Sleepless nights and Gup tests

Since I haven't been feeling well, I wound up trying to self-medicate to see if I would at least be able to breathe last night. I took a Claritin-D at 9:00 or 9:30 last night. I should know better. I wound up not being able to sleep when I finally went to bed. I read 3 magazines last night, then when I decided I really WAS tired, I couldn't doze off. It was horrible. I listened to my lovely husband snore for the greater part of the night. I finally kicked him in the butt, which woke him up enough to move. That stopped SOME of the noise. I was able to doze off for a minute, then woke up again. There's something about not being able to sleep that puts me into a seriously grumpy mood. I did finally get back to sleep at 2:30, then woke up again at 6:00, when Tony's alarm went off. Waking up that early was like dragging cotton wool off my head. It was difficult and fuzzy. He finally went off to work and I went back to sleep for about an hour and a half. I think I got up for the last time at 8:30. I stayed up after that.

Today was the Gup (colored belt) test at the dojang. I went because I wanted to observe and see how the tests were run. I am very glad I did. I was really impressed by it. When I got there, I saw some of the white belts doing their running test. I was able to get into the room and found a chair near one of my friends, whose son was testing today.

I can tell you that when I saw him test, I was really impressed by the level of improvement I saw in him. The last time I saw him in any martial arts capacity was a year ago, when we tested for our black belts. He was so much better today than he was this time last year and it showed! One of the examiners asked him what kind of kick he was doing at one point and he told them honestly what it was. I give him kudos for that. He was really good! I think his hard work is paying off! He's doing that well!

I saw my instructor there, who asked me why I was out of uniform. I'd talked about it with Tony and HE said, "you're just a student, so just attend in street clothes." I listened and MG looked at me funny. I told him that I was just observing. He asked me wasn't I a Dan. I said, yes. He said I could have helped. Again, I truly feel like I belong. YAY!

I'm about to crash for the night. I had to leave the test during the green belts because I was falling asleep. I made it home, but felt very fuzzy and felt like my response time was too slow. Maybe I can make up my sleep tonight.

Will it ever stay at one season???

If you look at the trees in the area, you'll think that Spring has sprung. Then you watch the news and they tell you, "Oh, it'll be blah blah blah degrees today." THEN you hear "Don't get used to this weather, it'll be cold again." Just give me a steady and constant temperature!!

Every day now, I see more and more trees budding out. Yesterday, the redbuds started blooming. Today, I saw yet another cluster of redbuds, so that tells me that Spring is definitely here. It was 80 degrees yesterday and today. Darned weather! If it doesn't stay at one temperature, it floats to an extreme! Not good when you're fighting something, let me tell you. I can't tell if it's allergies, a cold or whatever, but again today, I had a number of people tell me to go home. One of my sales reps even asked me how many cigarettes I'd had before he called me. Since I don't smoke, this was hysterical.

Tomorrow is the gup test at the dojang. I'm going to attend as an observer, not as a participant. I'm just a student, just going to provide moral support for a friend's son. This will be a great experience, just for the chance to see how the tests are run. Then I'll be better able to visualize my own test, whenever that will be...

Hack, wheeze...is it allergies?

I adore Spring. It's a wonderful time of renewal, but...man, it's killing me. I'm either fighting with a massive allergy attack or I've picked up something.
I've been stuffy, sneezy and feel pretty achy. I'm not sure if it's from the Bradford Pears that are blooming out or what. I sound like I've got a frog in my throat. Now imagine talking on the phone like that for a week. That's what I've been doing. Today I've been coughing and had to put callers on "mute" to be able to not cough their ears off. Heaven forbid you make me laugh!! That's worse! I've had people tell me I needed to go home. Hello? I can't leave because I'm the acting supervisor. I may feel like crap, but I'm not allowed to be sick. My manager needs me to be there because I do his job while he's gone. I'm just stumbling through as well as I can.

The only good thing about being sick today was that I managed to drink nearly 72 ounces of water. I drink more when I'm sick than I do on normal occasions. I'm working on changing that.

I got a new blog to read from one of my instructors. She's been keeping me in the loop and finding interesting things for me to read. I really think she's got my best interests in mind. It's like she's seeing my insecurities and my procrastination and she's trying to help me work around that and get better.
I truly feel that I'm in a good place in this school because of the help I get. The people in this school are sooo helpful to me! I get pick me up emails from people, I get words to think about from the head of the school. I have to say it's an incredibly good fit. I feel like I BELONG!!

Tag!

I was recently tagged by Gal Friday to reveal 7 random things about myself. I'm trying to think of random things I can tell you that are interesting...

1. I love to read. I've got 5 bookshelves in my apartment that are literally groaning with books.

2. When I'm stressed out, I write. Most of the time, I don't share it, but I write.

3. I collect snowmen.

4. I have never been outside of the United States.

5. I learned how to speak Gaelic many years ago. Not fluently, but I could speak it.

6. I'm a perfectionist. My instructor is trying to help me overcome this flaw in my nature.

7. I am determined to get my second Dan (EE Dan) BEFORE I'm 50 years old!!
(that gives me 6 years to get cracking!)

I'm not sure who I'll tag...but if anyone reads this and wants to talk about it, please feel free to comment me about it!

March

It's hard to believe that March is already here. It's amazing how quickly this year is flying by. It seems like yesterday it was December!!
I've been in a mood all day. Haven't felt well, so I stayed home from work today. It gave me the chance to do laundry and dishes. I also sat on the couch, finished reading a book and just generally hung out. The cat hung out with me, amazingly enough! Usually he ignores me but since I was the only one here, he decided to climb up in my lap and sit on me. That's actually a comfort to me. I enjoy sitting on the couch with the cat. Unfortunately, I'm his last choice of human. I keep telling Tony that I want another cat, but it's not going to happen any time soon.

Speaking of Tony, he had a job interview on Friday. He spoke to the head of the department who asked him when he could start, but then he got called by the HR department who told him that they "had to interview some other people and they'd call him." Needless to say, he got seriously disappointed and was not at all happy on Friday. As of today, he hasn't heard anything from them. I hope that something will happen soon. He needs to have some kind of good news. His company is downsizing and the company he interviewed with is upsizing. Hard to imagine in this economy, but there you have it. All we can do now is just play the waiting game.

I didn't do a lot on Saturday--just spent the day on the couch, being a slug. I went out with Amanda yesterday and went walking. That was good for us. The guys went to a bowling party, we went walking.

I contacted my instructor and told him that I wasn't in class on Thursday. I didn't go. No excuses. I just didn't go. I'm going tomorrow. I can't go on Thursday as I have a Cub Scout function...only 2 more of those and I've earned my leader knot. After April or May, I'm in the clear for a couple of months. I may have to go again starting in September.
Once the Scout functions have settled down, I'll get a chance to concentrate on my martial arts 100%. I feel a distinct need to get out and get busy in class. I can do what I can do up until the Scout things are done, but...once that's done, I'm going in with 100% effort.