It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside.

Last night, for once, I didn't get to training 50 minutes early. (I'm such a bad judge of commute time, and I dread being late.) So yesterday I actually got there the same time as other people. Walking up the stairs with EZ he mentioned how he still gets butterflies before every class. I was so surprised! I thought it was just me! I don't know if I'm nervous, excited, or just full of chi, but my stomach is always doing back flips before training. It's nice to know I'm not alone with the jitters. But I wonder why I still get them; I'm about to hit the one year mark. I'm not nervous per se. At least I can't identify what I'm nervous about. I want to do well, but I'm not afraid of doing something wrong; I'm not afraid of getting yelled at. It happens. But there's definite tension in the ol' abdomen. Then I realized how many other unconscious manifestations of tension I have.

Like other people, I have the bad habit of holding my breath as I go down the line. (I used to do this when I played volleyball too. Strange.) It's amazing how much easier basics become when you remember to use the lungs god gave you. I also have an unholy amount of tension in my shoulders that I can't seem to escape. Sometimes I see myself in the mirror and I look like I have no neck. Even when I'm doing my best to extend my shoulders are tagging my earlobes. Relax those muscles! And of course the more I tried to think about this during class yesterday, the harder it was to breathe and relax. It seems if I'm not unconsciously tense then I'm over-thinking. My own mind and body conspire against me! But in the end, I'll keep the nervousness or whatever it is. At least it means I'm not bored. And adrenaline never hurts the chi!

Celebrate good times, come on!

I'm supposed to be unpacking right now... but I have to share how wonderful it was to start a class with no pain/soreness in my hips, or anywhere for that matter. Maybe because I had to miss Sunday training to move, my body got extra rest. Though I was just there Saturday... and I was moving things up four flights of stairs all Sunday...hmmm... can't be the rest.....Either way, I didn't have to do half an hour of semi-uncomfortable warm ups just to get things moving. All the stars were aligned tonight: I wasn't hungry, I was hydrated, I was pain-free, and I wasn't tired. And with a chi-filled class of 40 it was time to rock n roll.

Everything was easy (funny to be able to say that when I still spent the whole time breathing heavy and sweating like.. I don't know... something sweaty...) But I wasn't nearly as short of breath as usual (partly in thanks to long lines) and my muscles weren't crying and my joints weren't aching - Wow I sure make kung fu sound fun -Seriously though, I half wondered if I was being lazy or something in my basics without knowing it, because I felt so loose and so not-exhausted. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Have I broken some beginner's barrier as I approach my one year mark? Or was it just a good day? Whatever the cause I hope it keeps happening; I was so close to trying the Erluquan sweep on my own. But having already started practicing it at home, I can fairly say I don't think all my chi could have made it look less disasterous. I did, however, get my calves onto the floor during my straddle stretch, which actually might mean I'm hyperextending at the knees, but baby I was down there. Now if only I could harness my chi into unpacking some boxes.....

Pattycake, pattycake!

Always an adventure when Chi'eh teaches, he led today's small class in his usual creative way. After we had done fanyao for one length of the carpet, he asked people how many they were able to do. He then asked us to do the same number of turns, but for the space between two dragon columns! Talk about efficiency! We also worked on doing tenkong holiatui also between two columns. He wanted us to accelerate and jump quickly, rather than waste all the effort of running and then jumping.

A fun exercise we did -- we partnered up and faced each other for pushups and then situps. While in the "up" position, we had to slap our partner's hand, much like playing a game of pattycake. And we mixed it up by raising our arms higher and wider.

And would it be a Chi'eh class without handstands, crabwalks and hot potato? So awesome!