"See Ya"

Although the road to the banquet is tremendously busy, frantic, tiring and demanding...as is the day OF....the day AFTER (or even at home that same night to be honest) always sends me into an immediate feeling of sadness, longing and nostalgia.  And to be quite honest...I feel a little lost and alone.  It seems funny, I know.  But there is this crazy sense of purpose...along with this intense team atmosphere in the last couple months of the year...everyone working together towards this huge goal.  And then...Poof...everyone goes their separate ways..on to new things.  Okay, okay...I know it's not that dramatic....but I have big feelings sometimes.

In fact...this clip here pretty much sums it up.  And I'm Elaine.  Lol.

I know it's silly.  I'll basically see you all again tomorrow.  And we carry on essentially the same as we have been.  But that feeling remains for a time, nonetheless.

Having said that, the night itself was amazing.  I am tremendously proud of my partner and I.  For one, her Student of the Year Award.  Well deserved for so many reasons.  And I'm not too proud to ride her coat-tails a bit.  Then there was the finale of our fan form.  Did I have some bloops?  Yes.  Unfortunately, my fan got stuck on me during our nunchucks.  Boooo.  So I had to abort the last one.  Then I had to adjust the catch a bit...and it caused a bit of a blurp in my steps following.  It was a bit humorous though.  It's funny how your mind works so fast in the moment.  I remember thinking "Hmmmmm....I don't think this is the right stance I'm supposed to be in for this particular move....hmmm...so that means, in order not to screw up the next bit, I have to STAY in this stance for this next fan opening.  Yup...okay...this is right now....Aaaaaaand...carry on".  But seriously...I truly remember those thoughts...even the Hmmmmmmms.  Yet when I watch the video, it's incredible to know that this internal dialogue occurred in about a half a second.  AND we didn't drop it...and that was the biggest win of all....lol.

Then there are my own students.  I always make a point of going around the room to chat with all of them.  I want to make sure they are happy and excited and that they belong. I try to alleviate any nervousness.  It's not easy getting up in front of a crowd.  It's not easy as adults!  And so I just think these kids are so brave and amazing every single time they put themselves out there like that.  And I'm so very proud of them for this huge accomplishment.  And my hope is that when they are in the IHC, it will be a non-issue.

The lion and dragon dance was spectacular as well.  Everyone did a fantastic job.  As a mom, I'm crazy proud of Emma.  As an Instructor, again, I'm so proud of my students.  And as a team member, I'm in awe of the rest of the team.  AND we pulled off the drumming.  Lol.  I'm not sure if anyone, aside from my drumming counterpart, truly understands the difficulty with all the different patterns...going in and out...drumming against the other drum....etc, etc.  I recall, when getting back into a typical 3-star, after maintaining the 3 1/2 for quite some time, my brain was on overdrive convincing my hands not to go back...while also telling my ears not to listen to the thunder drumming across the way because it's easy to get pulled into that other rhythm as well.  My arms feel kinda weak and jelly-ish today...as does my brain. Can't seem to pinpoint why....lol....Although on a serious note, I'd never get any better without Sihing Lindstrom pushing us to the brink of sanity.  Now we know we can and I can't wait to see what's in store for next year.

So yeah.  All in all...a pretty amazing night.  No wonder the nostalgia hits so quick.

Ps.  A big, giant, huge thank-you to Sihing Sharida Csillag for recognizing my distress call during the eye-dotting ceremony.  Not sure if anyone else noticed...hopefully not....but I started off with a "cheater" technique.  I did it last year and it was super easy to maintain, while also giving me a free hand to hold the dampening mat on the drum.  I don't know if it's that I am now just accustomed to long durations of thunder drumming, but the "easy" way was making my arm and wrist burn and I couldn't maintain it!  So I switched to regular.  BUT then I could no longer hold the mat and so it started to slide.  I attempted to hold it with one leg sort of against the drum.  But then it just started to slide more the other way.  So I attempted to hold it with both legs and ended up in this weird position where I was kinda standing like a hockey goalie.  Omg.  I wanted to burst out laughing.  I didn't know what to do!!!  Thank goodness I was able to catch Sihing's eye and "talk" to her with eye and head movements.....while desperately trying to maintain the thunder drumming.  Thank goodness she came to save me.  Hahaha.  This was one of the funniest moments of the night that I just had to share.