No pain, no gain

We did an extremely painful technique last Tuesday in Aikido, yonkyo, which is a technique that I have a hard time with. Not so much in the causing of pain, because -- let's face it -- I have absolutely no qualms about that. None. Mostly it's that I didn't know how to do it, which is far more irritating; in any case, it's one of those techniques that involve pressure points and can cause nerve damage and require you to know what you're doing in order to be effective at all, and I ... don't.

The problem with learning these techniques is that you eventually end up wanting to use them. Peter Parker may know that with great power comes great responsibility but, you know, he makes millions per movie. When I'm worth $1 mil for three months of work, maybe I'll also learn great responsibility. In the meantime, there's my husband being all rambunctious and obnoxious in bed, and then there's me, with the potential for great pain in my hands.

You can probably see where this is heading.

In my own defense, I didn't really expect it to work. I grabbed his forearm; I applied the yonkyo technique. He screamed like a girl. I was surprised at my success -- and here's where I made a strategic error. Instead of reacting with shock and apology that I had hurt my husband, I blurted out an excited "Yay!"

It's hard to recover ground after a faux pas like that. Somehow my protestations that I hadn't meant to hurt him lacked the ring of sincerity.

I really like Aikido.

I really like my husband.

I don't think he likes me all that much.

Pity.