de-Capoeira-tation

I wanted to share about a very fun experience I had yesterday evening. It's not about knitting, exactly, but it makes me appreciate knitting in a way I never thought about before.

So I saw a Capoeira (Brazilian cross between dance and martial arts - amazing stuff) demonstration about a week ago at one of those new grad student welcome events "Come drink free drinks! Collect free raffle tickets to try to win free pizzas! Listen to some awesome blues! Oh yeah, and watch these crazy Capoeira people spar with spinning kicks and handstands!" I was thoroughly impressed and thought to myself, "Self, I bet you would really like to try that." I was so convincing that last night I went to my first class, right on campus, a mere half mile walk from my apartment (this particular half mile walk comes into play later, so don't forget).

I put on some comfortable workout clothes, remembered to reinforce my outfit with an extra swipe of deodorant, pinned my dumb old growing-out bangs back, and spent the next two hours in a complete haze of kicking, ducking, blocking, doing cartwheels, attempting one move that sounded like it was called "mauna loa in the fridge" but that felt more like "spin around and kick your leg above your head over and over until it feels like your leg weighs as much as a fridge", trying to bend over totally backwards into that scary pose the girl uses to crawl down the stairs in the (new) exorcist, losing buckets of sweat, and turning my left butt cheek into a useless mass of jelloid muscle. They need to change the name of this stuff from Capoeira to de-Capoeira-tation, because it makes you feel like your head and various other body parts are about to fall off.

So at the end of the two hours, most of which are actually a blur this morning, I paid my eight dollars and started to walk home. Except that when your left butt cheek is made of jello, walking is not exactly the correct term to use. It was really more like limping home. And that measly little half mile seemed a lot more like a 6 mile hike than a 6 block stroll. Since it was dark out, too, and the school keeps trying to warn us about personal safety, I was of course freaking myself out a little bit about the possibility of being mugged. If anyone had approached me, I'm pretty sure I would have fallen to the ground blubbering something about "no more high kicks, please!" since I would have been unable to actually perform any of the evasive maneuvers I had just been taught because, that's right, my legs don't want to bend anymore!

Today I am still having trouble with that whole walking thing, and I have basically decided that I can be perfectly happy for the rest of my life if I never do Capoeira again, even though I am very glad I was brave enough to try it. Perhaps the handstand kicking is just not for me? I think I'll stick to running 4 miles 3-4 times a week, since that actually makes me feel energized instead of burnt, or dead.

Here is the part about the knitting. After careful consideration, I have come to realize that if I really need self-defense I can just pull those pointy pointy dpns out of my backpack. Besides, the only way knitting can negatively impact my left butt cheek is if I happen to sit on a stray knitting needle!!