So, I’ve made it to class two days in a row, which, for this year so far, is a rarity. I seemed to hold up better tonight, which I’m sure is mostly because I’m over the Crohn’s flare from last week, but I’m sure having a made it to a few classes hasn’t hurt either. Either way, I just hope I can go consistently for more than a couple weeks, like maybe for a couple months. 
We spent the beginning of class doing some kuzushi (balance breaking) exercises. After that a few yokomenuchi (strike to the side of the head) and mentsuki (punch to the face) defenses and finally an ushiro tekubitori (grabbing both wrists from behind) defense. Oh… hah, not lastly yet.. we did just a basic block of a yokomenuchi using shinai (leather padding bamboo swords) – which was particularly nice for the few beginners who were there.
There are a couple of tests coming up. Tom and Randy are both testing for 2nd Kyu this Saturday, should be a nice pair of tests. Also, over the next month or two, there are probably 4 of us (i.e. including me) who’ll be testing for 3rd. I’m actually feeling pretty good about my open hand techniques, but I really need to get the first 5 kumi-tachi and kumi-jo down. I’ve got probably a month before I’ll have all my hours (I have the time and then som) so I’ve got plenty of time.
Mostly though, I just want to have a sane enough life that I can get back into going regularly – that’s more important than when I test to me.
Of course. Getting to the classes regularly would be much more important than the tests. (Says the girl who’s skipping classes :P)
Really though, I hope you can start going more times, it’s allways bad when you have to break up on a routine you like.
After a while, no one’s in a rush to test for the sake of testing. It doesn’t take long before we’re more worried about getting up to the level of the test, than just moving up in rank.