Lots To Catch Up On

I was getting ready for work this morning when about 6:15 I heard this plaintive little voice--

"Mom?"

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"Is school still going on?"

"No, honey. Yesterday was your last day."

"Then why am I awake?"

I felt so sorry for the little feller. He came in and turned on the TV, and I'll bet he napped on the couch a bit, too.

After work, we ran by the school to pick up the horn he was checking out for the summer. That thing is huge. It is almost as big as Cody is, but he's been playing away at it since he got home. Then we stopped and got his hair cut. About the time we got home from all that, it was time to get ready and go to Karate.

So we get to karate, and James and I told sensei about the students walking out on us, and how disrespectful we thought it was. He said he'd handle it on an individual bases. He also said that he wants very soon for the dojo to be his sole means of support, so he has to be tactful and not run anybody off. All this time, I'm thinking that if he doesn't change a lot of things, he's going to lose his dojo anyway. All his good students will quit on him, and he'll get the reputation of having a poor quality program. He won't attract any new students like that. Another thing if he wants to build his school up is to invest in some quality advertising. He can't depend on his students to bring enough new people into the dojo. He needs to advertise on the radio, TV, newspapers... ways he can really REACH people.

He also told us that he got an e-mail saying that Bill Pogue is wanting to change the date of his seminar from June 3 to June 17. That's right, our testing date. He doesn't think there will be enough of the board going to the seminar to affect us testing, but if they do try to make him change the date, he will test us himself at our dojo. James and I are like, "YEAH!!!! We're cool with that!"

The nightmares have already started....

Last night I dreamed two dreams about testing. In the first one, I dreamed that I was having an allergic reaction to something and my left eye was swollen shut and the left side of my face was all swollen up. I was holding a cool, damp cloth to my eye to try to get the swelling down enough I could see to test, however, the board decided they weren't going to wait on me. They started the test without me. One black belt started making fun of me because I was not able to test. He said something, and he and the entire board started laughing at me.

I woke up then, and when I went back to sleep, I dreamed that I was going to my test. When I got there, I pulled my gi out of my gym bag and it was all wrinkled and dirty. They wouldn't let me test with my gi looking like that.

So I've had two dreams in which I failed the test before I even started.

Back to class, when she got there, I over heard her bragging to somebody about how well she could spar. Later in the class, I ended up paired up with her. The drill was for me to throw multiple techniques and she was to block them. Non contact, unfortunately--or fortunately for her because I wore her out. I was throwing stuff so fast that she couldn't block anything. Sensei had to come over and tell me to slow down. Then when she was aggressing, and I was blocking, she couldn't land a thing on me. It's like she was bouncing in slow motion--really telegraphing her moves. For all her bragging, she spars like a white belt. For heaven's sake, she is a PURPLE belt. She needs to act like one. Then again, if she'd truly earned the belt, it might mean more to her.

After class, Justin brought in his new guitar. Travis was playing it and acting like he could really play. Then Sensei got on it and put Travis to shame. I knew he could play the guitar, but I didn't know he could play that well. We have a multitalented sensei.

Now on a more serious note. Some of you may remember this post. Well, it's worse than I thought. See, I'm kind of like a second mom to a lot of the students in the dojo. They will talk to me about things they won't talk to their parents about. Tonight, one of the students confided in me that she groped his genitals on more than one occasion. I had seen her do it to one student, but apparently there have been others as well. What makes this so bad is that this student is under age. And since I now know, I have the burden of responsibility.

I will have to seek counsel on what to do about this.