Patience.

Abu Dhabi starts tomorrow morning at 4am, Texas-time. Dunno if I'll make it out of bed for the first matches but they have some good ones... totally power-protected too (meaning the big names aren't hitting each other till later.) I'm sure it's not random. However, they're broadcasting them again when the first run is over so I am happy. I'll be in class in the afternoon, but plan on watching as many of the matches as I can otherwise. Making a pot or two of chili for Sunday as I expect people from the academy will be joining in the fun- better get it started tomorrow because it's a patient sort of dish.

Rolled today at lunch open mat. Pretty happy with everything except par for the course, my sweep defense and offense. Rolled with a blue belt whose name I am blanking on, I think a 3-stripe, and he kindly paused the action when I fell into the same sweep as usual. Worked with me on better leg placement to counter it, and then later when I happened to get him in the same spot in my bottom halfguard, he coached me through dumping him in the same way. Fun.. I like to roll without a lot of talk, of course, but when it's something simple and obvious, I don't mind the pause-and-teach either (and sometimes 5-6 min later at the end of the match, I'm clueless about the position I was in.) I was really grateful for his patience.

Rolled with a very agile and athletic whitebelt named Will and was patting myself on the back the whole time-- not that I was any kind of real threat to him except the one time I threw on a guillotine and stood up (dopey me though, should have jumped to guard much faster; instead I waited too long and lost it on the way to the ground)-- because I was scrambling pretty well, or so I thought. I was thinking how fast the direction of the momentum was changing and how quickly we had to move to keep up... then after the roll he told me he liked the speed at which we rolled better than with others... because it was slower. LOL. I play such a patient, tight, slow-moving game in gi that the whole nogi world seems lightning quick to me but maybe not to others.

And then, got eaten for lunch by Gabe. That sounds bad-- but you know I mean I was absolutely dominated by him. He's a very strong, clever purple and it's a clinic whenever we roll together. I told myself I'd roll till he got 10 subs and he was graciously, patiently playing catch and release. Took only about 10 minutes but it was fun.

Was supposed to have my girlfriend visiting from Houston this weekend but she cancelled last minute. Looks like we'll raincheck for the weekend of Halloween.. maybe even go out of town.. a trip to Fredericksburg for some antiquing and so on. One of the last times I was there, I stayed in a cute B&B with a metal roof, and the sound of rain on a metal roof, the idea of napping through it and waking up hungry, is kind of elemental to my mental image of such a time. I am really looking forward to some quality quiet time. Or noisy time. And it seems like it can't come soon enough.

Patience.