The plan was to fly from Vegas to Philadelphia Feb 12th, spend the 12th, 13th and Saturday the 13th at Serena’s house. Then, rent a car on Saturday the 13th and drive two hours to Bergenfield, NJ, super early Sunday. Spend Sunday and Monday with my aunt, uncle and cousins. Do a seminar Monday night at Killer B. Then, drop the Enterprise car off at the Newark airport, and fly home to Vegas on Tuesday the 13th.
Right.
Flew into Philly. Got picked up by Serena, her mother Billie, little brother Brandon 11 yrs old, and little sister Kelsie 13 yrs old. I fell in love with them. We got cheese steaks and OMG SO GOOD.
Hung out with them, played video games (Street Fighter vs Tekken, Super Smash Brothers which I have always sucked at and still suck at, and Mario Kart)
Friday, woke up, went to the YMCA where Serena lifted and I did my yoga warmups and a little workout but I was so tired and felt like crap, so I didn’t do too much besides that. We took a train into downtown Philadelphia and ate Dim Sum at China Town. SO GOOD. Fun! Except SOMEBODY should warn me that certain dim sum dumplings EXPLODE when you bite INTO THEM! XD
Things you can see from pictures of me and Serena: we resemble each other, I have the same smile/expression all the time, and Serena has way too much fluffy hair. lol My hair hangs straight and I can’t handle it if it goes in my face, so I don’t know how she handles it. ;D
Went home. Went to Serena’s Muay Thai class! I’ve always wanted to visit her gym, so this was cool! It’s Brazilian Jui-Jitsu United. I was nervous about the striking classes because of my bad shoulders, but enjoyed it very much. Justin LaBarge taught a few techniques and I got to practice with Serena. He even held mitts for me over the course of the class, and took the time to give me advice about my knees. Thank you! Then open mat, and I sparred with Serena. We both did well. Serena has improved, stand up and jiu-jitsu! Good job! At one point, my finger got hit and it hurt a lot. I was scared, but I waited for it to stop hurting and kept training.
haha -_-;;; #fighterthings. It’s fine, though.
I got to do MMA with Serena again! Her top control is so much better than before. At one point she passed to side control and I thought, “okay la la la I’ll get out and escape now…” but I could not get out. LOL
Saturday morning we did a Muay Thai class, followed by a jiu-jitsu class. I enjoyed practicing these checks and elbows (I gotta write stuff down, actually). In BJJ beginner’s class we did spider guard sweep which I’m glad we reviewed cuz I sucked at it. I’m a purple belt, but I never put on the gi for the 8 years I’d been in Japan, so I need to relearn the grips and balance of GI jiu-jitsu. It’s embarrassing. @_@; In the advanced class, coach Jared Weiner also taught this foot trip/sweep take-down thing I really like and want to practice more.
In my first round to spar, I got poked in the eye by somebody by accident. I don’t think he even knows he did it because I didn’t say anything, but these things happen. To me, especially. It just is unfortunate. :/ Thankfully I got some medicine immediately. <3
I didn't get to say goodbye to the teacher and classmates formally because I was on the phone trying to call my doctor. Sorry about that! But thanks for having me and teaching me! I enjoyed my time there. 🙂 Great group of people. There was this brown belt girl I REALLY wanted to spar with. gah.
I had an abrasion (light scratch) on my cornea, and it felt like needles every time I blinked. Do you know how many times you blink a minute? ;_; then when the eye waters, the salt stings like hell.
Somehow I managed to hang out with Serena and my fan who crossed over to "friend" Joolhoolz on twitter, Julius in real life. 😀 We watched the UFC fight night in the Iron Abbey. Man, the main card starts at 10 on the main coast?! I can't handle that. You know me, I conk out at 10:30 every night normally. We left at 10:30. lol I didn't know a single person I saw fight on the undercard. ^^;;
He gave me some books as gifts! (and I signed mine for him) Thank you so much!! Sorry my single eye was watering like every 5 minutes. -_-;;;
I tried to take my hat off for pictures. The eye was light sensitive so Serena lent me her hat, which didn’t fit. haha.
Sunday, it was snowing. I decided that I couldn’t drive because my eye kept watering and I kept having to squeeze my eyes shut, so it was decided I would take a train to NJ. Serena’s dad Basil and Serena started driving me to NJ and then found the highway clear, so Basil decided to drive me all the way.
Two hours. I tried to protest, but he wouldn’t hear of it. 😡 Thank you sooooo much! <3
They dropped me off at my family's house, where I immediately hopped in the car with my cousins, had lunch at a diner with them, and then went to their church. After that, we hung out, played with her baby Tino, and baked cupcakes. 😀
(notice on my T -shirt there are charactures of me and Serena. I’m a samurai and she is a viking. by Julie at Mei-li Fighting)
The eye felt a little better….only tearing up uncontrollably once every hour at that point.
But I woke up Monday with it still bad enough that I felt I’d have an accident driving, and felt I could not teach the seminar. “So now you do this take-down….ow wait a second, give me five minutes for me to open my eye again…”
I had to cancel it. 🙁 I’m soooo sorry to Killer B academy for setting it up for me and then letting them down. I want to visit next time I’m in the area! I’ll make it up to you guys.
I had a great time with my family, though! We hung out on Monday and then Tuesday Luis drove me to the Newark airport. so I ended up never renting a car. And I just missed getting snowed in.
What an adventure. My life is an adventure.
I’m pretty sure I’m fat now, so I’m starting a fight diet today.