Cannot wait

'Nuff said!

SS Xmas Party

Dennis and I celebrated one year of growth at SS with a small intimate party. Unlike our other "social" parties, this was very much a "professional" party. We invited the SS instructors, various consultants who worked with us, ex-clients, and even our accountant!

In keeping with our vision of SS being a classy joint, we splurged on the good stuff... champagne, international wines, authentic mexican carnitas, guacamole, sushi etc. YUMMY!!!!

I am NOT a runner

I was walking down the Embarcardero with Dennis and a potential client. Dennis and I were just talking to him about his needs and what he wanted when we saw a group of asian girls chattering amongst themselves and pointing very excitedly at something. Hey, I wonder what's going on there?

One of the girls: That guy broke into the car!
Another girl: Yeah, and he's walking away right now.

Dennis and I exchange a look. He says "You wanna do this?" as he quickens his pace a little. I take a deep breath. I hate running. I hate running before I've had any food the whole day. I hate running when... OK, whatever.. Let's do it... And I reply, "Come on, I'll race you. This is so not fair. You have longer legs."

We sprint across the road. Heaven smiles on us, and the normally busy Embarcardero is strangely empty of vehicles for the 2 seconds it takes us to run across. The guy sees us and starts running. We catch up to him slowly slowly slowly. And all this time I'm just talking to myself...

I hate running.
Dammit I'm hungry.
I hope he doesn't have a gun. We could be so screwed.
If he reaches for anything in his pockets, I'm diving to the side.
What if he has a knife?
I think I can still handle a knife.
But it's been a while.
What if I hurt him. I don't want to get sued.
What if he keeps running? I don't want to miss my lunch.
If he makes me miss my lunch, I will seriously lay the smackdown on him.

It's funny how much internal dialogue goes on through my head... And all in the space of maybe 10 seconds.

Dennis yells at the guy "Don't bother trying to run. I'm a runner. I can keep this up all day." And I'm thinking, that's good for you, but I'm going to be out of gas in about one block. I am soooo not a runner.

Fortunately, the guy is one of the 5 people in the world who is a worse runner and in worse physical shape than I am. He slows to a stop, slightly out of breath. But he's still somewhat belligerent. He's pushing at me and Dennis. I don't mind him pushing at me as long as he 1) doesn't attack me and 2) doesn't make me run any more.

Then the guy pushes at Dennis hard. I interpret it as the prelude to an attack, so I move forward and grab the guy in a front head lock. Then I realize that I don't really have good grappling skills, I don't want to tear my cool shirt, and I don't want to get hit in the nuts because I didn't scoot my rear-end far away enough like I'm supposed to. If he had hit me in the nuts, I would have been very very VERY pissed off and probably would have kicked him. Which would hurt him badly. And he might sue me for excessive use of force. Which would make my life rather unhappy.

So I quickly release him when he struggles. Like I said, I'm not a good grappler. Having barely any training in grappling will do that to you...

Eventually, we kind of corral him between both of us, and Dennis gets on the phone to call the cops. The guy tries to run again. Dennis tries to trip him, but only succeeds in making him stumble.

At this point, I'm getting really irritated. I want to cause minimal damage to the guy. But I don't want to have to keep chasing him down. So when he stumbles, I wrap the crook of my arm around his neck, do a modified outer reaping throw (I don't kick my leg out so he doesn't get "thrown" and only "falls" onto the floor), flip him on his front, follow him down, and slap on a sleeper hold while at the same time using my body weight hold down his upper body, just like how I was taught in my jujitsu class many many moons ago.

And I'm thinking... Hmm, I only know maybe 2 or 3 non-violent ways to subdue a person. Everything else I know about submission involves doing major bodily damage to a person (eg roundhouse kick to the head). I'm thankful he's untrained enough to fall for something in my extremely limited repertoire!

He tries to struggle, but I just choke him for a split second. Funny how he stops struggling once he felt the giddy feeling of not having blood flow to his head. At the same time, I was very aware that I could accidentally kill him if I choked him out, so I was secretly thankful that he kept up a steady stream of complaining how I was choking him.

And all I could think of was that I was soooo hungry...

Meanwhile, Dennis is sitting on the guy's butt and calls the cops. Eventually, they show up, I release the guy into the cops' custody, the cops take our contact info, and then Dennis and I head off to get lunch.

I treated myself to a twenty dollar lunch. I am soooooo not a runner.

PS: The asian girls came over as we were talking to the cops. Dennis and I tried to get the girls to buy us lunch. They giggled but declined.

Fresh Flowers

I got home today around 11.30pm. When I walked up to my apartment, there was a little package sitting at my doorstep. Hmm... I know it's my birthday, but I wonder who sent it. It wasn't wrapped, so I knew it wasn't a fedex or UPS deliver. I walked up and looked at the little calling card attached to the package. Turns out that Anat had hand delivered a bouquet of orchids to my apartment while I was out today. There was a little handwritten note.

Well, didn't want to miss your birthday so excuse me for not doing it face to face...
This is one of my favorite flowers, each orchid got his own personal charm, just like people... So a special flower for a special birthday boy :)
Don't forget to treat him right! He suppose to stay around for a month more or less, just like me...
bottom line - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! have fun, enjoy life and receive all your wishes
Sending hugs n kisses, Anat

I am so moved. It's the perfect way to start my birthday.

Memories of my israeli tourist babe

A little sticky note left on my pillow, under a fridge magnet of San Francisco that she had bought for me the day before - "pretty lame, but remember I'm a tourist!".

Making all sorts of random plans in the car as we drive back to my place - "Next time we'll do XYZ" - No more next time. We ran out of time.

One night, she was telling me that she had a bad day. I told her that she'd just had an awesome day, that she had spent the first 10 minutes of her day with me. She was confused. I told her, it's past midnight. It's no longer yesterday. She said, "oh..." Thought about it for a second, smiled, then said "yes, today is a good day".

Lying in bed with her in my arms, her head on my chest.

Stroking her hair, and her pushing her head into my fingers cos she liked her head scratched lightly.

She always forgot her camera. We'd drive past this portion of 280 that overlooked the water, and she'd always make a promise to remember her camera the next time so she could take that photo.

My first words to her - "Hey, you're tall!"

Princess flowers... whatever they're called.

Every time I picked her up, she'd smile as she got into the car. I'd greet her "Hey babe" and she'd say "Hi babe" back to me and give me a kiss.

Trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to make love in my walkin closet.

She liked really hot water when she showered. When we showered together, we'd have to change the water temperature depending on who was under the shower at that moment.

I miss her so much already.