Aikido and Deaf Anniversary

It was a very long day, but it is a surely memorable one. I will always remember the two events together. I hope so, anyway.

In the morning, I was almost late to aikido. I arrived right at 10:10, quickly got changed. During the first hour, Marianne Sensei had us warmed up, started doing the kyo techniques, then told us to practice them as well as other techniques that she didn't demonstrate. Several times, she told us to change partners. I partnered with Robert, Zach, Richard, Liz, and perhaps one other I can't remember. Robert told me to relax, maybe because I came on too strong or fast.

Then came the break before the test. Marianne Sensei called the other senpai to a meeting, which took almost 15 minutes. What they were talking about, I didn't know. Maybe it had something to do with the night before, on Friday, when the Sensei practiced with me and told me to enjoy myself for the test on Saturday apparently, since I was doing fine to him and so the test was just preliminary.

I suspect it was something also about not needing to meet together to vote or decide whether I would pass because I simply would.

Then they came out and as we got together, Marianne Sensei called us to test without us doing any of the bowing ceremony. The test would started right away.

I sat at the center, Marianne Sensei called for one to be my uke, several people rushed forward, but she dismissed all except Misa. She was my first uke, and I did all four kyo with her suwari waza. With the first few moments, I felt I needed to make her fall, and I need to move and struggle to unbalance her. I did it several times to show I knew what I should do, before just continuing with the rest of the techniques. Then my next uke was either Zach or Pattie, I can't remember which was first and second.

At that point, I was heaving but trying to breathe deeply to sure that I got enough oxygen in my brian and muscle to keep devoting my energy to each and every technique I could remember to do. I think Pattie was my third, and we were doing ryote dori. Zach was my second, because he was doing shomenuchi and other attacks to which I responded with various techniques Marianne Sensei said to do, such as irimi-nage, kote-gaeshi. It is all a jumble now, I feel I might have been too tense or too focused on my muscles, but I didn't care. I can see how the other guy who Marianne Sensei said was relying too much on muscle power might just not be doing the techniques fast enough, because he was focused on strength rather than on speed, on trying to overcome resistance instead of smoothly responding and taking advantage of the uke.

Brian was my fourth uke, and he was not as difficult as Friday night, when he was trying to teach me not to focus on pulling, but on relaxing and letting my center push him down. We did morote jiyuwaza. I think I did jiyuwaza with Zach, Pattie, and Brian. So, I just throw him various ways. Then I was told to take uke from him, and he threw me several times. I was happy to be taking ukemi because it kind of meant that I didn't have to do all the work, that all I needed to do was to attack in a predefined way, and he would carry out the rest.

He kaitenage me from a shomenuchi attack, and I knew he was doing something with my head that required me to lift my whole body off so I landed on the mat from the air, the momentum overcoming friction for a few inches as I slid a little. He also did a kote gaeshi. It was at that moment I felt a blur, I don't remember what happened during that, almost as if I was experiencing almost a blackout. It was not a blackout, of course, because I was still aware that I landed on the mat, but it was as if he moved so fast that I simply didn't resist and instead let him and my body swooshed almost like a cloud, the fingers of the wind brushing quickly through the trees, meaning, I reacted by learned second nature and knew somehow that I was safe by virtue of knowing that my hand could find gravity and hit the mat first before the rest of the body followed. I break-fell almost gracefully. I simply went with the flow.

She called to stop and told us to do kokyu-ho suwari-waza. I was grateful mainly because an exhaustion had almost overcome me--I did the kokyu-ho slowly, but still tried to maintain my posture and to focus on my center and to do it properly, but I didn't give it a great deal of energy. He also kokyu-ho me.

At that point, or shortly thereafter, Marianne Sensei called to stop. She then practiced kokyu-ho tachi-waza and had everyone do this.

After that, we were gathered in a row facing her, and I stood up when she called my name, and I was told I passed. I was told she liked my energy, but she didn't say more. I think she might have also added that after "last night", meaning Friday with the Sensei, that I was ready for the high fall and can do anything now. I wasn't quite sure what she meant as the Sensei didn't throw me hard the way he did to Zach and Liz and others, but I nodded.

Then we were done. We cleaned up; I went with Liz, Harbrinder, Zach, Pat, and Misa to lunch at Katana-Ya. I ate tan tan men ramen sets, which was supposed to come with soda, but I could taste some dietness to it. It came with chicken wings and salad too. I finished the whole thing, but had to pause several times because my stomach wasn't feeling very comfortable. I think it was some burping, indigestion, that has been with me for almost a year now. It could also have been butterflies still lingering. I was still pumped full of adrenaline, because my hands were still shaking from the nervousness.

When Liz asked me how it felt, I replied that I didn't know what to do, that I was asking, "Why is this happening?" which caused her to laugh.

After lunch, I drove to Point Richmond, to the Craneway Pavilion. There would start the second event of the day. It was a celebration of the 50-year existence of the gala. I wanted to help out, but I was told that what I was wearing, which I thought was fine for volunteer wear, was unacceptable to the woman had tattoos on her legs. So, I was assigned to do coat check for the rest of the night. I was put "in charge" since other volunteers were assigned one hour and would come and go.
I was initially upset that I couldn't do more, but I decided that this would be better than standing out in the rain helping people to the shuttlebus and back, which was part of my intended assignment.

I was busy for several hours until it started to quiet down. At 7:15 I took my break. I would have taken it at 7:00, but two people who were volunteering didn't know what to do, so I told them which ticket to use for coat check, and which to use for umbrella check.

The umbrellas were originally put in a big bucket, but one of the volunteers had the brilliant idea to put them all along the wall because it would be easier to obtain when people wanted to leave, then scrounging through the buckets. The other problem was that since the tickets were paper, they were getting ruined by the water.

I didn't get a chance to do much of giving the coats and umbrellas back because I was assigned auction duty--which was helping to direct winners to paying for the items they won. I spent most of this time chatting with Li-Wen and Ernest about aikido, continuing our discussion about the Sensei. I didn't tell her, Liz told her that I practiced with the Sensei.
By midnight, which was when my duty was supposed to end, I helped a few lingering people with the rest of the coat check. The warehouse was being opened up. The curtains that divided the space into three were lifted up. The first space was the social area for people to chat before they could enter the dining and entertainment room in the second space. The third space was a backstage for Boilerhouse waiters and chefs to work, as well as for volunteers to take their breaks.

I didn't see much of the event, but what I could see was that while people were paying attention to the show and watching performances; most of the time, people were chatting with each other because it was a time for them to socialize with the largest number of people possible.

Todd Higgins near 11 had been sitting in the coat check room. I thought he was tired, but I later found out that he was also very drunk. He signed very slowly, almost in a slurred sign way. Though his signing was relatively clear, it was also sometimes incoherent and sometimes unaware. For example, he kept repeating that I needed to gather 175 wire hangers since they were rented from another company, while the other wire hangers (some of them big or wooden) belonged to the pavilion.

I was annoyed with the wire, wooden, and large hangers as I struggled to disentangle them, which had piled up randomly on a rack after everyone picked up their coats. As I pulled them apart, Rebecca (administrative assistant to Jim Brune, executive director of DCARA) came and noticed me, and helped me with them. I later saw that Todd, who had been sitting on the chair the whole night, obviously dehydrated, and just offered a bottle of water to drink from someone, vomited next to himself, fortunately away from me.

I helped gathered up unused tickets, notebooks, all the stuff of his or of DCARA's and put them in the bag as he asked in the slurred signing of his.

I happily obliged. I hardly ever get involved in stuff like this (dealing with a drunken man much as you dealt with me many earthly orbits ago), so it was amusing to me at the same time as it was a learning observational experience. It's stuff I see movies often, replayed every day, spaced out and within my control so I don't feel as disgusted, so I don't need to flinch or be forced to turn away or turn off my emotion. I'm just reminded of what Susan Sontag wrote in On Photography, about how she could watch a surgery up close, but watching a movie of the similar made her wince or get uncomfortable because the scenes were directorial decisions, and her only choice was to watch or not watch.

I helped Rebecca moved some stuff from the lost and found and other things to her car. It was not until 1:30 or so that I felt I finally could leave. I went to my car. Rebecca was in her car, possibly waiting for me to leave first. So I was technically the last to depart from the parking lost before her.

I drove back home, looked at some stuff on the internet and had a fitful sleep. I slept for only two hours, but then I was on and off sleep while the sun was almost ready to rise. The reason for the fitful sleep was that I was dehydrated. I drank some water at the dojo plus two bottles during the event, but they were obviously not sufficient. I should have drank two more bottles or more. For one thing, I was sweating profusely since I gave so much energy to doing aikido during the test. I sometimes didn't feel thirsty, but I knew it was an illusion to keep me functioning. So sleep couldn't be had until I woke at 7:30, when I talked with my mother. I knew I was still tired when I was trying to piece my words and thoughts together. I went back to bed and woke again at 12.
I still feel tired, but not too much so. I had some coffee and will keep myself hydrated until I get back to bed tonight.