So, I'm in Canada. It's sort of surreal. So far, I've hung out at MECCA MMA a lot, ran a double elimination tournament just for women (where we had enough women that not everyone got a medal!), and made it through the first day of a seven day grappling camp. Well, most of the first day, anyway...I didn't do the second training session today because my back is a little sore from traveling and standing on concrete for 8 hours yesterday. Plus, it was no gi.
Canadian things I've done, or will do:
I had a donut from Timmy's, AKA Tim Horton's. I understand this is a very Canadian thing to do. I didn't have a double double, though (which is coffee with 2 creams and 2 sugars), so I may not be getting the full experience.
I will eat poutine. This is a big deal. People don't understand that a lot of us have never had this.
I've met a LOT of grappling women, and got to catch up with some old friends. I'm really interested in seeing how I feel about BJJ after the week is over. Right now, I just feel like going to Sleepytown.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Diamond State Games, Competing, and a weird dream
Last weekend, we (US Grappling) ran our 4th Diamond State Games. I think it was the 5th one for Andrew, but only the 4th for me. Anyway, it was also our first two day event, and I really liked it. We were out of the venue by 4 or 5 each day, and had a great time. I even got to compete on Sunday, which was nice. I hadn't competed since November of 2007, back when I was still a white belt. (Andrew says the in-house tournament last year doesn't count.)
Competing...it was actually fun. What I remember of the match: I corrected Turkey Sandwich on the match length time, we shook hands, and I pulled guard pretty quickly. I had a hard time gripping my opponent's sleeves because they were kind of short, but I still worked a little spider guard. I went back and forth with that and closed guard for a while, finally dragging her right arm across to my right side and taking her back. I tried for a bow & arrow choke, but my bottom leg was trapped too deep, so I couldn't get the angle. I think we scrambled around a little when she escaped, and I ended up with her in my half guard. I moved to scissor half, and tried for a kimura from there, which allowed her to pass my guard. I got to my knees and ended up mounting her. Wait, I may have already mounted her earlier, too. I forget now, but I think I was up 8-0 when she passed my guard. I'm not sure any more. The final score ended up 12-3. I had submission opportunities (bow & arrow, kimura, the S-mount armbar I love), but didn't really commit to any of them. I'm sort of disappointed in myself for that, but I'm glad I competed, and was able to actually enjoy the experience. I'm alllmost looking forward to doing it again.
Now, the weird dream I had last night. First, there was a pink buffalo. Really. He was the color of cotton candy. He and I had a high-dive act. We would dive off of platforms into a really deep pool. Jen Flannery was there, taking pictures of us in the water. As a matter of fact, a lot of BJJ people were there. I think someone was coaching me and the buffalo, and there was a referee, like in a tournament. Man, I wish I had written this down when I first woke up, because there was a lot more. Still, I can remember the fluffy pink hair on the buffalo very clearly. Plus, I remember how his eyes looked (dark brown, and very calm) and how his nose looked, and how it felt when he would breathe on me.
Looking back, I suspect Miles was standing next to the bed.
Competing...it was actually fun. What I remember of the match: I corrected Turkey Sandwich on the match length time, we shook hands, and I pulled guard pretty quickly. I had a hard time gripping my opponent's sleeves because they were kind of short, but I still worked a little spider guard. I went back and forth with that and closed guard for a while, finally dragging her right arm across to my right side and taking her back. I tried for a bow & arrow choke, but my bottom leg was trapped too deep, so I couldn't get the angle. I think we scrambled around a little when she escaped, and I ended up with her in my half guard. I moved to scissor half, and tried for a kimura from there, which allowed her to pass my guard. I got to my knees and ended up mounting her. Wait, I may have already mounted her earlier, too. I forget now, but I think I was up 8-0 when she passed my guard. I'm not sure any more. The final score ended up 12-3. I had submission opportunities (bow & arrow, kimura, the S-mount armbar I love), but didn't really commit to any of them. I'm sort of disappointed in myself for that, but I'm glad I competed, and was able to actually enjoy the experience. I'm alllmost looking forward to doing it again.
Now, the weird dream I had last night. First, there was a pink buffalo. Really. He was the color of cotton candy. He and I had a high-dive act. We would dive off of platforms into a really deep pool. Jen Flannery was there, taking pictures of us in the water. As a matter of fact, a lot of BJJ people were there. I think someone was coaching me and the buffalo, and there was a referee, like in a tournament. Man, I wish I had written this down when I first woke up, because there was a lot more. Still, I can remember the fluffy pink hair on the buffalo very clearly. Plus, I remember how his eyes looked (dark brown, and very calm) and how his nose looked, and how it felt when he would breathe on me.
Looking back, I suspect Miles was standing next to the bed.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Women's open mat weekend
First, www.clinzy.com and www.chrissylinzy.com now bring you to my blog. Thanks, Brian!!
On to women's open mat weekend info:
Friday night, Brian and I picked Alaina up at the airport around 6:45 PM. We headed off to Andrew's class, where we did 2 takedowns (tane otoshi and sumi gaeshi), followed by an evil straight ankle lock that I had to modify just a little in order to do it. Then, Elaine and Lisa showed up around 9:20 PM, and we waited for Kelly (who went to Richmond BJJ instead of Revolution BJJ on Friday night). We had dinner at O'Charley's, where our waitress worked very hard to keep us happy. Back to Casa Linzy, where we went to sleep around 1:30 or 2 AM.
Saturday morning, I made eggs for people, pretending to take special orders, except I can only scramble them. Luckily, everyone wanted scrambled eggs. Outlier DC made an awesome fruit salad, and Alaina fried some bacon. Off to Richmond BJJ for Burdo's class at noon (Lisa was brave enough to go to the 10 AM yoga class first!), where Eric taught a choke that I really like, along with two sweeps off of the choke setup. Then, he showed a few ways to get your underhook back from half guard bottom, along with one more thing from there that I've forgotten. I like Eric's teaching style - it's very detailed and he gives you the 'why', not just the 'how'. This is very important to keeping my brain happy. The best part about this class is that there were 7 blue belt women, 1 blue belt man, 9 white belt men, and 5 white belt women. The women outnumbered AND outranked the dudes. Very cool to see! At 2 PM, Eric kicked the boys out, and more women started trickling in. We ended up with 18 women at the open mat.
Highlights for me: getting to use my favorite armbar on two people Saturday (everyone at my gym is hip to it now, the jerks), and meeting loads of new women. Some of them even live here in Richmond, so we'll all get together again soon, I'm sure.
After the open mat ended, around 4 or 4:30, we all headed off to shower at different places, and then met up for dinner at Cafe Gutenberg (which was DELICIOUS). Then, we booked back to Casa Linzy (I live about 20 minutes from downtown, but it's worth the drive, in my head) to watch the UFC. Lots of us half-watched, and half-slept through the fights. People cuddled with my dogs (like Lauren).
After everyone left, Elaine and Brian stayed up talking about geeky things until nearly 3 AM. I dozed on the couch, waking up to toss in random (appropriate) comments from time to time.
We all got back up around 8 AM Saturday, and headed to brunch at Galaxy Diner. Galaxy offers things like Oreo pancakes and trailer park pancakes (which is actually french toast, stuffed with peanut butter and bananas). Despite common sense telling us not to move, we headed to Starbucks to kill a little time before the open mat started at 1 PM. The open mat had 7 or 8 women at it (Alaina, Elaine, Lisa, Leslie, Rosie, Andrea, Eva, Lo, and me...I hope I'm not forgetting anyone), plus another 6 or 8 guys. I think all of the women got to roll with Andrew and Vince, our awesome purple belt dude.
Lisa and Elaine headed back to NoVA/NJ around 2:30 (right as Eva, Andrea, and Rosie showed up), and Brian and I left with Alaina and MikeByrd around 3:15, so we could get Alaina to her flight home on time. I dropped her off at the airport around 5:15 PM, picked up some dinner, and went to bed at 8:30 PM. It was a fantastic weekend, but exhausting.
On to women's open mat weekend info:
Friday night, Brian and I picked Alaina up at the airport around 6:45 PM. We headed off to Andrew's class, where we did 2 takedowns (tane otoshi and sumi gaeshi), followed by an evil straight ankle lock that I had to modify just a little in order to do it. Then, Elaine and Lisa showed up around 9:20 PM, and we waited for Kelly (who went to Richmond BJJ instead of Revolution BJJ on Friday night). We had dinner at O'Charley's, where our waitress worked very hard to keep us happy. Back to Casa Linzy, where we went to sleep around 1:30 or 2 AM.
Saturday morning, I made eggs for people, pretending to take special orders, except I can only scramble them. Luckily, everyone wanted scrambled eggs. Outlier DC made an awesome fruit salad, and Alaina fried some bacon. Off to Richmond BJJ for Burdo's class at noon (Lisa was brave enough to go to the 10 AM yoga class first!), where Eric taught a choke that I really like, along with two sweeps off of the choke setup. Then, he showed a few ways to get your underhook back from half guard bottom, along with one more thing from there that I've forgotten. I like Eric's teaching style - it's very detailed and he gives you the 'why', not just the 'how'. This is very important to keeping my brain happy. The best part about this class is that there were 7 blue belt women, 1 blue belt man, 9 white belt men, and 5 white belt women. The women outnumbered AND outranked the dudes. Very cool to see! At 2 PM, Eric kicked the boys out, and more women started trickling in. We ended up with 18 women at the open mat.
Highlights for me: getting to use my favorite armbar on two people Saturday (everyone at my gym is hip to it now, the jerks), and meeting loads of new women. Some of them even live here in Richmond, so we'll all get together again soon, I'm sure.
After the open mat ended, around 4 or 4:30, we all headed off to shower at different places, and then met up for dinner at Cafe Gutenberg (which was DELICIOUS). Then, we booked back to Casa Linzy (I live about 20 minutes from downtown, but it's worth the drive, in my head) to watch the UFC. Lots of us half-watched, and half-slept through the fights. People cuddled with my dogs (like Lauren).
After everyone left, Elaine and Brian stayed up talking about geeky things until nearly 3 AM. I dozed on the couch, waking up to toss in random (appropriate) comments from time to time.
We all got back up around 8 AM Saturday, and headed to brunch at Galaxy Diner. Galaxy offers things like Oreo pancakes and trailer park pancakes (which is actually french toast, stuffed with peanut butter and bananas). Despite common sense telling us not to move, we headed to Starbucks to kill a little time before the open mat started at 1 PM. The open mat had 7 or 8 women at it (Alaina, Elaine, Lisa, Leslie, Rosie, Andrea, Eva, Lo, and me...I hope I'm not forgetting anyone), plus another 6 or 8 guys. I think all of the women got to roll with Andrew and Vince, our awesome purple belt dude.
Lisa and Elaine headed back to NoVA/NJ around 2:30 (right as Eva, Andrea, and Rosie showed up), and Brian and I left with Alaina and MikeByrd around 3:15, so we could get Alaina to her flight home on time. I dropped her off at the airport around 5:15 PM, picked up some dinner, and went to bed at 8:30 PM. It was a fantastic weekend, but exhausting.
Friday, May 15, 2009
What defines you?
I know a lot of people who define themselves by one aspect of who they are. "I'm gay", "I'm black" (oh, sorry, African-American), "I'm a Catholic", "I'm a mother", "I'm an IT nerd", "I'm a gun nut", "I'm a conspiracy theorist", "I'm a collar-popping douchebag"...you get the idea. Sometimes these labels come from your parents, or your heritage, and you've never known anything else. Sometimes, you find out something about yourself, like sexual preference or collar-popping propensity, and you're so happy to finally find others like you, this becomes everything about who you are. No decisions are made without considering what others like you will think. I think if most people stop to think about who they really are, they'll find that being defined by just one part of the whole is really a disservice.
Personally, I have been having a hard time connecting with people at work, because I don't want to be friends with them. They don't grapple. Then, I realized that I was doing the same thing that I see other people doing, and defining myself as a grappler. That's not all I am. I'm also a wife and an IT nerd and a chick who isn't too good at being one, and a blonde and a million other little things. I wouldn't want anyone else to write me off as "just a grappler", and I was a little disappointed with myself when I realized that I was doing it on my own. It's time for me to stop dividing people into grapplers or civilians and get to know these people I've been working with since last fall on their own merits. They're actually a fairly interesting bunch, including a semi-pro hockey player, a semi-pro bass fisherman, a native of Uganda (I think), and so on. Interestingly enough, if I asked them to label themselves, I think Christian scores high on each list. Makes for an interesting dynamic, for sure.
Personally, I have been having a hard time connecting with people at work, because I don't want to be friends with them. They don't grapple. Then, I realized that I was doing the same thing that I see other people doing, and defining myself as a grappler. That's not all I am. I'm also a wife and an IT nerd and a chick who isn't too good at being one, and a blonde and a million other little things. I wouldn't want anyone else to write me off as "just a grappler", and I was a little disappointed with myself when I realized that I was doing it on my own. It's time for me to stop dividing people into grapplers or civilians and get to know these people I've been working with since last fall on their own merits. They're actually a fairly interesting bunch, including a semi-pro hockey player, a semi-pro bass fisherman, a native of Uganda (I think), and so on. Interestingly enough, if I asked them to label themselves, I think Christian scores high on each list. Makes for an interesting dynamic, for sure.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Once again, I suck
I'm barely training, I never blog, and I'm behind on almost all of my TV shows.
In the good news column, US Grappling is running tons of tournaments, and we're finally making progress on booking venues. Oh, and my sister is graduating from college this weekend. I'm very excited for her (but bummed that I'm going to miss it because I'll be at a tournament).
At any rate, it's time to go do stuff outside my house now. I'm going to get the email blogging deal set up, though. Honest.
In the good news column, US Grappling is running tons of tournaments, and we're finally making progress on booking venues. Oh, and my sister is graduating from college this weekend. I'm very excited for her (but bummed that I'm going to miss it because I'll be at a tournament).
At any rate, it's time to go do stuff outside my house now. I'm going to get the email blogging deal set up, though. Honest.
Friday, March 27, 2009
On donating platelets, and hating Duke
So, this is how my week went. Monday, I went to work, then went to BJJ. After BJJ (which didn't end until 10), Brian and I had a US Grappling meeting at Glory Days with Andrew. I got home around midnight, and in bed around 1 AM. I think I fell asleep by 1:30 or so, and the alarm went off at 6:15. Tuesday, I knew I had to get to bed early, because I had to be at work at 5 AM on Wednesday. So, I made it to bed at about 11 PM (so much for early), and got up at 4 AM to go to work. Another night of 5 hours of sleep. Yay. After getting to work well before dawn (not good times), we couldn't even start testing until around 7, so it was a waste of my sleep-time anyway. Boo. At 11:30, I headed down to the blood drive, which brings me to donating platelets.
Donating platelets is weird. Just weird. First of all, it took nearly 2 hours. I sat in the room for nearly an hour before I could even start, because they only have 2 platelet-donation stations. So, I watched Forest Gump with the rest of the donating folks, and sent a bunch of text messages. At about 12:30, Forrest Gump ends and it's finally my turn. One of my coworkers had already warned me that when they're returning your blood (well, the non-platelet part), you'll feel cold and your lips will tingle. Boy, was he right! Since I had never donated platelets before, I got to experience the default 8 cycle system. For 5 minutes, they pull blood out of my arm (with a giant needle, I might add). The entire time, I'm squeezing a little sponge-type thing, so I can keep the blood-sucking machine happy with the rate that I'm bleeding. The more I think about this, the less I like it. Anyway, even squeezing every 2 seconds, I don't bleed fast enough. I suppose this is good for most aspects of my life, but not at all good for donating blood on a schedule. Moving on...after they draw blood out, it starts getting returned to you. Now, the cells that they're returning are mixed with saline (hello, cold) and something else. About 2 minutes into the 5 minute return process, I start feeling queasy. I have a terrible metallic taste in my mouth, my lips are tingly, and I'm cold. About 4.5 minutes in, I'm shivering. Repeat 7 more times. At about the halfway point, one of my coworkers got me a can of orange juice, which was nice. It got the weird taste out of my mouth for a few minutes, anyway. Now, normally on release Wednesdays (the crappy days that I have to go in somewhere between 3 and 5 AM), I get off work in time to go to the 2 PM BJJ class. This is by far the best class of the week, and I hardly ever get to go. Unfortunately, after this whole platelet fiasco, training for 2 hours was not on the agenda. Instead, I went home around 2:30. Brian and I got some groceries, he made a delicious London broil, and I fell asleep around 6:30 PM on the couch. At 10:30 or so, I got up, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I slept until 6:30 on Thursday morning. Oh, and if you're interested, if you're just looking at a bag of platelets hanging there on the blood separating machine, it looks like melted ear wax. It's this weird yellow color, and looks thick and goozy. It was gross.
Thursday and Friday were normal work days (all crap). Tonight, I am skipping BJJ. I have no good reason. I just want to be on my couch, and not drive across town in the rain. I'll go tomorrow, though. It's an open mat, since Andrew is out in LA for the Pan Ams.
Oh, and Duke can suck it. They were supposed to win the stupid NCAA crap, and they lost to crappy Villanova. Way to screw my bracket, jerks.
Donating platelets is weird. Just weird. First of all, it took nearly 2 hours. I sat in the room for nearly an hour before I could even start, because they only have 2 platelet-donation stations. So, I watched Forest Gump with the rest of the donating folks, and sent a bunch of text messages. At about 12:30, Forrest Gump ends and it's finally my turn. One of my coworkers had already warned me that when they're returning your blood (well, the non-platelet part), you'll feel cold and your lips will tingle. Boy, was he right! Since I had never donated platelets before, I got to experience the default 8 cycle system. For 5 minutes, they pull blood out of my arm (with a giant needle, I might add). The entire time, I'm squeezing a little sponge-type thing, so I can keep the blood-sucking machine happy with the rate that I'm bleeding. The more I think about this, the less I like it. Anyway, even squeezing every 2 seconds, I don't bleed fast enough. I suppose this is good for most aspects of my life, but not at all good for donating blood on a schedule. Moving on...after they draw blood out, it starts getting returned to you. Now, the cells that they're returning are mixed with saline (hello, cold) and something else. About 2 minutes into the 5 minute return process, I start feeling queasy. I have a terrible metallic taste in my mouth, my lips are tingly, and I'm cold. About 4.5 minutes in, I'm shivering. Repeat 7 more times. At about the halfway point, one of my coworkers got me a can of orange juice, which was nice. It got the weird taste out of my mouth for a few minutes, anyway. Now, normally on release Wednesdays (the crappy days that I have to go in somewhere between 3 and 5 AM), I get off work in time to go to the 2 PM BJJ class. This is by far the best class of the week, and I hardly ever get to go. Unfortunately, after this whole platelet fiasco, training for 2 hours was not on the agenda. Instead, I went home around 2:30. Brian and I got some groceries, he made a delicious London broil, and I fell asleep around 6:30 PM on the couch. At 10:30 or so, I got up, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I slept until 6:30 on Thursday morning. Oh, and if you're interested, if you're just looking at a bag of platelets hanging there on the blood separating machine, it looks like melted ear wax. It's this weird yellow color, and looks thick and goozy. It was gross.
Thursday and Friday were normal work days (all crap). Tonight, I am skipping BJJ. I have no good reason. I just want to be on my couch, and not drive across town in the rain. I'll go tomorrow, though. It's an open mat, since Andrew is out in LA for the Pan Ams.
Oh, and Duke can suck it. They were supposed to win the stupid NCAA crap, and they lost to crappy Villanova. Way to screw my bracket, jerks.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Oatmeal
For years, I've wanted to like oatmeal. I like oatmeal cookies (but not the ones with raisins in them), so it seemed like there should be a way for me to eat oatmeal for breakfast. I tried all of the instant oatmeal with fruit, with cinnamon roll flavoring, maple and brown sugar, etc., but they all tasted weird and mushy to me...sort of like a bowl of mushy chemicals. So, I had pretty much accepted that I wasn't ever going to actually like oatmeal. Then, I found McCann's Irish Oatmeal in the hippie section of the grocery store. I liked the can, so I figured even if I didn't like the oatmeal, I was still getting a neat can out of the deal. (No, I had no plans for this can...it was just neat.) So, Brian makes some of this new oatmeal, and it's not too bad. I put some fresh fruit in it, and some nuts, and I found that it wasn't too bad. The only down side is that it takes like 45 minutes to make it. Boo! No way I'm getting up 45 minutes earlier to make oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes Brian will make a big batch, so we just have to reheat in the microwave, which works. The other day, I found oven toasted oats in the hippie section, and they claim that this oatmeal cooks in 3-5 minutes. I made some this morning, and it was more like 10 minutes, not counting the time it took the water to boil, but that is still preferred to 45 minutes. I'm having a bowl of semi-instant oatmeal right now. I added a little brown sugar, a bunch of pecans, and some sliced almonds. It's good. Not tolerable, but GOOD. It's so nice to finally have a breakfast option!!
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