Bye Bye Black Belt (At Least For Now)
Here's my big announcement (part 1): I've quit karate.
Well, almost, anyway. I haven't officially withdrawn, and I haven't picked up my gear from the dojo yet, but those will happen soon. (As soon as I can muster up the courage to go do it...) I haven't been to class since early January, and I have no plans to go back anytime soon. And you know what? I don't miss it. It's actually a huge relief not to have to worry about it anymore, to worry about all the thousand things I'd have to worry about just to get through class. No more stress to get home from work in time to get to the dojo. No more stress about whether or not I got enough sleep last night, or drank enough water today, or how my lungs are feeling. No more comparing myself to everyone else to see if I'm improving enough. No more guilt about not going to class enough, or not being dedicated enough, or not going to sparring enough, or not practicing at home enough, or not working out outside class enough, or... You get the idea.
I'm not sure what I'll tell Kyoshi, maybe that my Path in life is leading me away from the dojo for a while (which is true). Apparently it doesn't matter, since no one's contacted me to ask me about it. Not that they have to, but I'll bet that for many (most?) other students they would. Or maybe KarateKat told them I was thinking about quitting. Whatever. At any rate, I may be back someday, and I may not be. For now, I need a break. While I'm disappointed in myself a little for not sticking with it, I also don't think I'm being capricious about deciding to stop either. There's more to it than just being lazy. The need it was filling in my life just doesn't exist anymore. It's been replaced with a need not to spend 3 hours a night travelling to/attending class, where most of the time I was feeling guilty or unhappy about something anyway. My time is better spent with Kenyon now, and I'm much happier for it. And if my life is heading the way I think it's heading, I doubt I'll be living downtown long enough to get to black belt anyway.
So what have I been doing instead? That's part 2 of my announcement: I joined Curves. Yes, I did. After 4 months of sitting on my ass and making excuses about being too sick, busy, and/or out of the country to go to karate, I needed to do something. So I did. I looked it up online, I talked to HV about it (she's a member), I checked out the gym around the corner from work, I even tried to go with HV to a free class at her gym (didn't work, not HV's fault), and last week I signed up. I've been to three workouts now. (For any of you who don't know what Curves is, it's a women-only gym where they designed a workout routine that takes almost exactly 30 minutes, and where you don't have to think AT ALL about what to do, in what order, when, or how much weight to use. There are about 15 different resistance weight machines arranged in a circle, with mats in between. There's get-the-rhythm-going dance music playing in the background and every 30 seconds a voice tells you to change stations. You do a machine for 30 seconds, jog in place for 30 seconds, go to the next machine, etc. Go around the circle twice, do 11 stretches that they map out for you, and that's it. Over.) It's brilliant, it's easy, and even though it doesn't "feel" like you're getting a workout when you're on the machines, you definitely feel it later. I'm loving it.
We'll see how it goes, but I'm very encouraged by it. It's close to work, it's pretty much on the way home, and it doesn't cut into my evening Kenyon time since he's busy coaching 2 different lacrosse teams right now anyway. (And even without lacrosse, the half hour at Curves happens before I'd leave for his place or he for mine anyway, since we usually wait for rush hour traffic to die down.) And if I ever move, then I can transfer my membership for free to the local branch wherever I end up. (They're all over the suburbs.)
So that's what's going on in my life. I'm also attempting to eat better and live a little healthier - it's a joint thing between Kenyon and myself. We go for walks together. It's cute. We walk along and talk about literature a lot (Hemingway vs. Steinbeck and whether or not middle school is too early to read either of them was one recent topic), or whatever else we feel like. It's not always intellectual, either, don't worry.... Those of you who know me well understand, I think.
One quick shout-out to a guy who deserves it: I'm very happy for and proud of Donovan for the incredible month he's having. Go Donovan! Also, go FinanceGeek - congrats on the new job and the new apartment. Not that you'll have any free time anymore (so what else is new) but at least you're not so bleeping far away now! May things go well with your roommates. (Take that however you wish.) And go FullStop, even though you don't blog anymore, have a good time at law school. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to talk to you before you leave. Keep us posted, will you? And finally, congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Tall (the ones with the bachelorette party I wrote about last year) on soon-to-be-born Baby Tall.
I'm able to write this today because I'm in a lull at work - I've just completed 2 projects (that are going wonderfully well) and am killing time before the next big project starts up. That one will last at least 3 months, so I'm enjoying the breather right now. I do still love my job... and I love being good at it.
I think I'll wrap it up here. I know I still need to post my notes from South Africa, and I'll get to that someday. Have a good day everybody.
-The Joanster
Well, almost, anyway. I haven't officially withdrawn, and I haven't picked up my gear from the dojo yet, but those will happen soon. (As soon as I can muster up the courage to go do it...) I haven't been to class since early January, and I have no plans to go back anytime soon. And you know what? I don't miss it. It's actually a huge relief not to have to worry about it anymore, to worry about all the thousand things I'd have to worry about just to get through class. No more stress to get home from work in time to get to the dojo. No more stress about whether or not I got enough sleep last night, or drank enough water today, or how my lungs are feeling. No more comparing myself to everyone else to see if I'm improving enough. No more guilt about not going to class enough, or not being dedicated enough, or not going to sparring enough, or not practicing at home enough, or not working out outside class enough, or... You get the idea.
I'm not sure what I'll tell Kyoshi, maybe that my Path in life is leading me away from the dojo for a while (which is true). Apparently it doesn't matter, since no one's contacted me to ask me about it. Not that they have to, but I'll bet that for many (most?) other students they would. Or maybe KarateKat told them I was thinking about quitting. Whatever. At any rate, I may be back someday, and I may not be. For now, I need a break. While I'm disappointed in myself a little for not sticking with it, I also don't think I'm being capricious about deciding to stop either. There's more to it than just being lazy. The need it was filling in my life just doesn't exist anymore. It's been replaced with a need not to spend 3 hours a night travelling to/attending class, where most of the time I was feeling guilty or unhappy about something anyway. My time is better spent with Kenyon now, and I'm much happier for it. And if my life is heading the way I think it's heading, I doubt I'll be living downtown long enough to get to black belt anyway.
So what have I been doing instead? That's part 2 of my announcement: I joined Curves. Yes, I did. After 4 months of sitting on my ass and making excuses about being too sick, busy, and/or out of the country to go to karate, I needed to do something. So I did. I looked it up online, I talked to HV about it (she's a member), I checked out the gym around the corner from work, I even tried to go with HV to a free class at her gym (didn't work, not HV's fault), and last week I signed up. I've been to three workouts now. (For any of you who don't know what Curves is, it's a women-only gym where they designed a workout routine that takes almost exactly 30 minutes, and where you don't have to think AT ALL about what to do, in what order, when, or how much weight to use. There are about 15 different resistance weight machines arranged in a circle, with mats in between. There's get-the-rhythm-going dance music playing in the background and every 30 seconds a voice tells you to change stations. You do a machine for 30 seconds, jog in place for 30 seconds, go to the next machine, etc. Go around the circle twice, do 11 stretches that they map out for you, and that's it. Over.) It's brilliant, it's easy, and even though it doesn't "feel" like you're getting a workout when you're on the machines, you definitely feel it later. I'm loving it.
We'll see how it goes, but I'm very encouraged by it. It's close to work, it's pretty much on the way home, and it doesn't cut into my evening Kenyon time since he's busy coaching 2 different lacrosse teams right now anyway. (And even without lacrosse, the half hour at Curves happens before I'd leave for his place or he for mine anyway, since we usually wait for rush hour traffic to die down.) And if I ever move, then I can transfer my membership for free to the local branch wherever I end up. (They're all over the suburbs.)
So that's what's going on in my life. I'm also attempting to eat better and live a little healthier - it's a joint thing between Kenyon and myself. We go for walks together. It's cute. We walk along and talk about literature a lot (Hemingway vs. Steinbeck and whether or not middle school is too early to read either of them was one recent topic), or whatever else we feel like. It's not always intellectual, either, don't worry.... Those of you who know me well understand, I think.
One quick shout-out to a guy who deserves it: I'm very happy for and proud of Donovan for the incredible month he's having. Go Donovan! Also, go FinanceGeek - congrats on the new job and the new apartment. Not that you'll have any free time anymore (so what else is new) but at least you're not so bleeping far away now! May things go well with your roommates. (Take that however you wish.) And go FullStop, even though you don't blog anymore, have a good time at law school. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to talk to you before you leave. Keep us posted, will you? And finally, congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Tall (the ones with the bachelorette party I wrote about last year) on soon-to-be-born Baby Tall.
I'm able to write this today because I'm in a lull at work - I've just completed 2 projects (that are going wonderfully well) and am killing time before the next big project starts up. That one will last at least 3 months, so I'm enjoying the breather right now. I do still love my job... and I love being good at it.
I think I'll wrap it up here. I know I still need to post my notes from South Africa, and I'll get to that someday. Have a good day everybody.
-The Joanster
posted by Call Me Joan @ 11:39 AM
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