Our meditation room is under construction. The entire third floor (which is where the meditation room is) is being renovated and so we can't use that room. I miss meditation. Especially since we now have training for 2 hours in the evening instead. To me it seems like ant-meditation, we feel more tired and sore after class than we did before. I can definitely notice that in general we're much grumpier too. Overall, it's rather unpleasant.

I remember how hard meditation was at the beginning, sitting in one position for a whole hour was like torture but now I really crave it. Kinda funny. Hopefully it just continues to get better and better with more practice.

I've been knitting a lot but accomplishing little. Started a sock, got about halfway through the toe and decided I hated it. So I started knitting a lacy shawl instead. After numerous mistakes and having to undo it and start again 4 or 5 times, I've finally got it figured out (for now anyway) and I'm having a good time. I guess that'll have to relax my mind until the meditation room is done. I hope it's not much longer now.

Sometimes I feel like I'm too old for this stuff!

Last week we did a bunch of conditioning stuff. Jumps, duck walking, one legged hopping, squat thrusts, etc for 4 days consecutively and boy am I sore. The day off did help but I think it'll actually be an other week or two before I'm all better. Watching some of the younger students recover really makes me realize that my age is starting to catch up with me. I guess I am turning 30 this summer so it shouldn't really surprise me. Oh well, with age comes wisdom. Right? haha

So I'm back to "normal" life again. Mel and I had a safe trip back with no problems. We spent a few days in the city of Xian to check out the terracotta warriors and a few other cool sights. Xian is really cool, I will definitely be heading back there someday. It felt really good to get back to Wudang though. I feel comfortable at home and here, not really anywhere in between though.

We trained for about a week and then had a few days off again for Chinese New Year. It actually worked out very well, we got back into it but then had a few days off to recover from sore muscles before more practice. Chinese New Year was crazy as usual, lots of food, fireworks, and karaoke with very little uninterrupted sleep. It was fun though.

One thing I'm not enjoying is the renovations that are happening on the floor above our room. It is really noisy which is especially annoying in the afternoon between classes when we sometimes like to take a little nap. That floor is also where our meditation room is and it really sucks trying to get to it through a hallway full of debris in the dark, not to mention all the dust. Well I just hope it won't take them too much longer to finish.

The actual kung fu training is pretty good, despite the aforementioned sore muscles. I think we all really needed a break and now everyone seems to have a pretty positive attitude. Shifu hasn't been pushing us too hard yet either so classes are a nice combination of work and play, spending lots of time on individual practice and basics. I'm liking it! I have a lot of flexibility goals for the year and a few others that I'm mulling over. Certain things are hard to quantify, like wanting my side kick to be faster while maintaining proper technique. So I still have some thinking to do.

My major new year resolution was to stay more positive and not let small things get to me as much. So far it's going well, I can usually notice myself getting mentally worked up and control my thoughts. The problem is that sometimes I honestly enjoy being in a bad mood. I know it sounds strange but I think I have some belief that not getting angry about things means I'll get walked all over. Once in a while it feels good to me to be the person that everyone walks on eggshells around. I just hope I can learn to be more constructive about the things I want to be different. Thats why a positive attitude should help, I can keep a clear head and work on changing the things that need it rather than just steaming futilely.