great class

yesterday was the first time in about 9 days that i trained at temple. most of my physical energies have been going towards the prep to move, the move itself, then the post-move stuff. i really needed to train & had been keen on it for a while. got to temple fairly early, the chi gong folks were all still there & quan tuo, who beat me there. he & i practiced hand stands as a better prelude to ceshoufans than just doing them cold like i usually do. it's pretty scary doing handstands even against the wall with someone spotting you. my upperbody strength is crap. but i did this a few times & continued with ceshoufan trying to work both sides. as people filtered in, i took more breaks to chitchat because i didn't want to exhaust myself before class started. i was nice & warm already so i just had to keep moving. i think there were about 30 people with a couple of trial class folks. the chi was good & it went fairly fast though sifu made us "walk" a couple of times when he thought we were doing drills sleepystyle. i was huffing & puffing at first, clearing my poor lungs along the way. the knee felt weird, my left hip popped out & i felt jelly legged. but i kept going. the 3 man stretch was great, those shaolin inches add up! waibaituis after really killed & i am guilty of doing only 2 or 3 before walking the rest of the way. the tengkongholiotuis were good but i really practiced punching down like quan tuo & i worked on at home.
forms were good, it averaged with all the people in line to about a form every 4 minutes so i got to do chuji quantao & yiluquan about 6 times each. i was sucking wind at the end of yiluquan but i was doing it with chi! quan tuo said it's looking good but i need to remember to amituofo at the end. then he laughed at me for clapping for myself. i mean if i don't clap for me, why would i clap for anyone else? i rather like it. but the amituofo at the end tells people you have completed the form. but don't they know i have completed it since they know the form themselves? seems silly. i was so sweaty i changed underhirts before stretching. i hardly ever do that but i guess it's because it's been a little while since i sweat like that (not that moving didn't inspire it's own crazy amounts of sweat!). sifu reminded us that everyone must have a change of uniform (i only have the one) & that we shouldn't be dripping in our gear (as some were) but somehow all my sweat is in my chest & around my hips, or coming down my face from somewhere on the top of my head! i will bring change of undershirt, must remember.
i cleaned the altar & kissed beautiful buddhas as my cleaning meditation. i introduced myself to a new classmate training for a month who was the star of the tv show highlander in the 80's named adrian paul. i had seen him at temple tuesday when stavros & i came to fetch quan tuo. i asked him for an autograph for dano & i of course elected that he do so on the USAST flier. we chatted a bit, i don't think he really minded this bit of fandom & then i sent him off to clean like everyone else. nice guy. dano will be psyched when i dhl it to him on monday.
my pubu felt strong today & it generated some great chi from people. i was unbelievably thirsty too, i finished my waterbottle which i almost never do. i was ready to eat & drink immediately after class!
the gang tried a new place for refueling - shanghai cafe. heng de & leo who both speak chinese ordered for us - family style - the food was yummy & it was just enough & satisfying & in the end was fairly inexpensive. great dinner with great company. i am going to put together email invites for 2 Dalai Lama events coming up - a movie & his visit to Central Park. There was a lot of interest at the table & i am sure we can get everyone together.
working from home today, if it can be called that. it's a fairly quiet day & i wanted to enjoy the time Midian is away somewhat.
had a lovely hour catching up with rosa yesterday between work & temple. good conversation with my bloodbrother too about white lightning. it was an all kinds of good day.
sifu & some brothers are off to the retreat & i am so sad i am not going but it isn't financially good to be a spendthrift right now. besides the cost of the retreat alone without transportation is the equivalent of 3 months of training! but i wish to do this sometime. i hope there are more retreats in the near future.
more chi!