I quit jiu-jitsu

Just for the (leap) day.

At the beginning of February, I hastily wrote out a belated holiday card to a close friend that, in hindsight, read like a complete and drunken delusion written while completely sober.

It was a Christmas card that I was sending shortly before Valentine’s Day, but since I already had a Valentine’s Day card picked specifically for this friend, I couldn’t appropriate this holiday card for a V-Day purpose. So what did I wish this friend, aside from a belated “Merry Christmas!” and “Happy Holidays?” Something involving a “Happy Leap Day!”

I don’t remember the details of what I wrote — only that I recall an exhortation to the effect of seizing this extra, precious day that only comes once every four years to do something unusual and special and spectacular. (It’s very likely I’m saying this more eloquently in writing now than I was when hurriedly writing her card, embarrassed to have been writing the card so late but resolved to have the card be done rather than perfect).

Sometimes — and maybe this is a once-every-four-years thing — I end up taking my own advice.

~~~

This month was a grind. I began it in Atlanta, alone, to compete at a jiu-jitsu tournament. It didn’t go the way I would have wanted. No coach, no boyfriend, no familiar surroundings in an unknown city — I was coming in with more than a few disadvantages. But there were no excuses — I psyched myself out ahead of certain matches and made mistakes during…