Mar27

And so I begin again.

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And so I begin again.

Twice, my Jiu-Jitsu instructor has said to my partner, “She’s a blue belt now, so don’t take it easy on her.” I feel like that’s an indication that he’s proud of me. And that means a lot.

The first time was to Thoughtful One, who said to me, “I saw the video of you getting the belt. I’m sorry I missed it.”

“That’s okay. You were there for the important one. Well, the other important one.”

Here I go again. When I fill this card, I get a stripe on my belt.

The second time Instructor said that was to Balloon Man. I spotted Balloon Man looking at me, then quickly up and side to side as though attempting to avoid eye contact.

I laughed. This was a throw back to me telling him months ago that I avoided looking at him because I was afraid to roll with him. He had joked that he was trying to avoid me because he was scared.

“You’re so funny,” I told him. And then, of course, he trounced me.

The Camaraderie

Thoughtful One celebrated his 50th birthday recently and invited the gym to his party. I was impressed that roughly 50% of the guests were Jiu-Jitsu-ers. Even the Combatives Belt Kid got himself a ride to the party.

At one point, Thoughtful One said, “Hey, Ilsa, this is Surfer Dude and Blue Belt’s band we’re listening to.”

“I wondered!” I told him. It’s cool that he had downloaded their music from Spotify.

Remember my homegirl, “Pink”? This is an old pic. We’re both blue belts now.

Anyhow, brace yourself for a foot pic. There’s a connection. Trust me.

I almost used this in the post about my black eye, where I talked about my lower extremities getting bruised up. You can sort of see two here.

That purple/periwinkle nail polish was a gift from Pink. She included it in a mini gift bag with a couple of other goodies for Christmas. She had a gift bag for everyone, having carefully curated the nail polish for the individual, when appropriate. For instance, Surfer Dude/Metal Head/Rockstar got black!

Once, when about to roll with Pink, she and I talked about the nail polish, happy and cheery. A minute later, mid-struggle, I said, “I love how we were having this nice, pleasant conversation, and now we’re actively trying to hurt each other.”

#Jiu-JitsuIsWeird

There have also been several times when my partner has given me pointers on how best to hurt him or her when I don’t quite have the move right. See? Weird. But also helpful!

So what’s next?

Shortly before I got my blue belt, a friend asked if I was going to quit Jiu-Jitsu once I did.

“I don’t think I can,” I said. “I’d miss the people too much. Plus, it’s therapy.”

Not that I have problems beyond the standard, but I saw essentially this on Instagram and thought, “Yep!” Jiu-Jitsu is my happy place.

Dave commented on my post about getting the blue belt: “This was a long journey and many enjoyable reads (but for heaven’s sake, now what do you do for an encore?)”

Well, when I wrote about Jacqui’s idea that I write a memoir, I had no idea where it would end. Earning my blue belt feels like a good spot. The epilogue could be about how I continued on and where I am at the time of the writing.

So, Dave, the encore is that I didn’t stop. And then I wrote a book about it, which will contain far more than what I’ve blogged here. I already have the query letter set. I just need to finish pulling the book together first.

Oh yeah, and finish writing the sequel to Wish I Was Here, too. Sure. No problem. All the time in the world.

Here are the guesses on how I responded after I thanked Hubby for “putting up with his crazy wife,” and he said, “As opposed to the not crazy one?”

  • “You have ANOTHER wife? I’ll kill her!“
  • You responded with a neck hug choke hold or that new Broken Scissor Choke.
  • “You have a sane sister-wife? Very cool. I hope she either makes a lot of money or is a good cook.”
  • “I didn’t know you were married before.”
  • “I’ll kick her ass.”
  • “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”
  • “Oh, I took her out in my first class!”
  • “You have ANOTHER wife? Great! I could use some help cleaning the toilets!“
  • “We all have two wolves inside us.”
  • “Crazy wife one day; not crazy wife the next.”
  • Bonus points to Ab for asking, “Your husband is still alive, I’m assuming?” 😛

If you’re a super fan who reads all the comments, you may recognize that one of the above wasn’t in the last post’s comments. That one is the correct answer. If you know it, just say, “I know!” Otherwise, feel free to guess which one is the correct answer. 🙂

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75 responses »

    • Yep. In TKD we got black stripes on our belts, or the color of the next belt to be earned, to show our progress. In JJ we get white stripes on a black band on our belts. White belts get a stripe for every 20 classes. Blue belts have to fill that card for a stripe. For both, it’s four stripes showing you’re about ready to test on for the next belt.

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  9. While I understand why someone asked you about quitting, I also get how you’ve made friends and want to continue. Life is like that. Purple toenails rock, btw. I say that without any desire to do Jiu-Jitsu, just knowing they look great on me. 😜

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  10. In some parts of the world, after a while the first wife starts asking when he’s going to bring home some help with all the laundry, cooking and babysitting! Margaret Mead calculated that using this model the average “primitive” woman enjoyef 50% of her time free to sit in the meadow and watch butterflies if she wished (not the picture we’re ordinarily given).

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  11. Hey Betsy – first of all, congratulations on your blue belt -that is terrific! I totally understand how Jiu-Jitsu is a stress reliever and happy place for you. I always get a great vibe from these posts – you have some major friendships going on there.

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  14. So relieved to hear the encore is already in motion. Ilsa without Jiu-Jitsu feels like identity theft. We’d be reading about all the time you’re spending in the kitchen baking weird concoctions and… well… let’s just say Jiu-Jitsu makes for the more interesting topic. I wanted to hazard a response to last week’s trivia question but now I’m glad I didn’t. The ones on the list are WAY better than anything I would’ve submitted. I vote “toilets”.

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    • My baking failures aren’t interesting enough to you, Dave?!?! Kidding. Kidding.

      Thank you for voting. No one else seems to be brave enough. There are several that are similar, so I know it’s a tricky one.

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      • Occasionally reading about your baking failures certainly spices things up, but every week? Nah. My own baking failures are more than enough to fulfill my appetite 🙂

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      • Fair enough. It’s a good thing I don’t have any more Taekwondo belt ceremonies to bake for. Shoot. There is a child’s birthday on the horizon, however …

        Stay tuned!

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  15. The camaraderie and bond really comes out in your writing. These nicknamed characters and the different journeys and the fun – and foot pictures! – you all go on is to me the real draw of Jiu Jitsu. And that’s very apparent in who was invited to and showed up for the 50th party!

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    • I keep seeing stuff on Instagram about the importance of joint health and mobility as we age, so I’m glad I have something that definitely keeps me moving! Thanks, Diane!

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  18. I was nostalgically talking about a periwinkle polartec jacket I owned decades ago – and then i see your nail polish! I like!

    Scrolling through your posts to find out why your left ankle is in a brace (never mind the mismatched Walmart look – I am all for comfortable footwear, matching or otherwise) – this is what happens when I am splotchy with my presence on WP … can’t keep track of what’s going on and missing all sorts of important things.

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    • My condolences for the long ago jacket. :/ The ankle brace is from the injury I sustained in Jiu-Jitsu years ago when I left the first time. I was fine for a year. Then I returned to JJ, and it flared up again. I just fight through the pain–in more ways than one. 😉

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