More Important Things

[batskeets]

So! The studio party went along pretty swimmingly. I did my usual thing of stressing out about getting everything in order before guests started arriving, and then stressing out about making said guests feel welcome, once they did, but I did eventually get past that. Again, as usual. We had a good turnout, got plenty of comments about how great the space looks, and good times were had by all. Oh, and the cookies were an absolute hit. Bwahahaha!

Party hosting is hard, though. I realize more and more, each time I host anything beyond a small gathering, that throwing the party becomes about the guests' experience, and my own desire to spend time chatting and enjoying the company of others usually falls by the wayside. I'm always left feeling as though I didn't spend enough time with anyone, but would I feel better if I just did whatever I wanted, with no concern for how my guests are feeling? No, probably not. There are more important things than oneself, sometimes.

Still, it was a fun evening, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the photographic silliness that ensued at various points. ;)

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The weekend's looking pretty good. Saturday night, there will be private room karaoke for a birthday, and Sunday is largely up-in-the-air, aside from derby practice. Tonight, I make my way to Eugene, to give UO Wushu a good beating at tonight's practice and tomorrow's Nanquan workshop... or at least, as much of one as I can, given my currently-gimpy condition.

I'm giving some thought to whether or not I'll compete at Berkeley this year, and I'm leaning towards No, at the moment. I have fun practicing at my current school, but I don't like doing tournaments half-assed, and I have a hard time seeing any way that I could go to Berkeley and not do a half-assed job. As of now, I have two sections of a Nandao form, when we should really have the entire form choreographed. The teaching at the school has always been much slower than it needs to be for me, and I don't get enough carpet time to actually improve, so the additional pressure of competing under those constraints isn't terribly appealing.

I suppose I could, theoretically, chase down a 20x40-foot carpeted space--which, uh, not easy to come by--and train on my own with the buckets of free time I have. Except, oh, wait, that part about having free time was 100% sarcasm. I love wushu, and I'm having a great time learning compulsory straightsword in the too-short classes at the school, but that's not going to help me be competitive.

Fact is, there are more important things for me right now, than trying to pull together competition-level forms. It makes me sad to realize that, but the lesson being beaten into me, over the past few months, seems to be this: "Now may not be the right time. Now doesn't have to be the right time. Stepping back for now doesn't have to mean giving up forever."

Still, I might make the trip down for the tournament, just to cheer for my folks and soak in the vibe. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll pass the Nanquan torch to a great bunch of kids who have a lot more time and a lot more fire for competitive wushu in their hearts.

Oh, and on a more cheerful note? THREE DAY WEEKEND! I love it when a work holiday pops up when I least expect it.

Comments

[xplo-eristotle.livejournal.com]

The trick is to have smaller parties.

This is easier to do when you don't know dozens of people, I suppose.

[sarapada.livejournal.com]

each time I host anything beyond a small gathering, that throwing the party becomes about the guests' experience, and my own desire to spend time chatting and enjoying the company of others usually falls by the wayside.

This is why I stress out over my birthday party EVERY year.