Three things of note today:

1) I donated blood for the fourth time this morning.

2) I can now name 22 different parts of a Japanese sword/scabbard (mune, ha, hi, shinogi, same, sageo, tsuka, tsuba, etc.)

3) I now fit into a size 8. That was a definite "Shut UP!!" moment.

I just got home from the Superun (25th anniversary!), benefitting Special Olympics. It was a very difficult run, due to the heat and the humidity. Actually, I was doing pretty well up until just a little past Ravine Drive. I made it up the hill (a lot of people only walked it), but I had an asthma attack about a minute after hitting the top. Even WITH the hill, even with the heat, humidity, and the fact that I haven't really run in almost two weeks because of my ankle, I still came in at 37 minutes, which isn't bad for me at all.

I'll do a lot better at my next two 5Ks, which are about a day and a half from each other in the third week of July.

Today also marks one and a half years, exactly, on Weight Watchers. What a way to celebrate, hey? Running 3.1 miles in about 70% humidity.

Saturday was the first time I've been under 150 pounds since I was 16 years old, so I've been hitting all sorts of milestones and special occasions lately.

Officially I'm down 116.2 pounds, with 16.8 ^@&!ing pounds to go. They aren't kidding when they say the last 20 are a bitch to lose.

So, naturally, since I have less than a week until my next 5K race, my ankle that I've sprained numerous times decides to start acting up.

Right now it doesn't hurt a lot, but if I run on it, I know it will. Hmm. Debating whether or not to just rest it and rely on my conditioning for the race, or chance pushing it, possibly injure it further, in an attempt to make sure that I'm cardiovascularly at my peak.

In other news, Happy Summer Solstice. :)

Direct Ninja Training

I often talk about how "everything is Ninja training." Well, tonight in Jujutsu, everything WAS Ninja training. Good class.

In related news...I passed 8th Kyu! So did Keith! Tay for us. :) Sensei gave us some much-appreciated critiques, and told me a couple of things I wish I had known before.

We begin 7th Kyu on Saturday (hopefully). A week from tomorrow is our next 5K.

My Star Wars group is going pretty well

My boyfriend, bless his heart, is the biggest Star Wars fan I know, and has been running Star Wars (d6) for years now, but no one has ever really run a campaign for him to actually play in. Not until a few weeks ago, when I took it upon myself to do just that.

So far the players seem to like it. I have them as Apprentices getting ready for their trials, and my NPC, their Jedi Master, is a Togrutan female. Yeah, ok, so I like Shaak Ti. Can't help it.

<---total geek

Definitely Ninja training

I can't wait for Weapons class tonight. Sensei can give me as many sword cuts to do as he wants. A thousand sword cuts? You got it. I have some extra energy I really need to burn off, and, bad as I am at Weapons in general, I'm looking forward to making my Daijodan no kamae as good as possible. My ichimonji is a lot better (and sometimes I actually hit it when I should be going into a Jujutsu stance), and I'm learning more of the parts of the sword. Samurai swords have a LOT of parts and names, all in Japanese, of course. It's not as simple as "hilt, pommel, crossguard, blade, etc."

I get blanket invitations to seminars at my company. I've never been to one, but I'm *positive* that they come up with the names for the seminars by letting a cat run across the keyboard:

Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids: Mediators of Endothelium-Dependent Dilation in Coronary Arteries

I am officially registered for my next five 5K races, which will take me through September. I only have three more races to register for, and then all eight to actually run.

I should have ten 5K shirts for this year alone by the time I'm done. Maybe I should make a quilt out of them...

Keith and I did another run along the lakefront last night. We parked, ran to Ravine Drive, ran UP Ravine Drive, ran around the block a bit, and then ran back down Ravine Drive and back to the car.

It felt really good. Each time I run this course I feel more and more confident about the next 5K coming up.

There were a couple of fit-looking guys who started running up Ravine Drive before us. They stopped at the top for a couple of minutes to catch their breath, and then ran back down right away. Keith and I kept running. I know it sounds competitive and petty, but it made me feel good to know that we didn't stop at the top of that hill.

Six Flags is permanently in my past

I love roller coasters. I really do. I love the thrill of them, the speed, all of it. But the past few years, whenever I went to Six Flags, I found my enthusiasm waning. Between the crowds and lines, and the fact that the rides themselves are so brief, it's almost not worth it to me. But I continued to go, until the past two years or so, when I discovered another problem: claustrophobia.

For the first year I assumed that the claustrophobia was due to me being extremely heavy and always feeling like I couldn't breathe anyway. I knew I had anxiety problems, but they never extended quite this far before.

But then little things would start to happen. I would be strapped into a ride, and I would start to panic. Or I'd be sitting in the passenger seat while someone else was driving, and would start to feel like I couldn't breathe, and would be tempted to jump out of the car. Heck, even DRIVING occasionally makes me panic, especially on the freeway, and especially because I have my seatbelt on.

But then yesterday it reached a new level. I was sitting in one of those dinky little carnival rides, similar to the Octopus but without leaving the ground, and although there was room between me and the bar restraint, I started to feel panicky. It wasn't the ride itself. It was feeling trapped in something. I started to panic really badly, and tried to call the ride operator over to let me out, but in turning sideways to do so, I realized that I'm now thin enough to actually get out of the ride without the restraint opening. So yay for being semi-thin, but ugh.

I made myself calm down, and Keith did his best to help, and once the ride started I was fine.

But that made me realize that the shoulder restraints at Six Flags will SERIOUSLY freak me out now. Just thinking about them makes me feel uncomfortable.

And then this morning I read about those people who were suspended upside down for half an hour high up in the air on a roller coaster in Alabama.

Six Flags? Yeah, I think I'll pass. This is why God made waterparks.

Not punching a coworker...definitely Ninja training. As far as showing a certain amount of reserve.

I sit next to a coworker who is incredibly rude to me. I tolerate her, because frankly I feel sorry for her and some aspects of her life.

At any rate, another coworker came by and was talking to her, and they were going on and on about their colds, and how one felt like she was going to throw up, etc. I mean, just general babble that's really disruptive to other people. I ignored them for the first 15 minutes.

But then the person who was talking to my "neighbor" started saying how she needs to see a doctor, but won't see an Indian doctor ever again because she had a bad experience with one in the past.

Ok, I too have had doctors who were rude. But to generalize them based on race? Sorry, but I don't tolerate prejudice while at work. I loudly cleared my throat (a precursor to me standing up and letting loose), and the coworker must have gotten the hint, because she suddenly said she had to get back to work.

Despite the massive storm warnings, humidity, and wind gusts, Keith and I ran along the lake last night. We decided to try the hill on Ravine Drive. Now, I've read things about past Superuns (the 5K were doing in a few weeks), and people actually WARN about this hill. I've driven along it, and it does seem steep, so I felt a little apprehensive. It's winding and about 1/4 mile long.

As it turns out, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, we nailed it. At the top Keith said he felt like he wanted to die. Me, being the good friend I am, made him keep going. I wasn't going to let him walk. For one thing, I knew we were physically capable of continuing to run even after getting to the top, and in fact we will have to do just that come race day. The second part was mental. I wasn't going to let the feeling of HAVING to walk demoralize either of us. So we kept running, and did great. I feel a lot better about the Superun.

On a more negative note, I'm currently up four pounds from last week, despite being stellar for the past six days. I *know* it's just the weather and my body acting wonky (now that I think about it, I used that word even before hearing Sensei say it), but it's still a bit discouraging, because I was SO hoping on breaking below 150 pounds this week. Ah well. It'll hopefully happen next week.

Not much to say

The weather here has been, to quote Sensei and his wife, "wonky" lately. Very humid, and fluctuating between the 50's and the 90's. What's up with that?

At any rate, I'm doing pretty well right now. I just picked up a beautiful book called "The Japanese Kitchen" and the recipes look awesome. I just wish we had more Japanese grocers in Milwaukee.

Slightly tangential from that, Sensei hinted that I might be testing for 8th Kyu on Saturday. Better make sure to practice with Keith even more!

I'm now signed up for four 5K races in the next three months. This last one, the Run/Walk to IrishFest, includes a fundraiser. It's to support the Arthritis Foundation. I think the only person who reads this blog besides myself is my boyfriend, and he already donated, but if anyone would like to sponsor me, I would think you were one of the coolest people ever. However, good wishes for my run would be happily accepted, too. :)

But just in case, the link to my donation page is here: http://runwalktoirishfest.kintera.org/tlgondek

Last night I got a massage from someone who is not only a licensed massage therapist, but is also my Sensei for my Weapons class, and also a former coworker at TWO different jobs. I thought it was going to be a little awkward, because I'm mostly naked and thus feel vulnerable, but knowing him made it a lot easier.

I expected to be totally quiet and shut away, mentally, the entire time, but instead we chattered away about muscles, class, etc. It was cool. And he did a PHENOMENAL job. There were muscles that I hadn't realized were tight until I left his office and realized how much different I felt. He does a great job. AND he gave me a lead on someone who does acupuncture. I'm going to give her a call soon.

But I digress. During the massage, I mentioned that sometimes I feel bad in Weapons class because I always feel like I'm messing up, doing badly, etc. I'm one of only two girls in class, and definitely am the shortest.

Dan said that I'm not doing as badly as I think, and that it actually looks kinda cool, because I'm so short, and so my bokto looks more like a Claymore. That made me laugh.

Fear the 5'1" girl with the wooden sword! Mwahahaha. Oh, I also have several other "tools", but that's the one we've used the most so far.

In other news, I lost two pounds last week. I'm only 10 pounds from goal. Sweeeeet!