My knee decided to be crappy last night during training, so I had to sit out the last half of class. Boo. I hurt it during a takedown exercise involving dropping to one knee and doing a forward shoulder roll while opponent grabs on to my shirt, thus pinning him to the floor. Fun. But my right knee is wonky. It is better now, though.

This morning I rode the 22 bus toward work, listening to Bjork in my earphones. Unfortunately, loud music was not enough to drown out the eight or so SCREAMING adolescents right behind me on the bus. They were all sitting within four feet of one another on a fairly non-crowded coach, and yet had to SHOUT every single thing that was said, seemingly as loudly as possible. Maybe it was just that they were shouting over one another most of them time.

As the yelling and carrying on continued, I noted the tension on the bus, and while not looking behind me, noticed that the group of kids seemed to be walking on the edge of breaking into violence at any point. Nervous passengers kept looking back at them. I decided to practice remaining calm and relaxed, secure in the fact that while the potential for calamity existed, it was not happening, and if it did, I felt ready for it. It’s amazing how much more prepared you feel if you relax and breathe rather than tensing up and getting nervous.

Some more twelve-year-olds got on, and one girl headed to the back. The level of nonstop screaming escalated in pitch, and I finally glanced back. The girl was being slapped at in a rather clumsy way, and struck back with her backpack. She retreated to the middle of the bus. The yelling continued. It seemed kind of horrifying to me, to be so young, and so full of anger and so bereft of compassion. So empty. These days, kids are entirely not expected to have any manners at all. No one on the bus did anything, of course. Do I sound like an old lady? I dunno. Who cares if I do. It’s fucked up.

We got to the stop by the middle school and the group of children pushed and stumbled their way off the bus. It got very quiet then, just the sound of the electric engine, clicking and humming.