This past week was very stressful for me. My boss went to Nebraska last week and our numbers aren’t where they need to be. That’s a huge weight on my shoulders. Minus gorey details, work is stressful.
I came home from work on Friday night and relaxed. Saturday was going to be a big day. I took a melatonin on Friday night so I could sleep. On Saturday I fought in my first tournament in 10 years – and only my second tournament since earning my black belt. I took an 8 year hiatus while in college and a few years after graduating.
There were only three of us in the first degree black belt mens division. I won the buy. I got to fight for first. Unfortunately, I had to fight guy that outweighed me by almost 100 lbs. and was 3 inches taller than me. I went in knowing that I just wanted to have fun. But I also went in knowing that I hate losing. Tae Kwon Do is one of those things I take pride in calling my own. When I spar, it’s do or die. And I did. I won first. Talk about a cool way to make a come back! Granted, I only had to fight once but I’ve got the bruises to prove we both beat each other to death.
I’ve always been seen as a ‘head hunter’. In TKD you can kick your opponent from the belt to the top of the head. You can only punch to the front of the mid section. My opponent scored a couple points by punching me. I was having a hard time landing kicks to the head (hence the head hunter reference) so I had to resort to utlizing my arms, which I very rarely do. I did land a good turning kick to his head and a couple punches to the body which gave me a 3 to 1.5 point victory.
It was an awesome experience. I harnessed adrenaline that I hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.
I drove to John and Christine’s after the tournament. John nuked a bowl of ravioli for me and we stayed up late just hanging out. John also gave me 256 MB of RAM for my new iBook.
On Sunday Elise and I picked up some stuff for the cats at Petsmart and scoped out the warehouse sale at Four Hands. We drove over to John and Christine’s where John and I did some prep work on the wall in the living room to hang curtains. Elise and I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of baby back ribs. We went home and I started cooking. John and Christine drove over later and we had ribs, corn on the cob and pinto beans. Jim and Tammy came over to tell me they were going to order sod on Monday morning and asked if I wanted to order any. I ordered a palate that will cover some 400 sq. ft. of bare spots that I have in the back yard and on the sides of the house.
Monday was hell. Work killed me. Luckily I had something to look forward to. On Saturday John and I bought tickets to see Social Distortion at the Austin Music Hall on Monday night. We had an absolute blast. We had been hesitant about buying the tickets but decided that this was a must see show! I’m glad we went, even though we were both not ready for Tuesday morning. I feel sorry for John, he had to wake up a 3-something in the morning to fly to New York. Oh well… it was worth it.
In other news – I’m really enjoying my iBook. It’s taking some time to get used to it. So far I’ve been using it for surfing and checking e-mail. I get frustrated when I want to do something new and have to figure it out (which is usually some mundane task). Plus it’s convenient to sit on the couch with a computer and watch the Food Network at the same time!