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I received my Purple Belt on February 26.

After that, Helen and I spent the month of March in Mesa, Arizona. It was a time of sun, and of swimming pools. Last year before I attended a few classes at the Scottsdale and Phoenix Gracie schools. The Phoenix group had a Black Belt instructor, and he taught a lot of stuff that was new to me and very, very interesting.

This year, I dropped in at Phoenix again. Things have changed a bit. The staff is the same, but they have finally gotten around to fully following the Gracie Master Cycle curriculum. At the class I attended, they were doing a lesson I've done many, many times already. No more fancy-and-new material for me. It was still fun, but the drive was an hour getting there, and an hour getting back. I didn't return.

It was back on the old home mat starting April 5. In the previous 38 days I had only trained that one time.

There were two disconnects happening at once. I was both a brand, new Purple Belt, and a guy who hadn't trained in over a month.

It was all good, but as regular classes were starting to wind down on my first week back I was beginning to wonder about a focus for my personal training. Before any conclusions were reached, Tawha got in touch with me. She is one of our Blue Belts, and about to reach the rank of 3 stripes. She has decided to work on doing the first big, nasty curriculum exam. I am probably the best person we've got, other than our absent instructor Shawn, to assist with this. She asked if I would help her prepare.

This will also be splendid training for me, and a dandy focus. If we put in lots of extra hours, the process should take about 3 weeks.

Then, just as I was feeling all happy and settled with this, I got into a message conversation with a friend who is currently off at University. She will be back home in about ten day, and then be here for about three weeks until she heads back to school. We agreed to put in some training together during that time.

We were regular partners for maybe a month earlier in the year. She was working on her own curriculum exam, and also worked on the fancy-pants stuff at the BBS3 level.

Another chance for more of the tricksy, high-level material.

Two partners, and I'm all set for maybe a month. By then, other opportunities will have arisen. For example, both Rob and Tobias have mentioned starting in on their own curriculum tests, and there will always be BBS3 to learn and polish.

Maybe I'll even start working on doing my own second-level curriculum exam.

Back in the saddle.