Thursday, March 18, 2010

hi-yah!

Hey-o, I leave for the DR tomorrow night. Dad's driving me back to Seattle, leaving at noon, and then we have to be at the airport at 7 for the 9:30 flight. Wooooo red-eye!

Dudes. I went to jiujitsu (jujutsu? I don't know) tonight for the 3rd time this week, and BOY do I feel badass. Mark's been wanting to take me for a while, and out of a desire for some sibling bonding time before he leaves for boot camp in June (yeah, holy crap) I went along.

He's really good at it. Like, really good. He's like a little monkey, clambering all over these huge guys and choking them out (gross phrase, but that's what they call it). I was very proud of him.

Before I went on Monday, I was planning to mostly just watch from the sidelines. As I watched them start rolling during that lesson, that inclination was reinforced. I'll say the same thing about wrestling, but guys, seriously, almost everything you do in jiujitsu looks like sex. Really. There's a lot of mounting and hip thrusting and straddling and pushing people's heads down between your legs. Yikes.

So that, coupled with the fact that I never ever work out or exercise, made me feel like the safest place for the only girl in the class would be the bench. But then again...I really wanted to fight.

And they let me! Matt, the instructor, pulled me in and showed me some stuff; let me ask my stupid questions, didn't go too rough on me, and I actually learned something! And I remember it...kind of.

They don't talk in hypothetical terms. It's all "When he's sittin' on you, tryin' to choke you out, puttin' all his weight on you..." etc. When, not if, you see. Because clearly, if you don't have someone try to kill you, you haven't really lived.

But despite the scary implications and the awkwardness and the not-knowing-what-I'm-doing, it was awesome. Even getting thrown - Mark flipped me over his back a couple times, and Matt and another guy both threw me onto my side when they were teaching me stuff - was awesome. It's a "See, I can take it!" kind of feeling. And Matt said I was really strong. That was happy.

So now I want to find a jiujitsu school in Seattle. Good exercise, and good life lessons, I'd say. I plan on being in dangerous places in my life - and Seattle's full of muggings already - so I'd like to know how to handle myself. Also, if Mark is ever getting too annoying, I have to be able to beat him up.

Freakin' a, though. Mark's friend Chris threw me in some weird way, and now my left leg is dead from mid-shin down. No bueno. That bruise isn't gonna match my DR tan.

Love always,
molly

1 comment:

samwow! said...

Ahh! That sounds so cool - my old room mate was taking kickboxing lessons and let me join her for a session. SO. MUCH. FUN. A lot of it is just conditioning your body, but it's definitely a great time just working out and beating the shit out of stuff.