収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

So I drove over to the Kokikai dojo in Seattle today. It took almost an hour and by the time I got there, class had started 15 minutes before. So I sat and watched. The children's session teacher said that they'd probably take a break around 8pm, and I could join up then, but they didn't, so I figured I'd sit and keep watching.

I found out when they were almost done when the teacher came over to me in the waiting area (which is in view of the mats, but behind a low wall - I felt like I was in a penalty box) that if he'd known I was there to practice, he'd have let me join in even though I was late. THANKS OTHER TEACHER FOR NOT SUGGESTING THAT.

Irritating thing 1: I liked what I saw better than anything else I've seen in Seattle.
Irritating thing 2: T/Th main practice schedule. That conflicts with anime night.
Irritating thing 3: Stupid fucking I-5/Aurora drive to get there. No bus.

Gir.

There's another kokikai, but it's up in SnoHOmish County. According to Mapquest, it's only 26 minutes away. Of course, this drive should have been 20 minutes or so. But it wasn't, because of the fucking traffic. (I-5 was STOPPED. Aurora was STOPPED. Surface streets weren't a lot better.)

Bah.

Waiting at lyonesse's house for the taxi to arrive to take us to the airport so that we can finally head home. I'm looking to a couple of days of doing theta approaching nothing. I mean seriously, I need a weekend of lazing about and I think this one is going to be it. W00t!

Went to the Boston Museum of Fine Art yesterday and the day before. The art deco exhibition they have running right now is shriekingly fantastic and if you're in the area you need to go. Go now. Plus, of course, the whole MFA is great fun, except for the inside cafe by the gift shop which kind of blows. Don't go there. But watch the deco exhibition and see the path set in design for the following 60 years. (I had fun pointing out how. E.g., a chair from the 1925 Paris exhibition that I pointed at and said, "See that? Have you seen Star Trek? Do you know Captain Kirk's chair?" and people going, "...oh!" Dillenger's desk from Tron was there, too, in its 1925 inspiration. And so on)

If I had a time machine, one of the places I would go would be the 1925 Paris exhibition. That, and I'd have to visit the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Last night I visited Vicka's Aikido dojo at MIT again, and I really, really enjoyed it a lot. They have a different approach to early training that I like better; at Ki Society in Seattle - at least, these days - attacks are very much feigned, as if they aren't even supposed to be real. And that's fine and I understand why, it really causes me some problems in that I don't have much to hook muscle memory to, and I think it makes it harder for me to understand the resulting moves. Here, while they're still of course feigned attacks, they're at least supposed to seem kind of real, so you know what to react to when you see it in real life. I prefer that by a lot.

There's a different Aikido dojo in Lake City Way - I think I'll stop by there and see how they go about things. Maybe I'll like them better.

After class, we went out to a local Spanish restaurant which made me very happy, and had desserts that made me very, very happy, so life is good.

( Quizzie )