Toughening Up

I'm still thinking about what Crissy said the other night: that I need to toughen up for Japan. This morning I think I killed my alarm clock in my sleep and so I woke up late. I hate that. It wasn't so late that I was late for work, but it made me feel a little frantic all day. I'm still exhausted from last weekend. I haven't had time to catch up on sleep. Sunday went really late, considering all the things I had done just to get to Sunday. Rehearsal used up my every last bit of energy, but I still got up on Monday morning (I was so so tempted to call in sick), went to work, and then, inspired by Crissy, I went on a 5-mile jog after work.

Tonight was taiko teaching night, and I got there at 5:15, which is my own personal rehearsal time. I worked on solos and I was such a sweaty, dripping blob at 6 that I had to run to the store to get more drinks to re-hydrate for the 2 sets of taiko teaching classes that followed. My entire t-shirt was soaking wet. Wow. It doesn't even get that wet when I go running. But this is good. This is good toughening-up. I think toughening up is way more mental than it is physical. It's all about how far you think you can push yourself, and then moving beyond that and discovering that how far you thought you could go isn't as far as you actually can go. I like to read Megan's Blog and no matter how hard I think I work, it's good to know that there is someone out there a hundred times more driven and passionate than I am. It also helps to know that I'm not alone in what sometimes feels like the neurotic drive to play taiko. The other day Megan was talking about doing some sit ups, which are good and I was thinking hey maybe I ought to do more of those, but then I read on and she was doing them on an incline, and I was impressed, but then she said she was doing all that while clutching a 20-pound weight to her chest. Yikes.

But I think a more important thing for me is skills. Practice. Yes. Speaking of skills, I've been a little insistent with my students that they learn skills, and by golly, they are learning skills! I am so proud of them. One of my wonderful students said she went out and got a practice pad and some sticks and was practicing all week at home. I could have burst into tears, I was so proud and happy. And it showed too! She really rocked the basic beat we have been working on. See what practice can do?