This little stick? It’s called an Eskrima (es-krim’-uh) stick. What’s if for, you ask? Well, let me just say this – it is NOT for beating your husband over the head with. 🙂 It’s actually a Filipino martial art that emphasizes stick and sword fighting.
My husband is teaching our family to use them and tonight we had our first lesson. Let me just preface the rest of my entry by reminding you that I have been sick the last couple of days. So it made complete sense that I would get out in the stifling heat and have a lovely workout with the sticks, right? Ugh.
However, I must admit that although the temperatures were hot, and I’m extremely out of shape – I feel so incredibly cool when I do Eskrima. Ironic, isn’t it?
Here’s a video that will give you an idea of what we’re doing as a family (of course, we aren’t quiiiiite this advanced yet!)
Now, despite the fact that I feel cool, I know that I must present quite the interesting picture as I attempt to do the variety of moves and stances that my husband is teaching me. It’s a lot like dancing, but instead of just a partner, you’re doing it with two sticks in your hands and trying to dodge your partner’s every blow. If you are as uncoordinated as me, you’ll end up looking more like Elaine on Seinfeld when she tries to dance.
And let me just give you one tiny piece of advice should you decide to try this sport out in your front yard. If you happen to step in a bed of fireants, don’t worry about them, instead focus on the sensation of the stick hitting your hand and cracking your knuckles because you weren’t paying attention, which is far more excruciating than 100 fire ant bites on your foot, I promise you.
More than once, our neighbors who were driving by felt the need to slow down to a crawl and wave at us just to make sure my husband wasn’t beating the wherewithall out of me or vice-versa. At least I tell myself that’s what they were doing, but it could have been just some plain old rubber-neckin’ going on. With country folk, you never really know what they they because they are so nice, they’d rather lie to you than hurt your feelings. You meet them in the grocery store later and they say to you, “Honey…I saw you out in the yard with your husband yesterday. You shore do make a cute couple! I told Henry just as soon as I saw the two a you out there that that was a match made in Heaven if I ever saw one!” Then quietly, “Sweetie, is everything alright? Do you need a place to stay for a few days?”
Oh, I kid. No one said that. But you know what I’m talking about, right? That’s just why I love the South. I love my home state of Texas…I love being Southern. My mama always said it was “a sin to lie, but if you could embellish something, well…that’s an art!” And I don’t think she was talking about using rhinestones and sequins.
So I suppose I’ve got a yearning to become somewhat of an artist – I want to get back to my Southern roots and tell y’all more about my early childhood memories…mainly because I’m afraid I’ll forget them if I don’t write them down. Heck, I’ve already forgotten half of them and I’m sure when I write, there will be plently of embellishing going on to fill in the gaps. (I just don’t remember the exact wording that my brother used to tell me there was a snake on my shoulder in 1978, okay?) I’m sorry….I don’t — but I’m sure I’ll come up with something much more creative that what he said anyway, so there ya go.
So tell me this – do you ever embellish your stories to make them more interesting? Or do you stick to “just the facts, ma’am”? Do you feel that it is being dishonest to embellish a little? Where do you draw the line? Tell me…I wanna know.
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