Saturday

Today was Aidan's first tournament since he joined the Competition Team. He did pretty well. It wasn't as crisp and wonderful as some of the other kids, but you know what? The little guy deserves a gold medal in my opinion because he put himself out there. We had little communication from his coach and no idea of what we were supposed to do other than sit and wait. And wait. And wait some more.
We were directed to the wrong ring to start out with, sat there for a while, then asked questions and were told, "oh you're in the wrong place". He did not get to compete in "Traditional forms", but instead was able to do his "a-okay kata". I sat there and fumed because not one person from his "team" showed up to cheer him on or see that he was in the right place. It was "meet at the convention center at 9:00 am sharp". When I FINALLY got Amanda and I paid for and our bands on our wrists, I didn't know where my groups was. I had no idea where my son was in this hall. I found him. Found the owner of USMA. Found the coach. Found a couple of other people from his team. They're all teenagers, so they were off in their own rings, waiting to perform.

After wasting a LOT of time at the wrong ring, we got to the correct ring and waited some more. We found out by accident that he'd been entered incorrectly as an Intermediate when they called him up and then told him he wasn't able to do his form with that group. Poor guy! We had to go to the front desk, where they had a computer and re-register him as an advanced belt. Apparently a brown/black belt qualifies as an Advanced belt. Okay.

So, after registering him *correctly*, it was a race to the men's room so he could use it (he was patiently waiting until they told him he wasn't going to perform at that time), then back to our ring. Then we waited for the Advanced group to go up. He did a great job of performing his form, even though he boo-booed. He stopped because he realized he'd forgotten something. Ah well. It was a great start. He earned a 9.2, 9.2 and an 8.0 from the three judges. For a first effort, I'm pretty proud of him.

They also entered him in sparring, so we had to borrow some sparring gear from one of the black belts. (Note to self...do something nice for her, she's really sweet for letting him borrow it!) He did fair--he scored one point. His opponent scored 4 on him. We need to work on sparring with him I think. Of course, I also need to get him the rest of his sparring gear IF we're going to continue this. It all hinges on whether or not the school manages to stay around after the summer. I'm still skeptical about that. I keep hearing things...

Little boy hated the sparring because his mouth guard is too big for him and it hurt, but he was a trooper and did his best. I'm proud of him.

After they released him, we took off and headed home. We nearly got run over by a rude woman in a shiny new car who thought that either I was driving too slowly or that she had the right of way to pass me *on the left* on a single lane entrance ramp. Then another oh so charming driver cut me off and tried to push me onto the shoulder as I tried to enter the highway. Is it any wonder I freak out?? My poor kids had their ears blistered because I was so stressed and angry. I'd best hope they don't repeat that stuff because people will KNOW it came from their parent!!! I didn't check out with the coach, nor did I say goodbye to anyone. It was an awkward experience but now I know that if we go again, I need to make sure I don't bring Amanda and I am prepared to be a pack mule to carry stuff everywhere--there isn't a place to put your stuff that's safe there.

Saturday news

Aidan didn't go running with the competition team this morning. He and one other little guy were there and ready to go but...the other little guy has a broken arm and is out of commission. One of the young ladies of the group doesn't like to run and they were worried that with MY guy being so small, they'd lose him, so they sent him inside with the other little guy to work with the young lady on their form. They have a competition next weekend, so that's a good thing.

I took Amanda to have a facial this morning as a birthday present. This was her first facial. She enjoyed it immensely. She was asking to do it again. hee hee. I've corrupted the silly girl. We went to Target after the facial and spent some time walking around together. I was very glad to be out with her. Some days she and I are at each other's throats, but today was different. She was relaxed and calm. It was worth it to me. I'd love to do it again some time.


I had a nice long talk with Mr. M this morning. We're closing the doors to our school and are taking up temporary residence in a different location while he searches for a way to make things work out. It's a little questionable as to whether or not we're going to keep things going on past this summer. I haven't told DB yet. He's going to find out by surprise if he reads the blog!! I've been trying to text him and call him but he's doing stuff with his family (they've got a couple of soccer players in the family). I'm going to wait and see what he says a little bit later.