yat-TA!
despite the initial bumpy start back into American-hood, things seem to be looking up these days. Work is going easier as I re-discover my groove that once was so second-nature. For those of you who don't know, i'm back at my pre-japan job, that is, i'm back at Petco in the Customer Satisfaction department. I get paid to have people yell at me in the medium of their choosing (letters, emails, or the irate-customer preferred loud phone calls). Believe it or not, I'm more soothing and placating than I initially seem. Hehehe. If you hadn't noticed, I had previously kept my job whereabouts on the downlow... I was actually trying to hide out from a fellow corporate employee from my past. And I got away with it for about a week, until I was spotted in the lunchroom and then the jig was up. So now it's public knowledge, it's official: I'm back in the Petco action.

Karate seems to be working itself out, too. In addition to having to deal with the "how exactly do I fit in here?" issues, and coping with the anti-class clown attitude they seem to be adopting (bad news to fools like me), I have the added stress of a kyu-test coming up. Last time I had a test, I was so nervous I invited everyone i knew to come watch. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but for me, I felt better knowing i had people cheering for me to counteract the people scrutinizing me. It's a vibe thing. This time 'round, not only will I not be able to invite anyone (no grandstand in the gym we're using... besides, the folks in charge weren't too down with the adoring fans. Seemingly there's a first time for everything, and in this group, I seem to be the one to prove that), but this time we have to get sponsorship from 2 black belts saying "yeah, you're golden" before we test. I'm not very good about inviting criticism, so I was not very anxious to ask anyone to sponsor me, but I sucked it up and took care of business. Until the test on Monday, I'm golden. After that, I'm guessing I'm black-and-blue-and-golden.