I was truly torn yesterday at the close of the business day about whether I should go to the DAs’ thing, or to jujitsu, or do some hybrid of both (for which I’d have to sacrifice alcohol with the DAs). The timing would be pretty tight because I’d have to leave the DAs in about an hour to make it to jujitsu. And then the answer came when a coworker, the one who took care of fuzzy wuzzy Dodo bear (a.k.a. the cat with the cone) the week I was on the cruise, came and asked for a favor. Her car was still in the shop, and she needed a ride home, and her home is less than a mile from my home. I grasped that as divine intervention, and left for home with her. I got to see her new townhouse and meet her adopted pregnant kitty, a very pretty and petite silver tabby whom I became fast friends with, and we hung out about half an hour until I left to go home and change for jujitsu.

I was so glad I went! Our instructor shut the door and gave us a “secret blackbelt workout.” Every school has their secret moves passed down only to the serious, very advanced students (and in some beliefs, only to the first-born son of the instructor), and we got to play with 3 of these moves. Pretty lethal stuff. I also told the instructor that just that day, my turn for picking vacation time came up and to my shock, the 1st week of November was available (which I immediately snatched), which means I can join the class for the week-long jujitsu training in Hawaii this year! Our school originated from Hawaii, so he’s still got connections there with some of the other instructors who were students back when he was. We’re going to have a clinic for 3 of the 7 days to work out, learn Hawaiian massage, and Hawaiian stick fighting. The other 4 days are ours to goof off and explore, plus there’s a banquet somewhere in the middle with an authentic Hawaiian luau (not the commercial stuff they give tourists, but a real, private one). They’re hooking us up with a beachside hotel and a good rate on flights. Unfortunately, it turns out when my instructor said “the first week of November,” he didn’t mean the first calendar week. He meant the first 7 days of November, which begins on a Wednesday, and my vacation days go by calendar weeks and I don’t have the 2nd week off from work. Once we figured that out, he immediately called Hawaii and changed the banquet from Sunday to Saturday so I can still attend and they’re going to shift the workouts some to accomodate me. I’m grateful they’ll do that, so I’m thinking of flying in early (since I have the whole week off) and doing my own thing first, then ending the vacation with the training, whereas the other students are going to begin their vacation with training and end on goofing off. He even made arrangements with the other Hawaii-based instructor to pick me up at the aiport. “So you have to wear a shirt that says ‘Cindy,’ he joked. “You got any of those?” I said, “That’s my whole wardrobe!”

I’ve never been to Hawaii. I can’t wait!

There are days I’m too tired or lazy to go to jujitsu, but there is not one time when I made myself go that I was not laughing and really glad that I was there.