My mind is still in Paderborn. Can’t get the experience out of my head. I don’t really want to, but man, I’m still thinking about it a lot.

The weeks leading up to that trip were pretty tough. Awful, really. The trip was not just a much needed break from normal life. It was one of those deals where very hard times blend into this great event, and there are lots of emotions on the surface, and everything just comes together.  That’s very poorly put, but the best I can do.

Now I’m back, facing the same challenges I was before, but maybe with a little more clarity and a little less dread.

I’ve been doing freestyle almost every evening for at least an hour, except for Aikido nights twice a week. I think I’m getting better. I have a list of pretty hard tricks I’m trying to learn. I could learn some easier stuff, but I don’t want to do that. I want to learn some harder tricks that I’ll enjoy doing.