Sunday, September 23, 2012

Countdown, Combatives, Chemo and a Chorus

Just 10 more days before I get to see my soldier girl! 

I sent off my last stack of letters to her a few days ago - and when I say "stack" I mean it. A total of 15 pieces of mail, so she'll have things to read clear up until graduation day. :) Good thing she doesn't have to do pushups for mail anymore! Not writing letters everyday now has freed up a little time, and at first I felt a little lost as to what to do with the extra time. Then I realized I have a crap ton of things to do, and just over a week to get them accomplished! Yikes!

I've been slowly moving things from my home office into my daughter's room new office to give me a little more space to work (and hopefully the space to start sewing again). My old office will get turned into the reloading room. I've received some criticism from family members over this "Where will she stay when she comes back from AIT." Uhhh, a dorm on the college campus of her choosing? As a dear friend of mine so eloquently put it "She's a grown ass woman now. She can take care of herself." ;)

Anyhow, the office move is almost complete, and then we'll move the reloading bench and the accompanying tools/supplies, and my house might look like a house again, instead of a gun shop!

We started the combatives class on Friday. It was a two hour class, and I already feel like I have tools in my arsenal that I could use right now if I had to. I am battered, sore and bruised, but I'm going to try to participate in today's class today too. We'll see what happens. :)
I've learned how to negotiate my way out of being pinned to the ground, and how to react if shoved into a wall or other vertical surface and come out swinging to create enough space to escape.

Don't misunderstand....there is no false sense of security here with me thinking these will get me out of any situation. I know I have MUCH more to learn. This class has reinforced in my mind that a gun certainly isn't the right tool for every situation - something I already knew.
During the grappling exercise where I had to negotiate my way out of being pinned to the ground, there was no way I could even reach my gun (if I had had it on me). The key was getting out of being pinned down, creating space between me and my attacker and getting out of there when possible.
I had a couple of different partners for this exercise (of varying body types) and I surprised myself by being able to get out of it with even the biggest/heaviest guy in the class, and I'm pretty small (5'2" and 110# soaking wet). It was about knowing how to move to start creating space between us, and fighting dirty where needed.

Hubs starts chemo today, and has an MRI on Tuesday this week. I'm praying for good news, and for the side effects to be minimal.

And finally....I have another blog where hubs' and I talk about life with brain cancer, and I've been doing a "New Music Monday" series (well, trying anyway...sometimes it's Thursday or Saturday before I find the perfect song to post LOL). This weeks entry is by a band called "Otherwise" out of Las Vegas, called "Soldiers." The band describes the song on their youTube page as such:
The song began as a metaphor for the battle that unsigned bands go through to get their message heard as artists, then quickly transformed into an anthem for everyone living on the front-lines of life. "When I started writing the lyrics, I was staring at my bandmates and thinking that they are my brothers in arms," says the singer. "It was going to be our anthem, but by the time I finished I realized it was an anthem for our whole nation. We are all soldiers fighting for something, whether it's to put food on the table, to be heard, or just to be happy. Every soldier is human, and we're all human."
It just fits my life so perfectly right now, for many reasons. Well worth a watch & listen.





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