And there’s free childcare!
Only 2.5 days left until I officially end my current job and officially start my new job (pay cut and all). I’ve been unofficially done with my old job and unofficially working on my new job for a week or so now (since whenever it was that I posted about my big transition day) but today I got slammed with a big can of worms that really could not have come at a worse time. I’ve been working my ass off all morning and now I’m no longer in the mood to work, so I will blog instead, and probably not even about anything useful or even interesting.
One thing I can tell you (that is not terribly useful, but might be at least a little interesting) is that I’m starting kung fu tomorrow. Perhaps “starting” is an overly ambition descriptor, but I am, if nothing else, attending a kung fu try-it-and-see-if-you-like-it class so that I can indeed try it and see if I like it. I’m at a loss to recall exactly how this came about but what I do remember is that I had this idea that I wanted to do something physical, and this idea that I wanted to continue to try to build a stronger community of women in my life. A little internet searching brought me to a local women’s kung fu organization that *drum roll* offers free childcare for all of its sessions!
Kung fu? I know absolutely nothing about kung fu aside from it being a martial art that involves belts like karate (and I learned all that from the website of this women’s kung fu organization). But really, I don’t care. I get my physical activity, I get my women, and I even get free childcare!! Really, it doesn’t get much better than that. And I’m sure kung fu must be cool if people are doing it, right?
So the way it goes is that I try this class on Thursday, then I decide whether I want to join their eight week beginner class. The beginner class meets at least three times a week (but again, free childcare!) and after it’s over I can decide whether I want to continue training on a month-to-month basis. It’s kind of an intense commitment, even for just eight weeks, but I figure that tomorrow’s class will give me more insight about whether I really want to make that commitment. I must say that I do like the thought of learning to use my body in that way, learning to use my body at all, and especially gaining that experience in an all-woman environment. We women are trained to have such distance from our bodies, to be so disconnected, and especially when it comes to using our bodies in any kind of physically assertive manner. I can imagine there will be no small amount of processing that will need to happen along with this training and it’s nice to imagine that there will be space to do so.
Plus, free childcare! Did I mention that? That there’s free childcare? Because there is. And it’s free!
September 26th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
I took karate for 5 years as a youth. Good stuff. It gives you strength, balance, and meditation.