An epiphany, pre-passing out and the death of a pseudonym

Tonight...except for my turfed-toe burning like crazy...was a very cool night. One of my church buddies has started coming with his daughter. I talked to her before class and after being a bit shy because she was the only girl in class, she's really liking it. This is my first experience seeing a non-gi person in a gi and it's a lot like the first time I ran into Jazzhands at Walmart, sans kimono...a little surreal at first...your eyes take a second to adjust. Gis make people's faces change, I swear.

So tonight we did some work from the back. Variations of and options around the bow and arrow choke (which I love, yet again, don't use). My biggest issue? Grips again. I have girly hands that, after 2+ years of training, people still compliment as soft and that just don't like squeezing into fist-like shapes...so Parrumpa had to come over and fixed the borkedness of my hands so I wasn't losing the choke mid-way through. We went through a couple times, and then started working on a variation where you place the knee behind the head and then adjust that leg over the shoulder if you don't get the tap. The purple belt I was with went through it a couple times, and on the third, he transitioned pretty quickly, never really letting the blood flow again. I reached up to tap and uh...nothing happened. Next thing I know I found myself slumping peacefully toward the mat.

Well, I don't know if it was the choke or just things finally sinking in, but after rolling back to back with JazzHands, the purple I drilled with and Ryan (FKA Brownbeltinstructor) I sat down and all of a sudden, I saw ...differences...real differences in each of their games...different uses of strength, speed...different uses of transitions...different preferences for top and bottom. I'd always known they were there, but now, they're as clear as differences in personalities. The roll with Ryan was the most telling though...it's been...who knows, maybe a year since I've worked with him and I got to see how much he has going on at one time. It's really crazy, but cool, because I felt like I didn't have time to think...nice, because thinking is one of the big things that slows me down. 

My version of cauliflower ear...

...I think my time has come. I've run out my time wearing inexpensive earrings.

I've generally stayed away from straight up "cheap" ones, but I love a set of overstated, mid-priced ear-candy. Today though, I looked at my left lobe and saw raw flesh. I squarely blame BJJ.

I've always had earring issues...I didn't get them pierced until I was 17. Why so late? Well, my father apparently was sternly against my mother piercing them when I was 2, then, by the time I was old enough to start drilling holes in my body myself, I was terrified by the process. I really wish someone would have explained to me how the "gun" worked. I assumed someone stood at one end of the booth with you at the other end, holding your lobe out. I envisioned myself doubled over in pain, a sparkly stud protruding from my eye socket after a none-too-coordinated booth attendant ruined my life.

Just as I was going off to college, I got my ears pierced. Wasn't too bad and I followed the post-piercing instructions. Still though, I  was plagued with months of oozy, painful lobes. They never really stopped. Over a decade later and I still have to give them weekends off. It was working for a while, but lately, I've been noticing they've been warm and swollen even after a few hours of wearing earrings that previously gave me no problems.

So yeah, it's not actually cauliflower ear, but my best guess is that they're exposed to more infection potential from training and even the best washing only goes so far. So...I guess I'll try all surgical steel earrings (the selection isn't half as fun) and see what happens. 

A favor to ask...GiFreak 1.0

OK...so over the past several months, I've been working on this idea I've had of a magical database that holds all the gis in the world so that, if say, you want a pink, camo, hemp gi with an A2 top and A3 bottom, a rope drawstring and elastic crotch, well, you wouldn't have to surf 400 message boards to find it. I also wanted to create a database of all the great gi reviews out there, so if I'm considering buying the Vulkan UltraLite, I'd save myself some googling and would find the best reviews out there with a few clicks.

...and so GiFreak was born.

It's through most of the development, but we're trying to clean up any bumps and funkiness that might be going on in the look, the funcionality, whatever before the genuine marketing push starts. So...whenever you have some free time, it would be a HUGE favor if you would go to www.gifreak.com and just...play around. Search for stuff, submit comments, read the FAQs, submit fake manufacturer registrations with funky names (put the word "test" somewhere in there, just so I know it's not real). Basically, have at it and if you have any issues, ideas, problems or suggestions, just shoot me an email here or through the contact form on the site.

I want this tool to make everybody's gi-buying life easier, but also, I think BJJ is a great sport, and that any centralization will benefit everybody in the long run. Thanks in advance!

A morning of ginastica and a 3rd Women's Open Mat

So after seriously, a solid year of prodding from the other ladies at the gym, I went to the agility class this morning. It...um...I don't think I've ever sweated that much in my life. It was that level of sweat where you don't want to wipe your shirt with your face because the shirt is sweatier than you.

It was mostly ginastica natural (gotta love that it's offered weekly at the gym), animal walking and some yoga...I cannot say how thankful I am to my brother for getting me The Grappler's Toolbox a while back. I recognized a couple of moves and didn't look like a complete fool (only a bit of a fool) since I had a tiny hint of what was going on...but man was my balance bad. I made it through most of it decently, save the animal walking. That...that is going to take me some time. It's a great class though and I think it will be an aid in my moving my bigness around more.

Why did I take so long? Fear mostly...ok...the Green Market too (scheduled during the same time), but mostly fear. I think I will forever see myself as un-athletic and, well, self-perception is a heavy thing.

That said, there's another women's open mat coming up down here in SoFla, so if you'll be in my preferred half of Florida anytime soon, definitely drop by. It's a great event put on by Amazonian Women's Jiu Jitsu.


The Armory Jupiter
603 Commerce Way West
Jupiter, FL 33458
(561) 935–5229

I got a lecture tonight.

From a purple belt. He asked me to roll and afterward, told me I needed to start asking more lower belts. Ironically, one of the other ladies and I had just had a conversation about the lowest threshold of belt colors that is suitable for rolling. Mine was green (my school does green between white and blue). Hers was blue.

The purple explained that it was part of the learning process...part of representing your belt...part of getting better, but I'm still not sure. I explained my reluctance to play around with newbies until I'd seen them move for a while, that I get different treatment as a female (the sweetfancymosesagirlisgonnatapme freak out) and that even at blue, I really don't yet know how to deal with strength. I'm sticking to my policy of steering clear of white belts save those I know and women, but he definitely did get me thinking.

And on a completely unrelated note, I think is the first post I've written after class where I could put together more than very basic sentences. I used to lose a bit of my grasp of English for about an hour after training, leaving my blog posts to sound like a very violent version of Dick and Jane. Yays.

So THAT's why I like jiu jitsu...

A cousin of mine just put this status update on Facebook...


Is really missing school these days...so many simple minded people in this world...i need some science in my life, biological, chemical, physical, hell anything will do... 


I imagine this is common in the world of adulthood...we take for granted the auxliary benefits that school provides...comraderie, mental challenge, measurable growth, meeting new people, a solid social group...fun. Jiu jitsu, I have to say, provides access to all these things that can be so evasive later in life.