les's dreams come true

Some folks dream of white sand beaches and tropical breezes. Others dream of climbing Everest, writing the Great American Novel, or playing Carnegie Hall.

Not les, though. Les doesn't dream big. She dreams banjo.

And she's pleased as a poodle in pink to report that the lesmom made her Christmas dreams come true.

No, of course that isn't the banjo les is holding in the photograph, dear reader. That's Hattie Brown and Jean Bean, the lesdogs. I don't have a photo of my lovely banjo, yet. But I do have a banjo!

Ah, love is sweet.

les sorts things out

Welcome, dear reader, to another edition of the Lesblog.

The handsome young gentleman to your right is one of the lesnephews, Bailey. Last Christmas, Bailey was the star of his elementary school holiday pageant, surprising everyone in the lesfam with not just his ability to carry a tune, but the fact that he didn't faint dead away when asked to carry that tune audibly in front of a packed gymnasium.

I'm looking forward to seeing Bailey and his brother Camden perform in a local holiday theater production in a couple of weeks. Yes, les is taking yet another journey back to OH to visit the lesfam.

Having to drive 13 hours to see the kids break a leg in a small town theater production is one of the reasons why your les continues to contemplate the move back to Ohio. I tell the family I'll be there by June (lack of a job or access to vegetarian food be damned!). Then I come back here to lesland and I realize that my work is important to me (however frustrating) and my friends are important to me and my BJJ school is important to me.

Besides, there was a reason 20-some years ago that I moved away...and have stayed away all this time. I'm still trying to figure out of the reason is valid.

In response to my last blog entry, regarding my hero, Mr. Marcelo Garcia, the lesis suggested that I used to have daggerlike fingernails. Please note that the les has never in her life had daggerlike fingernails, or in fact, fingernails of any caliber whatsoever. But that doesn't mean les wasn't a scrappy kid. In fact, I think the "Lord of the Flies" atmosphere around the leshomeplace when we got off the bus everyday (with the lesbro in charge) is what made les such a fighter today. We have no one to blame but the lesbro.

les learns cool stuff

The gentleman to your left, dear reader, is one Marcelo Garcia. This is one of my BJJ heroes. He is like the Mozart of BJJ. By that I mean that he is a virtuoso. Google up his name and watch his videos if you don't believe me.

Best, he is a small man who competes successfully against big men (and being one of the smallest "guys" in my BJJ school, I need heroes who do small man jiu jitsu).

So not only is Mr. Garcia my hero, but I actually got to learn from him today. It's true. Little old Les learned from and rolled with the man who is considered by many to be, pound for pound, the greatest grappler in the world.

How, you may well ask, would little old Les have a chance to even breathe the same sweaty air as Marcelo Garcia? Well, oddly enough, Les is connected. She is a student at Link Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (formerly Marco Alvan BJJ). And Marco brought Marcelo to Ludlow for a 2-day seminar. I attended the gi seminar today.

We spent 2 1/2 hours on positions. Beginning by pulling guard from the stand up, we segued naturally into a sweep, and then took the back--pausing to learn how to get the hooks in against a defensive player--then passed half guard, with each technique flowing one to the next most sensibly. Afterward, we sparred for a while. I had a chance to have my right arm barred by my hero. Thank you, Marcelo, I'll nurse my stiff elbow with fondness.

The best part of the whole day was getting to sit back and watch world champion grapplers like Marcelo Garcia and Gabriel Napao Gonzaga (one of our Link instructors) and Regis (sorry, forgot his last name--he was there as Marcelo's uke, but he is also quite an accomplished grapper), roll.

Now Les is home, holding down the couch, nursing her stiff joints and watching the Pats alternately shine and embarrass themselves against Detroit. Looks like it's time to head to the shelter holiday party. Sigh.

the return of les: or why les has no ass

It's true.

No more boredom. No sir-ee-Bob.

What Les did over her summer and fall:

Les played the guitar.
Les worked her ass off merging the animal shelters.
Les played the guitar some more.
Les taught a couple of Brazilian jiu jitsu classes for her non-bjj martial arts friends.
Les worked her ass off some more.
Les visited Ohio a coupla three times where, among other things, she went bowling and played the guitar with Lesrelatives.
Les worked until she was virtually ass-less.
Les trained in BJJ sporadically.
Les watched TV.
Les adopted a new dog (much to the Lesmom's chagrin).
Les worked her ass off.