Wendi {at random}

I love muscular arms on women. Not beefy I can lift a freak-o barbell muscles. Just a nice pair of defined muscular biceps with a few triceps and deltoids and trapezoids and maybe a handful of hexagons thrown in for good measure.

So I've signed on for the 6-month bo staff class at the karate school. Every other Wednesday (and that is plenty enough) I stay an extra 45 minutes to work my bo staff in figure eights, backwards figure eights, helicopters, 360s, release moves, and a host of mysterious as-yet-to-be-learned tricks. When you watch an expert do these moves, they are remarkably fluid and graceful and ballerina-like. But when you reckon those moves against an opponent, they are downright deadly.

We started off with a series of odd stretches for our wrists, bending them awkwardly to the extreme, both ways. We did some side-blade stances for our legs. We warmed up our shoulders and I thought, this will be fun!

Then we practiced basic bo staff techniques 20 times each. 20 1-2-3-4-5-6s. 20 helicopters. 20 keeping-your-lines circles. 

20. 

20. 

20.

My arms were aching.

They were stiff.

They were approaching soreness.

Now they just hurt.

But it'll be worth it. 

I know this because I will one day look like a circus performer.

Wait, that's what I look like now.

This is what I'll look like. Picture my bo staff being wooooooshed around to slam into a weight master. Because I just can't bring myself to imagine slashing the life out of a real person. 

But 

I'd have the arms that could. 

Just in case.

I think Napoleon Dynamite was onto something with the bo staff.

Adding to my gratitudes:

11: Hot coffee waiting for me when I rose from bed this morning.

12: Snuggles with Benjy; tickles with Camden

13: Praying with a little one from school who was crying from a nightmare last night. And then seeing him bounce back ~ happy, alert, and ready for the day.

14: Hearing the voices of children praise God at school

15: Jalepeno cheddar bread from Price Chopper

16: A husband who indulges my insane sleepiness, and then wakes me for karate

17: Jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping-jacks....

18: Water

19: Peace like a river

20: Snow still on the ground, even after a couple of warm days