notorious
* on friday night i was recounting to shama-lama the ref'ing adventures from the previous night... moments later we were shuffling through a sea of people in the lobby of the copley symphony hall when shama nudges me and points to an excited blonde. recognition falls across her face when the blonde exclaims, "i THOUGHT you looked familiar! you ref'd my dodgeball game last night!" ... huh, small world.
* saturday held the annual halloween party for the karate kids, and due to my spaceyness on the holiday this year, i was bouncing around costume-less for the first time ever. sensei asked me to be one of the judges for the costume contest, and we had just picked our "kid" winner, when all of a sudden, a giant walking replica of our dojo logo comes through the door. brown-nosing aside, this was a definite winner, and the parents came straight over to me ... to admonish me for not dressing up. and not just because it was the spirit of the season, but because this year they had SET OUT to beat me in the costume contest... they had a family meeting, went over past outfits, and put together a plan to knock me out of the running. wow. i didn't know people paid attention. i told them that i would be sure to dress up next year, and the dad looked a little stressed: "oh great, i'm going to have to start working on it as soon as i get home..."
current mood: no, really, i'm blushing

if you can't beat 'em...
last night i put on my game face, donned the stripes of an elite rank, and... ref'd dodgeball. yes, that's right, i'm officially an official for dodgeball. turns out that i'm a better ref than i am participant, i think mostly because i'm throwing people (out) rather than a ball (poorly). a friend of mine who happens to ref for a few sports around town mentioned that they needed the help, so i said that i had some free time on thursday nights. normally, my dodgeball games are on thursdays, but i figured they'd throw me in next season. nope. next thing i knew, i was assigned to 2 games and my too-small stripes were waiting for me at the rec center.
i had to negotiate with the other ref for the easier teams, due mostly to my lack of experience, but also with a hefty dose of fear that i was going to get jumped in the parking lot if i made a bad call for one of the crazy-serious teams. by the time i was done with the second game, i actually had players coming up to thank me for being fair, and loud (ha!) and for sticking to my calls. i was shocked, as my flaming red blushing cheeks indicated. for once, it seemed that my insides (mostly screaming "i don't know what the hell i'm doing!") didn't translate to my outsides (mostly screaming "mind the stripes!" and "hey, i got a whistle!").
current mood: that's right, i make things happen

i'll be back.
i haven't hit the dojo for almost 2 months. shocking, i know, especially considering what a huge part of my life is (was?) karate. part of the reason was the newly varnished floor, so that was an easy decision. the other part, though, was a little tougher to face. i had lost my reason for being there. i was teaching all the time, which i like to do, but i was never training. if i got the opportunity to train, i was out of shape and out of practice, and it didn't feel right. so next time 'round, i would default to teaching. i had no goal, no test to train to or competition to ramp up for. i was kinda stuck.
but... my bag's in my car, my head's heading in the right direction (i think), and i'll be back there tomorrow. wish me luck.
current mood: let's see how this goes

my new boyfriend

that's cody, my new boyfriend. he lives with charles:
charles is friends with charles:
charles (aka chucka) is friends with me. and they all live in AZ. much love to the 26 hour whirlwind tour of scottsdale. my liver thanks you.
current mood: good times, good times

aaaand i'm spent
* 7 hours (well, 5 for me) of happy hour on friday night
* 9 hours of wine tasting on saturday
* 3 hours of dinner on saturday night (well, 1+ hours was waiting around for a table)
* 2.5 hours of brunch and pictures on sunday
* 2 hours of trying to pick a day that we could all get together again
* 2 hours nap (well, for me... it was 2 hours work for him)
* 2.5 hours of dinner on sunday night, just us.
dang, i'm tired.
current mood: what day is it? where am i??

what losers
last night's dodgeball game, though a narrow defeat, was the best yet. our team has taken a cue from the harlem globetrotters and has become the clowns of the circuit. let's just say cartwheels, handstands, and diving rolls were all involved. we actually did quite well considering, and i had a successful run of doing the "no look" throw and taking out some of the other team's top players. of course, it was accompanied by the shocked glee of my "i actually HIT someone!!" victory dance. there was even a point where the other team was yelling "watch out for her!" hells yeah.
we still lost though. oh well. we're an uncontested #1 in the league for style points.
current mood: we were on fie-yah

happy bday to the pirate
welcome to t-man's bday week, hope you enjoy the ride. so far, it's been fun for us. i had tricked the man into committing to coming to a "karate seminar" event for the 3rd of october, and in the meantime i bought tix to the paul simon concert. i had to trick him, you see, b/c he would have bought the tix himself otherwise. it wasn't until he was in the car on the way to the karate gig that he found out he wasn't going to have to suffer through some terribly boring lecture-type event, wrapped conveniently in a get-out-of-jail-free theme. the concert was great, especially with the 5th row seats i scored.
part 2, which was my favorite part, took a lot more legwork, and a LOT more effort on my part to keep quiet since i was SO amused by it. i'm horrible at keeping secrets, and had to designate myself a secret-keeper who i could contact when i got the urge to spill. long story short, i had arranged to get him the morning after the concert off so he could sleep in, so i contacted a (former) colleague of his who i had never met, to help me in this endeavor. a couple of weeks ago, t-man and i went to her bday party where she was very blasted, and surprisingly able to not reveal that we sorta knew each other already (though that was about all the restraint she showed). t-man was not only impressed by the fact that i arranged to get the morning off for him, but amused by the way in which i did it (though i think he was more amused at the fact that i was SO amused by it). as an added bonus, i had my sis drop off breakfast for us from a place that he's been wanting to try for a long time.
so now, on to parts "happy hour", "2.5", "wine tour", and "3" (dinner, though he doesn't know where).
current mood: oh oh it's magic