (grips are sore as heck though!)  So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and I'll post video etc. when I come back.

Have a guest post or two coming soon and a slew of reviews:  Drysdale's Cradle DVD, Combat Skin's spats and rashie, OK Kimonos spats, Datsusara's hemp (version 3) gi which I've been wearing for two years now, Black Eagle's new (version 2) Predadora female gi, and some supplements from Q5.... the list goes on and on!

Have a great weekend!