wrote:
were wonderful. It was like getting together with family, really. Hell,
even Wiley, Ivan, George and Jill got along great! There were no fights, no
pissing contests, no ill words. Even the people who disagreed were civil,
friendly and generall had a blast together.
Very true. I was talking to someone before the seminar about that and
their fear was that certain people would get into pissing contests, giving
each other hard time and whatever not. Well, I wasn't everywhere to see it
all, but from what I saw, it never happened. We enjoyed the hell out of each
other.
...Except Wendy. Wendy was a troublemaker. She resisted techniques. She
wrestled on the mat with Kjartan. She wrestled on the mat with Ivan. She
refused to blend and harmonize. She had no respect for her sempai, always
challenging people, making them wrestle with her. :-))) And yes, we have
pictures to prove it!
I had the fortune to meet Wiley over there and since we had some
disagreements about
ground work and whatever not while back on the list, we gave it a shot. No
challenges, mind you, just a friendly.... a friendly encounter and mutual
exploration on the ground. :-)) Now, it so happens that Wiley is built
rather well, stocky and muscular - for those of you who don't know him -
(the guy musta had at least 80 lbs on me) so I went into it with bleak
expectations. However, it turned out well. He
took me down, but I chocked him out, so ...we'll call it a tie. :-) We had
fun.
We got to sample the aikido of the Kurita Juku with Carlos Escobar, a
serious, deidcated and utterly engaging man. Ivan got to try to float with
George Simcox
I think he enjoyed my efforts as much as I did. :-))
as George led us through some very soft, very informative Ki
Society ideas and concepts.
Pictures of that were taken as well, I hear. Bartman took a picture just
as Janet was projecting her aura towards me and disturbing my Ki field,
creating the erroneous impression of my phisical body being unbalanced. (We
were
practicing the Unmovable Body exercise). I must say that a good photographer
tries to to capture his subjects in the best possible light, not the worst.
Moments such as this one should NOT be documented!
I WOULD like to get copies of Eddie Hernandez' video tapes.
Eddie taped almost all the classes.
You know something? I think I pissed that guy off - the very first thing
I did on Saturday morning. Accidental, but still... That'd be in another
story though.
Emily was sweet and mild, in a kick-ass Texas gal with a Texas-size 'tude
sort of way.
Cute too. Very cute.
Jun was squeaky clean (trying, unsuccessfully to escape his
aiki-slut image, no doubt). I could go on and on. The mix of people, the
diversity and sunergy of the listka made this thing something I can't
really begin to describe in less that a Bartman-sized post.
Everybody was picking on Bartman ...when they weren't picking on me. I
dunno why that is - he is such a nice guy.
The Budo Babes were ravishing, the awards were riotus and the camaraderie
was unparalelled.
I'm expecting to see these speech awards on-line, sometime soon.