happy birthday to me

Accepting my fate here in this strange new city, I might as well start devoting myself to this new gym. I decided this weeks ago, but it's taken some time to implement the decision by going more often. I finally got to the advanced sparring class today, all full of anxiety because I had no idea what to expect, and it was underwhelming. Advanced, like Han Dynasty's 10/10 on their spicy scale is all that spicy.

I had Chinese food with my aunt. It's a decent restaurant, but nothing is all that spicy anymore, except my own cooking. Northstar MMA is a decent gym, but their advanced sparring class seemed kinda basic to me. I got some good sparring in. It's more regimented than the open sparring system I'm used to. We all just spar for round after round for about an hour. It was fine, but my jaw doesn't even hurt.

The BJJ, OTOH, has been frustrating. I'm getting my ass kicked by almost everyone. Some of them tap me out over and over like I'm a complete newbie again. I don't know if I'm rusty or not trying, due to being in unfamiliar territory, or if a lot of them are simply a lot better than most of the people at my old gym.

The instruction does seem a lot better. The gym itself is lacking in a lot of ways, but both the BJJ and Muay Thai instruction has been more technical and difficult. In theory, I could go back to Vermont in a few years, having greatly improved and impress everyone, but I never seem to get the upshot of anything. Somehow it won't work out that way.