Awesome Banquet

The Chinese New Year Banquet was awesome! Despite some minor hiccups in the setup it all smoothed out and came together flawlessly.   I would like to thank the dish clean up people, it was very well done.  This year I really wanted to focus on my daughter Melanie and her promotion and I got to do that thanks to you guys.  Much appreciated.  

I really had a great time doing the lion dance and the demo performance.  I can honestly say the nerves were minor which for me is a huge step and other than catching one of my sticks in the sleeve of my uniform (for just a second) my performance went well.  Congratulations to everyone that received an award or promotion they were all well deserved.  

I am looking forward to the year of the Sheep and learning a sword form, hopefully getting some dragon dancing in as well.

End of the Year of the Horse

So I have been in the I Ho Chuan for a few years now and you would think that I would have a 100% success rate on all my goals.   Not the case, this last year was a downturn in some things and better in others.   Due to the month long vacation in Thailand, and the preparations for said vacation (when you have a business this can get complicated) there was a two month period of little kung fu.  This put me pretty far behind on alot of things except for situps I was way ahead on those.  It took me forever to get my escrima stick form up and running, really sometimes I am my own worst enemy with this stuff, changing my mind repeatedly, unable to settle on anything, it was painful.  I have enjoyed this year, despite the gapping hole from August to the end September.  I love preparing for the performances,  just not actually doing them.  The push for perfection, the practices, the playing around with music and arrangements, being part of the team is just awesome.  Unfortunately I have not completely overcome the nerves ... its better ... just not gone.  Lion Dancing has been alot of fun and I will be incorporating some exercises to strenghten my neck (a weak spot for me due to car accidents) so that I can learn the head of the lion part without hurting my neck and triggering migraines in the future.