24 hours

24 hour countdown til my Phase II testing! Yeah!! I think I'm ready. The week started off not too great with remedial kicking on Tuesday, but it's ended good! At lunch today, there were only 2 of us, so we did some shadow boxing, worked on the heavy bag, and then sparred for the rest of the time. It's really cool, alot of fun. But whoa, alot more practice is needed! When fists come flying at your head, all rational thought goes out the window! And I've discovered that I'm more likely to aim for the body than the head of my sparring partner. I also need to stop rushing at my opponent, letting him come to me. It's all practice though, experience. I took quite a few punches, some to the head, and realized that it doesn't hurt all that much. Well, it's friendly sparring, it's not supposed to hurt. But I have to learn to not blink when fists come at me. It's difficult to convince yourself that not blinking is good for you.

I talked with Kruu afterwards about competing. A year from now I can be thrown into the ring. I need to drop down to 150 though as I need to fit into a lower weight class. I'll never be less than 150 lbs, which means I'll be fighting women taller than me, but I think I can handle that.

Got a phone call this aft from a friend of mine which completely surprised me - banffers coming out of the blue! It was really nice actually, left me all warm and fuzzy for the rest of the day. :) Smile and hug via the telephone, it was great! Miss him alot, alot. I think I may have to pester Jay about having that winter reunion that he was talking about.

On the other hand, one other friend is still AWOL. He specifically asked if I was free today and I haven't heard from him since. Such is life. Oh well. Not to sound bitter or anything... :)