Kung Fu non-party thing

[la_belle_laide]

Yesterday was the only actual summer day we've had so far. It hit about 85, the highest it's been this entire summer, and not a cloud in the sky from afternoon on. Just like I'd hoped, and just in time for the “party.” (“Party” is in quotes. LOL. But more on that later.)

Early in the day I took the dogs out and damn near stepped on a baby robin who had probably been battered out of the nest by the previous night's storm. It's weird, because about two weeks ago the local vets called me and asked if I would take a baby robin and I turned them down because I'm going to China pretty soon, and I didn't want to burden my Mom with extra birds to see to while I was gone, if I could help it. I guess the universe had other plans. He's adorable. I named him “China.”

The yard and pool looked gorgeous, like a tropical resort. Everything was perfect up until my goddamn neighbors decided to run some kind of hugeass machines that roared like trains passing by for the next three hours. I have no earthly idea what they were doing, but they decided to do it on the one day when I was having company over, so I hexed them and their blasted noisy machines. When they were done, the trash behind me decided it was high time to white-wash their filthy hovel, so for a few hours after the train-sounding machines, it was “weeehhhh! Weeeehhhhh! Weeeeehhh!” Stupid bastards. Hexed them, too.

The night before, and that morning, I'd gotten all these emails from various people going, “I'll be there / send me directions / we're on our way!” etc. Out of everyone who said they were coming, three did, four including a baby who can't make such decisions as “let's go to a party.”

Sifu and Simo showed up at around 3:45 with their adorable baby and their huge sweet akita dog Fabuki. Sifu said, “Uhh... I think we are the entire party.” He texted The Empress and apparently she got stuck at home painting the house with her Dad. No one would drive her. I felt bad.

So, we chatted for a while and then Simo took Si-baby in the pool while Sifu and I hung out poolside and Buki ran around. We chilled until around 5 and then they had to bail for another engagement all the way in freaking Levittown.

Just as they were leaving, the Gold Dragon showed up, and I should really call him the Reliable Dragon because if he says he's gonna, he will, and if he says he can't, it's for a good reason. Well, by that time we both figured that everyone else was a no show so we decided to just hang out. I told him, Hey, while you're here, help me unpack the massage table and then you can have a go on it. He was all like, “REALLY, CAN I?” So we dragged it into my room and unloaded it. It's really very nice and quite simple to set up. It's sturdy and cushy and not at all heavy. Except I didn't get the leg bolster which I'm pretty sure was supposed to come with it. I'm gonna have to check about that 'cause they are about 20 bucks and I really need one for my final.

Anyway, so he jumped on and I'm going, “Weee, first client ever on my very own table!” and I promptly forgot everything I learned in class. He is so much fun to massage though because he's so ripped. I told him, “You're actually kind of helping me study for my myology final, tbh.” He had lots of trigger points though and I commented, “Wow,” and he was all, “OMG, what? Is it a tumor or something?” I was worried I was doing everything wrong but he assured me that it was great and everything was fine. It's really different from in class when you have an instructor to tell you what comes next in case you forget.

We went back outside, talked on the deck for about an hour then decided to jump into the pool. The water had been really warm early in the day but now it was around 8 PM and it was REALLY GODDAMN COLD. I jumped right in. The Gold Dragon took about fifteen minutes to get in and said, “Pretty soon your neighbors are gonna hear a woman screaming. And it's not going to be you.” Then we messed around with the pool toys, the new Whale of Fail (which isn't really as faily as the old one,) and generally acted goofy. Soon we were both hungry for pizza, which, he had to drive because I'd had some pina colada earlier with rum. We ended up going to Radio Shack too, to look at gadgets and they had these adorable little robot spiders that I told myself I wanted but then thought, “But why? I have real spiders at home.”

After dinner we sat on the deck under the summer lights but then it got too buggy. We went indoors and stayed there for the next two or three hours and I just wish I had challenged him to a game of Soul Calibur but it didn't cross my mind. We ended up talking about Kung Fu and various ways to kick someone else's ass, or get one's own ass kicked with good grace. At one point he saw the pic I have of the old KF school, when Lao Shir was teaching; all of us standing behind her. He said of her, “Everyone else in the picture looks so different, but not her. She looks the same as she always has.” (He had lunch with her a few weeks ago.) He said, “No matter what seems to happen to her, she has this light in her eyes. She's radiant.”

It was the best description of her I've heard anyone use. The only other way I could think to describe her through the Chinese idea of shen, which is the spirit that shows in the brightness of your eyes. But I like “radiant” for her and I think if I were to ever give her a Hawaiian name it would be Alohilohi which means “bright, radiant eyes.” Maybe I should tell her that.

Ku'u Dragon left at around 11:30 after helping me clean up and I was so sun-tired I took a hot shower and went right to bed. But then I lay there unable to sleep, with a feeling of something not quite right.

At 7:45 I awoke to Haku's terrible “OMG I AM HAVING A SEIZURE” scream. He didn't even get out of bed for this one. From a sound sleep, he just had a fit in his bed. It wasn't a huge, paddling, stumbling, peeing the floor, thrashing one. He just tensed up and twitched for about three minutes. Then he woke up and I took him outside to pee. There was a huge thunderstorm happening and it scared the christ out of him. We went back inside and he did his “wandering and whining” thing until around 9:15 and then finally went back into his bed and fell asleep, and then I got up at 10 AM anyway, so. He's sleepy today but otherwise fine, and chasing Sano around asking for trouble.

Maybe I'll take him for a nice jog later if it's not storming.

As for me, I have to get back to eating better again. This last week was terrible, with nothing but cereal, bread, sauce, cheese, and sugar. Yesterday alone I ate about five chocolate chip cookies. My mom went out shopping and she bought me some ice cream which I will make sure to finish tonight, you know, just so that I don't have it sitting around the house, and they yeah, tomorrow I will start to eat better again. For sure. :)

Sooooo that was this year's summer party and I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to try to do this again next year. It's so much preparation and craziness, and buying all these neat goodies etc. and then three people show up. We always have a great time anyway but I'm not going all out again for people who aren't even gonna be there. From now on I'll just say, “if anyone wants to come and visit, go in the pool or whatever then feel free,” but no more of this weeks of preparing / buying tons of food I'll never eat kind of thing.

Next weekend I hope to see my god(dess)daughter (if not sooner) and then the following weekend The Empress asked me to help her chaperone a Kung Fu sleepover ad the kwon Saturday night to Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is a family party.

The weekend after that I leave for China so I'd better get my ass in gear. And I'd better get my qi in gear, too.