Momma, what’s goin’ on here?

There are times when I feel like my life is blazing past me. Let me go ahead and utter the age-old parent’s lament, “my kids are growing up way too fast.”

My little ZoZo is loosing her first tooth. She filled the house with joyous shreaks and whoops when she first realized her tooth was loose. The entire house was required to wiggle her tooth multiple times to confirm the fact.

There has been A LOT of tooth wiggling in the ensuing days. So much so that she now has created some discomfort for herself. This morning she came to me, pointed to her loose tooth, and asked with about as sober a countenance as she is able to muster, “Momma, what’s goin’ on here.”

What’s going on is the gum around the tooth is now swollen and sore because she can’t keep her fingers out of her mouth. In addition to the irritated gum, I’m sure there are more insidious forces at work in her little mouth. I shudder to think about the germs her grubby little fingers are transferring into her mouth about 10,000 times a day. If she doesn’t succumb to some horrible illness before the tooth falls out, I feel pretty confident that she will have inoculated herself against most communicable diseases.

Lest you think I’m bemoaning my current state of worry, let me assure you, I’m treasuring every moment. When my body is old and my brain is racked by dementia, I really hope I’m able to remember the “Momma what’s goin’ on here” moments.

Well, I Guess That’s, That

Testing was…long and tiring. It was not quite as physically exhausting as I was expecting it to be. It was, however, a complete emotional drain.

My sore, right calf held up better than I thought it would. I’m sure the large quanitities of Advil I took made a difference. My liver probably shriveled to the size of a pea, but at least I could move my leg without visibly wincing.

Of course, I felt I cheated myself out of a decent test. I’m quite disappointed with some of the mistakes I made.

• I made some silly goofs in basics and forms. I tried to recover quickly, but I know a couple of the mistakes were blantantly obvious.
• My Hol Sin Sol could have gone better. As always, my reaction time when I’m grabbed is too slow and thoughtful. I neeed to react more quickly.
• Terminology was just plain weird. I misunderstood a few of the questions, so the black belt asking the questions probably thought I was an air-head or just plain stupid. Either way, I don’t think it bodes well for me.

My breaks went well. My Il Soo Sik went well. I think I came across as more powerful than the person I was paired with. My endurance test also went fairly well.

At the end of it all. It could go either way. The next few weeks will be painful waiting for Sa Bom Nim to say whether or not I passed.

Of course, Lefty has inside sources that have assured her that we both did alright. I won’t believe it ’til I hear it from Sa Bom Nim.

I realize now that I should have completed my black belt paper prior to testing. I think it is going to be very difficult to find the motivation to finish writing the thing now.