26.

This past weekend I was ranked in karate, was 41 feet in the air crossing 452 feet of trees, and squeezed in 4 hours of work in order to celebrate orbiting around the Sun for 26 years.

I was up at 6:30am for Kyu testing, which is the opportunity to be ranked at kyu: white and brown belt ranking.  The rankings are as followed:
White belt: 8th kyu, 7th kyu, 6th kyu, 5th kyu, 4th kyu
Brown belt: 3rd kyu, 2nd kyu, 1st kyu
Black belt: 1st degree, 2nd degree, 3rd degree, 4th degree, 5th degree (highest degree).

As of saturday I was not yet ranked since starting again in February. Obviously my goal is to become a black belt but we were reminded Saturday morning that it was not a Pass/Fail test and it is not as important what rank you are but how strong your mentality and spirit are. You are your own opponent.

Shotokan founder Gichin Funakoshi has said that: 

[...]mind and technique become one in true karate. We strive to make our physical techniques pure expressions of our mind’s intention, and to improve our mind’s focus by understanding the essence of the physical techniques. By polishing our karate practice we are polishing our own spirit or our own mentality. For example, eliminating weak and indecisive movements in our karate helps to eliminate weakness and indecision in our minds

Now, everyone who knows me, KNOWS how indecisive I am! A trait I wish I never had. I am now a 7th kyu white belt. I realize I have many years to go but am committed to it. Not pursuing karate when I moved here in 2003 was a mistake. I took advantage of the move to adjust to my new life in the states and used it as an excuse. That is weakness!

After testing, went to work for a few hours and then finally, my day began! My best friend Maddie drove 6 hours to spend the weekend. We met up with 2 other friends and went zip lining at Eagle Creek Park. Eagle Creek is big, bold and beautiful.  The course is surrounded by copious amounts of activities such as sailing and boat rentals, 22 miles of hiking trails, 2 nature centers, a swimming beach, state nature preserves, cross-country skiing paths, waterfowl sanctuary and even a shooting range. I was in JenDome! We only zip lined. There were 5 individual sections within the zip lining course, each section took us higher into the forest canopy and finishing with a zip line higher and longer than the previous one.

After the park, went back home to prepare for dinner and a night out on the town. Went to Mesh restaurant in downtown Indianapolis and had the best filet mignon ever. We went to a few bars afterwards, had a condiment contest with Madeline (the video is on my Facebook) but running around since 6:30am and having one too many drinks.... I was out by 12:30am. I am such a loser.

Here's to being 26!

Cheers