u had 2 b there
if you think you can get a better evening than hitting the social sushi scene (exactly how much sake DID that lady have?) and then running into one of your favortist singer/songwriters and kickin' it over coffee for a couple of hours before busting out in a screaming karaoke style rendition of 'total eclipse of the heart' while rolling around PB to end up commencing (or, in my case, observing) an embarrasing prettyprettyprincess pow-wow (really guys, they're JUST shoes!)... well, you'd be wrong. tuesdays don't get much better.

zen of the moment

Don't ever worry about failure; only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

it's not for lack of material that i haven't posted lately. quite the weekend as a matter of fact, touching on many facets of life. however, i've been very much in my head over the past week or so, and can't say that i've entirely figured myself out of it. until that time, here's a brief glimpse:
* fri * night baseball game w/ catered suite seats and fabulous company, come from behind in the 9th plus a fight... doesn't get much better than that. spent most of * sat * with the pseudo-fam (karate) and sat night with 3 fun boys and 1 fun shannon. * sunday * at mama-ka-zama&daddyO's, with a little QT and picking up 3 fabulous packages... better than christmas.
and here's a special little smooch to my grounding lately, patient and wise while i wiggle out of this little web i'm all tangled up in.

fire starter
This is the tshirt i was wearing today:

despite the fact that many a'person were concentrating very hard on my chest today, i got a few interesting guesses at breaking the code, including "flamey exterminator", "fir-man-bug", and "fiery happy person spider".

Nice try, but guess again.

sluuuuuuurp!
the good thing about working in a place with so many canvas-ish cubicle walls is that it gives you easy access to wipe off all the dog slobber you may get covered in at work.

karma, dude. karma.
i'm not a vengeful driver; i'm pretty chill when it gets down to it. it irks me when drivers don't signal when changing lanes, but for the most part, i don't get worked up, yelling, boiled over at things like traffic and crappy drivers when i motor around. so yesterday when i was in the left-turn lane, about one car length away from entering the intersection, and some jerky flies from 3 lanes over to cut me off, i felt that it warranted a little tootle of the horn with the slamming of the brakes. The jerky threw his hands up in the air like "oh well" and proceeded to zip through the intersection on the light that was turning yellow back when i was about to go through it. All i could do as I pulled up to the light was shake my head and say "karma...". And as if my little muttering was answered, next thing i see is a cop car zooming from 3 lanes over, through the intersection, with lights spinning and a quick yelp of the siren, to nail that jerky. I couldn't help but make a very audible "HA HA!" as i drove past jerky and his new officer friend.

oof
weekend of karate galore... but surprisingly relaxing. saturday i tested for the next level of brown belt and was an absolute wreck about it for the week before it. the interesting part about this test was that every skill i have in karate was tested: basics, all weapons i know, kata, kumite, and miscellaneous 'need to know' stuff. No pressure or anything. i also couldn't shake the outcome of the last test from the back of my mind. All this anxiety made my adrenaline flow overtime; so much so that my first fight with ji was like 2 concrete blocks smashing at each other (she was equal on the adrenaline level). No worries ji-chan, the wrist will be fine.

i'm sure any injuries sustained weren't helped much by the tournament on sunday. ji and i went up to aliso viejo to cheer on some teammates, and somehow i got talked into competing. Kata was decent; i was victim to the "it sucks to go first because by the end, judges forget what was good at the beginning" phenom that resulted in me getting a second place to a girl whose kata wasn't deserving of first. Not saying that mine was, just saying that she lucked out because in comparison to the 3 people that went before her, she was good, but in comparison to the group as a whole, she was OK. Silly judges. Kumite saw me facing a Mac Truck with flailing arms and legs. I peeked through my fingers to watch her fight her first round, but mostly had to hide as it was so scary. All I could think of when I got up to fight her was "dead britto walking..." My personal 'oh sh!t' moment came when homegirl pushed me into the ring next door. Yikes. But I got my 8 points on her and got outta there as quickly as possible. Next time, I ain't bringin' the gear along.

revivify
y'know, when it's 6 o'clock on a friday evening and you're still at work, nothing says lovin' like a good tongue scrub.

who? what??
every japanese class i've taken has been an adventure, and this one is no exception. My name has always brought out the best in the teachers: I've gotten "toe-ro-jee"-san, "toe-weezy"-san, the tolerable "buritto"-san and the now latest "Dorothy"-san. err, who?? The first time i was called on, I started laughing, mostly because i was trying to figure out if the sensei was actually talking to me, and because my friends were looking at me like "dorothy?!". I thought maybe she'd get over it, but she keeps calling me dorothy, even telling the class that "dorothy-san ga ii sensu desu." (i have good fashion sense. thanks). The thing is, i've had this teacher before, so i'm not sure what prompted her to start calling me dorothy. Ahh, there's no place like nihongo-class!
We had a super cute j-girl who was trying to improve her english as much as we were wanting to up our japanese come to class yesterday. we all asked her a question in japanese, and in turn, she would ask us questions in english: do you play sports? what kind of music do you like? why are you learning japanese? Wanna know what I got?: Do you like Japanese girls? i'm sure the look on my face was what prompted her to change her question to, "okay then, do you like Japanese boys?" but it's hard to be sure...{{insert nervous giggle here}} those funny language mishaps... I think... umm...yeah

kawaiiiiii! (cuuuuuute!)

meet mariko and her new baby haruno. i adore this lady, and am so excited for her; she's going to be such an awesome mom. i just hope haruno doesn't inherit her mother's navigation skills.
i love that this is the way i was greeted on a monday morning... the 5% pay increase as a result of my glowing performance review from this morning didn't hurt either.

where everybody knows your name
Making your way in the world today / Takes everything you've got... i needed a break today, so i went 'home'. i needed a place away from the unsolicited attention of guys at work (4 of them, to be exact) and the reactionary judgements of my peers (regarding that and other mini-episodes occurring at work or other) and the pitfalls of shrouded expectations of perfection in karate. so i went to a place that i knew and that knew me; no responsibility, no impressions needed, nothing to gain or hide or make up for or excuse. they're just glad you came. i just wanted to be comfortable in my own life for at least a lunch-break length of time... i went back to warren reslife at ucsd. since the day i stepped onto the campus, i have always felt so much at home at ucsd, and i spent 3 1/2 years involved in reslife there. these people i worked with, laughed with, cried with, and i know i will always have a home there... which is exactly the atmosphere i needed to soothe my weary heart from its recent inquisitions.

at the moment
i feel like the last pancake on the platter. except we all know i'm not that flat.

stalkerstalkerstalker
tuesday i was all signed up and ready to once again delve into the chaotic world of japanese grammar when i discovered that one of my least favortist people in the whole world happens to be in the class. Up until tuesday afternoon i have been very gracious to this person, usually relying on other people to pull me out of having to interact with this person for more than a few uncomfortable moments. i think i was just cranky (hello, long day! work 8ish-5:30ish, traffic till 6:30, class 7-9:30, get home by 10 if i'm lucky? yeah, britty don't play dat.), and quite honestly looking for a reason not to be in class. Citing 'i don't need 'crazy' showing up at my desk any more than necessary (which is never)' seems like a valid reason. The teacher didn't show up to the first class either, so i consider myself in good company, or at least following set standards.

i'm up for review at work, and this afternoon is supposed to be dedicated to that... as in me writing it. i'm supposed to write my own review, and ohmygosh this is seriously difficult. mostly because i can't find the 'fabulous' check box anywhere on this darn form...