You're so [very] special. I wish I was special.

[judecorp]

Wow. It's been quite a while since I went an entire day without posting, without having gone away on vacation. I just didn't have a single speck of time yesterday.

Wednesday is my early morning at the internship, because I do groups in schools beginning at Whitehall Yearling at 8. Thanks to rush hour, that gets me out of the house at 7:20. Joy of joys. I needed to wrap up some work stuff after my last client (make phone calls, change my voicemail message, close some cases, etc.) and didn't leave work until 5:40pm, which is unheard of for a Wednesday. I got home a little after 6 and had a healthy dinner of chips and salsa, and at 7:30 I sat in on a TKD class.

What is bizarre about this dojo ("Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?") is that the entire OSU College of Social Work goes there. It is absolutely nutty. The Dean of my effing Master's program is there. And she's a red belt, for crying out loud! But there are other professors in it, too, like my godawful stats professor that we all tried to get fired last year, and Schoolmate Adam, and some other people. It looks like a great deal of fun, so I need to email Schoolmate Jean and see if she wants to sign up with me. I talked to one of the newer people and she seems really nice. Whee! I need to call and figure out how/when to get started.

I got back to my car at 9ish, after talking with Dr. Kondrat (no, I suppose she's "Mary Ellen" inside the dojo) about the Comprehensive Exam. That was kind of funny. I had to call Ms. Mindy back, because she called me while I was watching the class. We talked for about an hour, which was nice. This is me trying to completely not get involved. I told The Girl^TM that I wanted to get together with her next week, and that's cool with her. YAY! I love my Ms. Mindaboo. Boston TIMsters r0xx0r my s0xx0rs!

Speaking of next week, my goodness, we're coming down to crunch time. Coworker Velma and I are leaving tomorrow night to begin driving east, and I have so much to do! Oy.

1. look over material for comps
2. make cheat sheet for comps
3. submit written notice to leasing office
4. mail out taxes
5. call about TKD class
6. go to the bank
7. do laundry
8. find best route from Klumbis to hometown
9. take comps
10. pack for trip
11. leave! (Woot!)

This afternoon is yummy lunch with 356dreamer. Yay! Hey, crena, are we doing anything ice cream related this evening?

Shoot. I have to go on campus and pick something up, too. Bleh!

Sappy girl ramblings here.

My goodness, I love this girl. It is one of the most powerful, profound things I've ever felt. Her touches are electric, just the subtle sensation of skin about to brush against skin quickens my breath. Her words make my stomach somersault and concave. Before she came here last weekend, she said her goal was to make me fall in love with her again. My dear gods - she succeeded right after I picked her up at the airport. I asked her, in a doe-eyed moment of mystery, "How did this happen?" The sweetest answer, "It started with 'Happy Birthday'." *sigh*

Next week, for a few days we're off to Provincetown to soak in some quality ocean-time and even more quality us-alone-time. No parents, no exes, no having to be someone's guest. I'm /really/ looking forward to it. I've never really been taken away like this before - the closest I suppose would be the neat cabin we rented on A's and my honeymoon in the Smoky Mountains. Mmmm - the Cape, the ocean, The Girl^TM, privacy. Heavenly.

One of the users in the columbus community, crazyveigh, posted recently that same-sex relationships are against God because the basis for them is lust, not the love that God intends. Or something like that. I admit I was skimming a bit by the end because I needed to get to TKD. There was a time when reading something like that would make me all fired up in an angry way. Last night it just made me think of a girland the incredible thing we've got, and I smiled.

I say it to her all the time, and I'm genuinely boggled every time I say it: What we have is good. It's so, so good.

Comments

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Question first, and then later I will answer this properly:

What makes you think that the people in my program (professors and students) are taking this class to use it with clients? Can people do activities that aren't work-related?

It's rather assumptive to think that because a bunch of people all do a certain thing, that it is work-related. I don't assume that you and Allen take karate to kick your computers.

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[kungfoogirl.livejournal.com]

At the end of my comment, I said that I am all for people taking martial arts. I absolutely encourage it. So, for the record, my comment wasn't meant to be a flame.... I'm just curious.

As a programmer, my clients will almost never attack me. And if they do, I have the right to defend myself as much as I have to.

As a social worker, your clients MAY attack you. And if they do you have a responsibility to not injure them.

That is why social workers taking TKD is a topic that gives me pause. Training to injure an opponent, and then putting yourself in a situation where your training is likely to be needed, but not being able to use it...well...that seems like it could cause some issues.

Furthermore, martial arts training is NOT something that can be turned off. If you have decent martial arts training, when someone attacks you, you're going to use your techniques. You can't think about it and process it, and pick how you handle the situation. It's got to be instinctual. Otherwise it's useless. Do you see the conundrum here? If my training is good, that makes me dangerous to my clients. If I'm safe with my clients, I'm ineffective on the streets.

So, it has very little to do someone taking TKD with the intent of using it at work. You train with the intent of using it when/where ever it is needed. It's not a weapon that you put down and lock away.

Does that make any sense?

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[zarabeth.livejournal.com]

"Karate for defense only."

And what Jude said about activities non-work-related.
(Maybe this activity just fits all of their schedules.)

Though all activities do permeate (in various ways) all aspects of our lives. But this is why it is meaningless to talk about some cause-effect correlation between martial arts and social work, like the one predisposes the other. You can say there are similarities. And you can say there are differences. But this is always true of any pair you pick. The similarities and differences appear when you analyze; they come from the act of interpretation and semiosis; they may or may not have some objective reality; a different interpretation might find very different similarities and differences.

The martial arts teach focus. Balance. The connection of mind and body. These are universally applicable things.

To act instinctively but with mindfulness seems to me something we all should learn.

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Hi Kungfoogirl,

When I was a social worker, I took "crisis intervention" once a year, approximately. It was a combination of passive restraint techniques and what I called "how to duck a punch 101." Supposedly, they were to teach us "verbal deescalation" also, but they never taught anything a social work type didn't already know :)

Trouble with this was that you took it once a year, and didn't use very often, but if you needed it, you really needed it. The defense moves were similar to(but not the same as) Akkido moves -- my friend who is a black belt in Akkido thought so, at least, when we talked about it.

So, what I really wanted, I think, was to take Akkido or Tai Chi somewhere small, and talk with an instructor about my self-defense needs and work on those regularly. Before I got around to it, I burned out and left the field for grad school. When I'm done, I'll be teaching elementary school, and just won't have the same needs.

Just wanting to shed more light on my comments -- I don't think this looks like a flame, but it's really not meant to be. I can see your point about TKD -- especially about the danger of not being able to "turn off" certain instincts.

Just my two cents. Again :-)

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[kungfoogirl.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with you. 100%

I train something like 5 days a week, and that STILL isn't enough, sometimes. Once a year is not nearly enough training. I feel that it gives certain people a false sense of security. "I can step in to this dangerous situation because I've been trained in restraint techniques!" Bull crap. That's a fast way to get hurt. It has to become instictual in order to be effective. One training a year ain't gonna cut it.

As far as other schools of martial arts being more along the lines of what I'd imagine to be a better match for social workers: I, again, agree 100%. Judo or aikido are soft styles that focus on redirecting an opponents own energy or perhaps pressure points. Those two types of martial arts would be a MUCH better match, I think. They rarely involve punches and kicks and other hard-style techniques. T'ai Chi is also wonderful for this, as you mentioned.

I guess my original point was just that the training in TKD seems like it might clash with other parts of a social workers life.

But since I'm such a martial arts geek, I'm glad to see people taking ANY kind of martial art. =)

Thanks for the comments. Quite insightful, IMHO.

Re: Martial Arts and Social Work.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

So, it has very little to do someone taking TKD with the intent of using it at work. You train with the intent of using it when/where ever it is needed. It's not a weapon that you put down and lock away.

Does that make any sense?

Sure it does. I just don't agree.