Sunday, April 02, 2006

Diary of a sick, lazy bastard with dreams of world domination

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm lying down on my bed hammering out a blog entry.

I should be training now, but I'm sick. (Biologically, guys, not metnally.) I came down with a nasty bug earlier this week, one that seems to be hitting everyone from coworkers to roommates to coughing sons of bitches sitting next to me on Caltrain: running nose, sore throat, coughs, headaches ... the works. I had to leave work early on Friday and I skipped naginata class later that night so I can come home and sleep.

When I was much younger, I had the attitude that when sick, you have to train your way into health. On top of that, I had the attitude that given a strong enough will, nothing should be able to stop me from my appointed duties -- whether those duties be work, teaching class, or training in whatever the hell I was training in. For the last few years, however, I've kind of mellowed out. When sick, I'm much more prone to rest at home or look for a good bowl of Vietnamese pho, I forego all but the most critical of my duties, and I lay off on the training.

It's worked fine for me so far, but I kind of think I should adopt a younger frame of mind again.

You see, I've been kind of slacking off in training in the last two years, especially after I got into Argentine Tango (my newfound addiction). But in three months, I will be participating in the US Naginata Federation's 2006 National Championships. In the same week, I will try out for the US team to the International Naginata Federation World Championships to be held in Belgium in 2007. No trivial matters, even without adding the fact that I'll be defending a national champion title in individual yudansha men's fighting and a world championship title in mens team fighting. Sure would look bad if I dont place this year in the nationals or dont make the team for the worlds. Just like Dana Carvey's Saturday Night Live George Bush character of the 1990s: I don't want to be a one-termer.

Moreover, sometime real soon, though I don't know exactly when, I'm supposed to be trying out for the US team to the 9th Shotokan Karate International Federation World Championships in Tokyo this year. It would be the first time I'd be going to compete in the 3d SKIF Worlds since 1988, when I was only 19 years old. I want to fight there, too, but because of a bad ankle I am hesitant to do so. I believe I still have a world-class repertoire of Shotokan kata, though. So I'm looking forward to going against the best of the best once more.

Another thing I'm looking forward to ... I'll be very happy at these upcoming events. Not only will I get to experience the rush once more of competition amongst the best that the nation and the world have to offer, but I'lll also get an ample dose of Tango as well: The weeklong naginata events in wine country coincide with Nora Dinzelbacher's Tango Week in nearby San Fracisco. And I believe the 2nd the Tokyo World Tango Festival is being held around the same time or a week or two after the SKIF World Championships.

Totally lucky for me, but probably unlucky for anyone counting on me to be focused.

I've got to straighten this out.

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