RomanDA's Blog: 2006

After 4 1/2 years of taking Tae Kwon Do I tested for my Red Belt tonight. It was a pretty hard test, a little over 2 hrs.

Testing included:

Techniques: sorta of like Simon Sez. High blocks, Low blocks, etc.
Forms: Forms are series of Techniques that are put together into a form. I had to do, 8 of them. Wow, that's a lot of work. Some forms have 38 moves.
Self-Defense: Someone grabs your wrist, neck, chokes you, etc. You have to get out of it.
One-Steps: Its like a slow motion fight, one punch at a time.
Sparring: This is a fight, you against your opponent.
Breaking: this is what you see above. You start out breaking 1 board for every solid belt level. Yellow/Green/Blue/Red = 4 boards, Black = 5 Boards!! Gonna be interesting to break 5.

All in all it was a great test. I want to thank everyone who has helped my prepare. The next year will be really interesting, i hope to test for my Black belt sometime in October of this coming year.

It's amazing how fast your little ones can grow up, and when they do it's by leaps not steps.

Today was one of those leaps. My lil bud Alex had bugged me all last night to let him go to the skating rink today, so after making him clean 2 bathrooms and put away a ton of toys to make the $10 he was asking for to go, I took him to the rink. I had to drive into my office to drop off some things, so I told him I would be back in 2 hrs, and he needed to be very careful and not get into trouble. I came back in, sat down, and he came over to me..

"Daddy… can you keep a secret?"
"Sure buddy, what's up?"
"I'm in love…" (his eyes flittered and he looked all red faced)
"with who?"
"Her name is Diana (not her real name), and she is 15"
"How do you know her name and age?"
"I asked one of her friends"
"Where is she…"

He pointed out this girl who was very cute, and was defiantly 14 or 15. Now keep in mind Alex is 11, yes 11, and has to date ever show any "real" interest in girls. So I asked him what he liked about her, and he told me he liked her sweatshirt as it had "Jack Skeleton" from "Nightmare before Christmas" on it. I asked if he had talked to her, he said no, and that he didn't know what to do. He told me "every time I look at her my heart goes all flippy, and strange, and I can't breath". I looked at her and she was really a cute girl, but I didn't think she would be the type to give an 11 year old the time of day, so I told him "I think she is a little out of your league." He goes "Who put you in charge of the leagues?". So I guess he told me.. LOL

So I told him to skate by her and tell her he liked her sweatshirt. I really figured he would just say no but he goes "OK!, Good idea!" and takes off after her. Now keep in mind he is 11, and this girl is 15 surrounded by 3-4 other 15 year old girls. Now most boys of 15 would find that daunting, but not my bud. He skates up to her and I can see him talking to her, she smiles, laughs and he skates away. He comes back to me and tells me that he told her he liked her sweatshirt, and she said "thanks" and then he skated away.

He spent the next 2 hrs watching her skate and sit with all her friends. At several times he went toward their table but never got there.

So I asked "what do you want to tell her?"
"I don't know"
"You could ask her to skate with you."
"That's a great idea"

And dang if he didn't skate right up to a table of four 15 year old girls and ask her to skate with him. I was expecting her to laugh at him, along with her friends. However she surprised me and stood up and went to skate with him. Now she did bring her group with her, but she skated next to Alex and talked to him the whole time (2 laps.. LOL). He came back and was all excited.

I asked him what happened.. and he told me "I asked her to skate, and she said 'SURE'. Then we got out there and she asked 'me who paid me to ask her to skate'. I told her 'No One, I just thought you were pretty'"
I asked him what they talked about and he said "not a lot, The Nightmare before Christmas and some other stuff". He was all excited and happy. But you know things never go perfect. It was getting close to time to leave, and she now had a larger group of kids around her, some boys too. Well Alex wanted to ask her if she was going to be there next week, and he went out to skate up to her, he was about to get in front of her when one of the boys (12 or so) skated right into him and knocked him down. He banged his knee hard, and got all upset. He came over and was very upset. I knew the kid did it on purpose, and told him to just let it go and not do any more, let it go and maybe next Saturday we can come back and see if she was there again.

When he was getting his shoes back on, she skated by, and he looked up and she waved good-bye to him. We got home and he was all depressed, and I asked what was wrong..

He goes "My heart hurts"
"why buddy?"
"I don't know if I'll ever see her again.."
"I'm sure you will, we can go back next week and see.."

So now I'm sure he will be wanting to go skating on Saturday.. and I want to be there to see how he handles the "second date" .. LOL

I knew he was a ROMANcer LOL