Great visit with my parents, among other things!

I’m spreading grappling as if it were a gospel. Or a communicable disease.

Okay, not really. But my friend Jennifer (the one whose London wedding inspired such negative comments from Anonymous) sent me an announcement she received from an acquaintance about the Roger Gracie academy, which I visited when I was across the pond for the wedding. Here’s what it said:

“The Roger Gracie Academy is holding an open day between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday 17th November 2007 to encourage people to take up sport and exercise.Saturday's event gives anyone wanting to have a go at a new sport, the perfect opportunity to try their hand for free and, at the same time adopt a healthier lifestyle. Students are encouraged to bring a family member, friends, former students or children to the open day.It can be intimidating to take up a new exercise regime but joining a club can make this a lot easier. By supporting the growth of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the Roger Gracie Academy is encouraging more and more people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Regardless of whether you want to join a club or just find out how the Roger Gracie Academy can help you get fit, coming along to Saturday's event could be an important first step to changing your life. You'll be made to feel most welcome.The address for the open day is:

Roger Gracie Academy

237 Kensal Road,

Ladbroke Grove,

London W10

Tel: 0208 960 1112”

How British is, “You’ll be made to feel most welcome”? What about, “have a go”? "Ladbroke Grove"? Come on.

I think Jennifer may go check it out! I told her two things. First, that she needs to call Roger “Hodger,” because the “R” at the beginning of Portuguese names/words is pronounced as an “H”, and if she does it, she’ll have passed a very basic and important jiu jitsu snob test. Second, if she gets the chance to call Roger “Hodger,” I will be most envious, because he wasn’t there when I visited.

I am still enjoying the afterglow of my parents’ visit. We had a GREAT time. It was a terrific reminder of how much I like them. I love them, of course, but I’m really fortunate that I thoroughly enjoy their company too. I hope they feel the same about me, although even if they don’t, they paid for lots of dinners. So I’m good.

But in all seriousness, having them here made me realize how far from them and my sister’s family I am. And it’s weighing more and more heavily on me. I’m still not prepared to make any kind of move, apparently, but I have a feeling that will change sooner rather than later. It’s just hard for everyone to keep in touch over the phone because we’re all really busy. My parents and I joke sometimes about how retired life is busier than life with a job. I’m not retired, but I certainly act like it. And anyway, I like to be with the people I love, not just touch base with them once a week, or much less, in the case of my sister’s family—talk about busy! I doubt I’ll move to FL or to where my sister lives, but if I lived closer, I could visit more often.

We didn’t even do much. They came with me to New Breed to watch me train. They hung out while I graded papers. They busted my chops. They busted each other’s chops. They had their chops busted by me (wow, awkward sentence construction in the name of parallelism. Well, I am teaching a writing for research course.) It’s how we show love.

It was interesting to see my life through their eyes. I showed them my medals and some footage of me in the finals of the qualifier for the Turkey trip. I tried to explain a D’Arce/Danaher/brabo choke to them. I discussed the politics of grappling.

Here's me with some medals. (I guess I have competed a lot, but it's also pretty easy for chicks to get medals since there are relatively few of them at competitions. I hope that doesn't sound sexist; it's just a fact.)

It was funny to hear my mom calling my one training partner Big Ugly. It is his nickname (though as I pointed out, it’s not a good nickname for him b/c he’s not that big), but hearing it come out of her mouth was hilarious. And my dad wouldn’t let me pay for anything. I like having him around for other reasons, but that’s a pretty compelling one. My only regret is that I didn’t get to take them to Petranek Fitness. I think they would have gotten a kick out of that too—or worried while I did something crazy like 300 squats, though my dad is working out a lot lately too. He’s got some serious muscles.

Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love you.

I’m pretty sure having them here jumpstarted the magic in my life again too. I haven’t been feeling it lately, but when they were here, I started to feel it—and see evidence of it—again. Quick example: I contribute to my individual retirement account every year like clockwork; I max out the contributions I can make both b/c it will make my 65-year-old me happy and b/c I promised my parents I would. I had been worried that I hadn’t even started to contribute for 2007, but when I looked at the statement my parents brought me (a lot of my mail still comes to their house), it turns out I have contributed 3 quarters of what I owe myself for this year. I have no clue when I made these contributions this year, but apparently I did.

That’s what I mean by magic. There’s no way that could possibly have happened. But it did. The magic is coming back. Or maybe it was always there and I just wasn’t able to see it. That’s probably more the case.

I did the Helen at Petranek this morning (most of the workouts are named after women, kind of like hurricanes, is the rationale). 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings with a 16kg kettlebell, 12 pullups. My time was somewhere around 13:47, which puts me on the leaderboard. That’s kind of cool. It was the first time I used the 16 kg kettlebell (usually use the 12 kg), so my form wasn’t great, but it will get better.

Here's my time on the Murph! Notice that Dawn and Becca kicked its ass. Notice also the times on the left: those are the guys' times.

Here's my Fight Gone Bad score from the fundraiser. I'm pretty stoked to be on the same board as Dawn, Becca, and Cill. They are strong, beautiful women and I'm becoming more and more like them! Hooray!

And while I'm posting pics, here's one I've been wanting to put up for a while. It's me and Darren right after the Turkey competition, sporting our medals and "representing" New Breed and Ouano International. I owe so much to Johnny and John, and I want to make sure I repeat over and over, ad nauseam, how grateful I am.

And here's another one of me and Darren, me pretending to be hip and him actually being hip as we give the V-Dub sign. Do you want to mess with us? I didn't think so.

And okay, while I'm at it, here are Ron and Danny hard at work on Halloween. (I wish they had bothered to find a costume.) You can see Balthazar the ball python in there too.

Now I'd better get to sleep. I trained pretty hard tonight (Marcel taught a couple of very cool spider guard sweeps) and am going to be up early for conditioning class again. And then it's more grading, and then hanging out with the above gladiators and snake.