(no subject)

Well, the first half of yesterday was really productive. I'm a lot more skeptical about the second half...

I could really use some more of yesterday's sun breaks, but today the forecast is "mostly cloudy, showers likely, chance of thunderstorms with ice pellets". Which sounds like not gardening to me. (My poor garden! I might go out and pick a salad in the rain, though.)

Of course, maybe the hidden message is hot tea and a fire in the oven. Broken by the wushu level awards ceremony this afternoon.

other directions...

I've been creeping up a bit on one of the places where I need to find a new direction with my martial arts practice. Or new directions -- short term, I think I just need to some up with some different ways of doing what I'm doing now. (Like competing, or perhaps teaching.)

Long term... I'm really having a lot of fun with wushu, but it's not going to take me where I want to go. Or at least, not all the way there ;-) (The conditioning is tops, though, and between that and what I'm already studying, I figure it'll be good groundwork for wherever I go next.) I'm starting to feel like I need to be doing more applications practice. And I am starting to look around at other styles... though bagua might be a good style for me long term, I'm not sure. (It has the elements of being damn cool, effective, and physically challenging -- and I tend to be biased towards more internal styles.)

Of course, Chen Taiji would do just fine if I could find someone to study under with a more martial focus.

Part of the puzzle here is that I'm not really sure what fits my body, because I'm still trying to figure out what my body can do. Darn but I wish I knew more women built like me. (I do know that there's nothing to make me feel more like a moose than watching videos of tiny chicks doing combat sword routines. Erk.) For that matter, I don't know of many guys who are teaching martial arts that I'm interested in that aren't shorter and slighter than me. Maybe I should go be an SCA stick jock.