I did the predictable things during my spring break “staycation”: painting, writing, dancing (salsa and tango), dropping off press kits, organizing my files (electronic and tangible), and training capoeira. Yet, one of the most memorable parts of my time off was trying something I’d never done before: jiu jitsu.

I’d heard of the “other” Brazilian martial art before since I have practiced capoeira, off and on, for 5 years.  Yet, when my capoeira teacher, Alex, invited me to join him in the fundamental jiu jitsu class that he attends, I envisioned practicing punch and kick drills.  Other than capoeira, I’d practiced hapkido for a year when I lived in Seoul, Korea.  So, I figured, every martial arts must have kicks and punches, right?

We missed most of the warm up exercises since we came late.  Plus, I had to change out of my capoeira uniform into a gi that the instructor, Marcelo, had given me, then fill out a form.  Once I joined the line up of seven other students, Marcelo was practicing the first technique with Alex. Then, we 8 students paired up to practice what appeared to be a wrestling technique. Since there was one other woman in the class, we paired up.

She was very patient with me and although she had only been practicing jiu jitsu for 2 months, she was quite knowledgeable about the sport. From my brief technique practice of two different moves, I understood that jiu jitsu players want to restrain their opponent’s movement by pinning him/her.  If you find yourself pinned, then you must maneuver to break free and pin your opponent.  Technique is perhaps the greatest skill that a jiu jitsu player must train for.  Like most things in life, things go much more smoothly with a logical strategy.  Then again, when all else fails, use brute strength!

During the latter part of the class, we sparred with one another for 5 minute-intervals.  Those were the longest 5 minutes of my life.  Marcelo had me spar with Alex first so he could explain the “rules” to me.  I guess Marcelo figured that since Alex was my capoeira teacher, he should be used to explaining things to me. First thing Alex explained to me was that we start in a kneeling position rather than a standing position since this was a fundamentals class.  In the advanced class, they start in a standing position and have to take each other down first before pinning.  All that spared me was being thrown to the ground, for which I was grateful to be spared that extra pain.

Next, he told me how I had to grab at various parts of the gi in order to manipulate my opponent to trap them.  Throughout our entire round, I just kept thinking how this whole endeavor reminded me of a date gone wrong. Afterall, the way we were trapping each other was to wrap our legs around the other tightly and trying to prevent the opponent from getting free.  If you were trapped, then you had to maneuver an escape…the most popular seemed to be the choke.

As my third sparring partner enthusiastically and repeatedly advised me, in order to effectively choke someone, you have to cross your arms, grab the opponent’s lapels very close to his/her neck and pull like hell until they gave some signal.  Despite my naturally aggressive personality, I found the aggressiveness of jiu jitsu alarming.  Yet, the three guys I sparred with were very gracious toward me and gave me pointers as I attempted to trap them.  They told me how to improve my technique, showing me, for example, how my extended arm or leg could be squeezed painfully between their legs; so I had to move quickly and not stretch a limb out for too long.

I truly got my workout, however, when I sparred with the other woman twice.  Unlike the guys, she went full-throttle jiu jitsu on me.  I guess she figured since we were both women with me being the younger of us, she’d give me my first day’s worth.  Youthfulness or not, the only thing that saved me was my capoeira strong arms.  Even the guys I’d sparred with had commented how strong I was.  Yet, if my female opponent had been training for three months rather than two, she would have made quick work of me since I could barely pin her with all my youthful strength and first day knowledge of technique.

Never have I been so happy to do post exercise stretches!  I quickly changed out of that gi and was more than ready for lunch.  I hadn’t been that hungry the whole spring break vacation.  Although I apparently did well for my first day, I don’t think jiu jitsu holds quite the same appeal for me as capoeira, especially since there’s no accompanying music. Even though capoeiristas make good jiu jitsu players, this capoeirista is going to stick to rodas rather than jiu jitsu matches.

Sheer relief overcame me on Friday at 4:15.  That was the official start of spring break.  Of course, we teachers aren’t supposed to leave until 4:30–looks bad if most of us beat the students out of the building! So the fact that I was there until 4:45, marking projects and entering grades wasn’t me trying to win anything like teacher of the year.  I just didn’t want to return from vacation with projects to mark.

This will be the first spring break in my 15 year career that I actually stayed home.  By some miracle, I do have the money to travel somewhere, but I chose not to add to my stress by planning a weeklong relaxing vacation!  None of the airport hassles or searching for the cheapest deals for me.  I decided, with the start of my second novel, The Adventures of Infinityand Negativa, that I would save money for a two-week visit to Utila, Honduras, a laid-back Caribbean island, where I vacationed before when I used to teach in Tegucigalpa.

In the meantime, I’m vacationing by living the life of an artist.  In addition to my daily habit of writing every day, I’m going to paint, dance more, read more, drop off more press kits to set up future readings, and of course, get some of those chores done that I’ve just not taken the time during a “normal” week to get done such as drop off stuff at Goodwill and go to Walmart to order more contacts.  Granted, those last two things are not too glamorous, but what a relief it’ll be to have them done by this time next week.

Last weekend, I invested quite a bit of time and as little money as I could get away with to make 30 press kits.  My goal was to visit different potential venues in order to set up a reading.  Although I write a variety of things, I’m currently promoting myself as an erotic writer, mainly because that was the type of show that I’d put together for “Cupid’s Naughty Secrets”.

So far, my list of possible places are mostly lingerie stores with a few independent book stores.  The first place I visited was Cindie’s on Ben White.  I was initially thrown off that the manager, who regularly leaves at 2:30, was not there.  I immediately thought that I must be doing something wrong since I cannot just leave work for the day around 2:30.  Nonetheless, I introduced myself to the employee  and explained the purpose for my visit and pointed out some key points of my press kit, namely the three samples of my work–an excerpt from Tribe of One, a short story and a poem–and my contact information which was conveniently and beautifully summarized on the two business cards that were inserted in the built-in card holding slots.

Once I finished explaining the purpose of my visit, the woman was so enthusiastic about what I was trying to do that she burst into a speech of useful facts about how I could feasibly set up a reading at another Cindie’s location.  She first directed me to the South Lamar branch and informed me that the other Cindies’ s in the north was the biggest location in Austin and had the most business. I thanked her and encouraged her to read through the writing samples and pass the press kit along to the store manager.

With newfound confidence, I drove to the South Lamar Cindie’s and browsed until someone could help me.  Again, I asked to speak with a manager and this time, the woman who had addressed me turned out to be a manager.  I took a deep breath, introduced myself and stated the purpose of my visit.  Her smile reassured me that I was on the right track, but when she handed me a flyer, which advertised their upcoming “Ladies Night Out”, I could not believe that my second visit to a store actually landed me a reading gig!  This woman turned out to be the regional events manager.

She sounded almost apologetic that I would not be listed on the first week’s advertising for the event, but assured me that my name and contact information would appear on the subsequent announcements.  I was so beside myself with happiness that I had to constrain myself from hugging her.  I told her that that was fine with me and we discussed some other details about the event.  She told me that the store manager, who was not present at the time, would be in contact with me the next day (which she did!).

I drove away on a cloud of optimism.  I excitedly called Mom, who lives in NC.  She was excited at my good news although she’s still somewhat embarrassed that her 40 year-old “baby” has written such an adult novel with so many curse words.  My writing has actually given her something else nag me about besides getting rid of my dreads, which I’ve had since 1993 and have no plans of changing.

I then called one of my older sisters, who lives in VA and has always thought of herself as my mother.  She was equally excited and when she announced my good news to her husband, he commented that  I could nowafford to take them out to dinner the next time I visited.  I told her that I could have done that before, but it would have to be at some place like Chili’s since I couldn’t possibly bankroll the pricey restaurants they were accustomed to.

The next day, I dropped off two more press kits.  So far, nothing has become of them.  As a matter of fact, one place responded as if I had given them a new idea about having a special event.  Nonetheless, I’m still optimistic and feel that I’m steadily walking down the path to success.  I know that big success comes from surviving failures. One thing that I like to continually remind myself  of is that the failures may outnumber the successes, but the succeses outweigh the failures!