leveling up + plus awesome shoot = great week

Well, the most urgent and exciting news that I have to share this week is definitely that I got promoted to brown belt at my BJJ academy this week!   I started "unofficially" training jiu-jitsu in 2006 at open mats with friends, and started training officially at my academy in late 2007, so it's been a seven or eight-year journey, depending how you look at it, for me to get to this point in my wrestling life.

This is something that I've been simultaneously thinking might happen soon and thinking might never happen for a few months now.  Now that it has, it's very neat and, frankly, also a tiny bit terrifying.  No matter whether or not you think you're ready to be promoted, and no matter whether your professor thinks you've already earned it, a new belt brings a sense that now is when you need to start earning it.  Now you have to live up to it.  Maybe that's just me...but I think a lot of my classmates would agree.

Have to break in this shiny new belt now!

 

Then, another very excellent thing happened.  Yesterday, Diablo, Howl, and I had a wonderfully fun and productive video shoot.  Howl was been away from New York for about four months, and as one of our most scrappy, game, lightweight, and flexible male wrestlers, he's been sorely missed.

He was pretty tickled to find out that he has little fan base of his very own; indeed, no sooner did he return to New York, than we got a custom request for him.  This was for a men's pantyhose pro-style match between Howl and Diablo.  Howl made for an extra-feisty and troublesome jobber, so while this match was a near-domination by Diablo, it wasn't a shut-out by any means.  But, oh boy, when Diablo did catch Howl in those camel clutches, it looked like they were going for the record on bendiest, most back-breaking hold!  Seriously, people are not supposed to be that flexible.  So this was a lot of fun to see, and also a lot of fun to film.  I always like when Diablo has a video to do with someone else; it's the only time I get to run the camera and practice my filming.  I was pretty proud of myself after this one :)

Then we followed up with a video featuring Howl and me.  After much success with our "more traditional" female/female pantyhose catball videos (like this one, for example), we got some requests and were curious to try a mixed catball video.  Yes, Howl is at risk of becoming quite the pantyhose wrestling star here.  Our storyline was that we were ballet dancers rehearsing a show, and Howl was trying to upstage me during my solo!  The intro with him cutting me off and bumping into me was brilliant, funny, and, of course, infuriating!  I couldn't stand for it, and so...FIGHT!  Howl turned out to be about the most ferocious catballer yet, right up there with Candy Pain in our original Furious Pantyhose Catball Fight!  Oh my goodness, twisty-twiney-legged, hair-pulling, rolling madness!  But in the end, it didn't help him -- he ended up excessively tied up with many pairs of my old, torn pantyhose!

A few little preview pics from this one, too:

OK, now these were not the only things going on recently, just the most immediately exciting.  Quick run down on other stuff:  

My computer almost died, which was scary, irritating, and a definite fly in the ointment of an otherwise great week.  But I just got it back from the technician today, and it wasn't the whole hard drive that was shot, just the drive's connector cable.  Huge relief there.

I also had a couple new costumes for upcoming custom videos arrive in the mail.  Some not-fantastic camera phone shots of them here, just to give a sneak peak.  The videos will be much better than these quickie shots:

Also, bondage wrestling with Kevin scheduled for this Sunday!  Heh, heh, heh, Kevin really wants to beat me in some kind of competitive match or another, but I don't think it will be this one.  (Or any one!  Though he's welcome to keep trying, of course!)

And finally, a lot of RSVPs for next Tuesday's training session.  We had a very small little practice start-up gathering this past Tuesday, which was nice, but expecting a bit of a "thing" and some new faces next week, yay!

boo-yah!

Just quick update to share some excellent news. I was promoted at my BJJ academy today! Well, not exactly promoted, but I did get a new stripe on my blue belt. So a step on the way to purple belt. Very fun. And encouraging!

Also, I have to say how much I like this morning's instructor. He teaches basic, simple, high-success-rate moves, he's super-positive even early in the morning, he gets to know students individually, and what especially struck me today, he sticks to traditions some of the younger (and "cooler") instructors let slide.

There was a mass of promotions this morning -- like 5 stripes given out and two people raised to blue belt. For the belt awards, the instructor made the whole class turn to face the back wall so we couldn't see what would happen, snuck through the class and delivered the ritual beatings with the new belts. So you could hear the thwacks but not see who was being honored. Or know, if you were a high-ranking white belt, if you were going to be chosen. And afterwards everybody was encouraged to congratulate everyone else.

It was a little mini-party atmosphere at 8:30 a.m. with everyone needing to rush off to work. But it completely set such a great tone for the day. I am so pleased this guy sticks to the ritual forms. It's much more fun and meaningful that just handing someone a new belt, which I've also seen. Like keeping Santa and the Easter Bunny real for kids as long as you can -- it means something; it's special.

So, awesome morning, and thanks to a great professor.