last day at pottery barn?

I'm not quite sure. Tori is awesome and said that I should call her as soon as I know what my sched is and IF I can make it back up here every other weekend or something. I'd like that. She doesn't want me to go, and as she pointed out, another advantage of keeping me on is that I can keep my discount card for an extra while. Tori rocks! :)

They pulled me from stock room to sales floor and I had a $1300 sale today! Mostly pillows. Crazy, huh? Wish I had $1300 to waste on stupid pillows (and 4 lamp bases with shades).

Jenny called this morning -- she's back in Johnson Creek. I guess they drove out there, got a hotel, showered and changed, and then left again right away. That's insane! Why would somebody wanna drive that long!?

And thank god I reread what I posted last night while half asleep... I used the wrong form of "two". Ack! How awful. I hate making dumb mistakes like that. I can hardly stand it when other people do it -- much less myself.

Boring entry, I know. Sosumi.

Maybe I'll have some good pics to post after tomorrow.

2nd-to-last-day-hassles

I'm beat. Long day. Jenny woke up early and left at 5 this morning. I slept in for a bit longer. However, my day was spent running around picking up last-minute items, doing laundry, and packing.

Went out to Tutto Pasta with Mary, Zoey, and Katy. Terrific food. Then stopped by Bunny's -- she gave me some awesome pieces of hers. Definitely will find a place on my wall for them. She also burnt me two mixes, which I haven't had a chance to listen to yet. She's such a sweetie!

Ah, must add a photo box and blank CD-Rs to my shopping list.

Tomorrow I get my hair cut! I'm going to Leo's Salon over on Gammon because Jen, my normal person at Serentiy Salon, is always booked weeks in advance.

Well, must be up early so that's all for now. Maybe going to a barbeque at Craig's tomorrow, but I really hope Jenny's back by tomorrow night. I don't think I'll be able to run around and I'd much rather see her.

More partying -- this time with NO hangover!

So last night a bunch of us -- Me, Jenny, Chris, Jon, and Josh -- piled into my car and went down to Lonnie's house with a bunch of beer and stuff. We had a couple people over (well, Lonnnie did) and it was a small gathering. I got pretty bombed and I don't really remember the ride home (we got home at about midnight).

Went to bed at 4 a.m. and Jenny had to be up at 5. I guess I woke up at 5 when she left but I don't remember it. She had to drive to Johnson Creek on 1 hour of sleep! I hope she made it okay. Her phone's off right now, but with any luck she'll call me sometime on her trip. She's going down to Kentucky with a friend who wants to get a car and bring it back to sell. Jen's along for the ride and to keep her friend company on the 10-hour drive.

I've got to finish packing today. I started packing clothes that I knew I wouldn't be wearing anytime soon. Tonight I'm going out to Tuto Pasta with Mary and Zoey (how do I spell that name?). They're such sweeties -- they're treating me because I'm going to be leaving soon.

moving-day approaches -- plans formulate

well, it's one day closer to the day I have to move. I have mixed feelings on it. I want to move and live in a big city but I also want to stay close to some of my friends.

Anyways, today Jenny and I went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. We came back in the afternoon and waited for my grandparents to come up to take my desk and other stuff. We all loaded a lot of my stuff into my grandparent's truck and then my grandparents came up and had a beer with me and Jen. It was interesting to drink with my grandparents. Grandma took a couple of smirnoffs and a little bit of my Budweiser home with them for later. Ha! :) Jenny was amused.

Tomorrow we're having a party, but I think it'll be down at Lonnie's house. We can't really have it here. Anyways, it'll be fun. Jenny's coming over for it.

What my plan is for Saturday is to go down in 2 cars -- mom, dad, grandma and grandpa in one; aaron, chris and I in the other. After getting everything moved in, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa will go back up, and the other car of us will hang out for the day. We'll head back that night, and then Jenny will take me down to Chicago on the 8th or 9th and we'll spend the day down there.

Shugoro Nakazato -- karate lineage

So, I found a page talking about Sensei Nakazato

http://www.northeastkarate.com/shorin-ryu.htm

He was my Sensei's O-Sensei. An O-Sensei is like a grandfather in regards to Senseis.

A better way to explain it might be like this:

Shugoro Nakazato (10th Degree Black belt)

taught

Tadashi Yamashita (9th Degree Black belt)

who taught

Pat Carrington (5th Degree Black belt)

who taught

Me (1st Degree Black belt)

I'm a black belt!

After 7 years of studying Okinawan Shorin-Ryu karate I'm finally a black belt. Sensei was really hard on me -- not that I think he'd of failed me (he usually doesn't test somebody unless he's seen that they're good enough) -- but that after every kata I did, he'd nitpick about it. I can definitely see where he's coming from on it though, and as he explained, if I decide to teach, he wants to make sure that I'm doing it right and not showing somebody the wrong way.

I kept making dumb mistakes. I tried super hard not to be nervous, but I was doing my stuff alone in front of Sensei and a small crowd of my classmates, along with my parents. I had to do all of my katas -- 14 of them, and then a couple of bo katas, and a sai kata, for a total of 17 katas. The whole test took a total of about 1 hour and 30 minutes or so. And as is traditional whenever reaching a higher belt, I got a good kick to the gut as my sort of congratulations. This kick was a bit harder than any of the other ones I've gotten, but Sensei knows me well enough not to kick TOO hard to break anything. :)

He gave me an old black belt of his that was given to him by Sensei Nakazato, a grand master (10th degree -- the highest level of black belt), when Sensei made his 3rd Degree black belt test. I feel really honored to have it. Sensei said, "Special people get special things..." He's been really good to me over these 7 years and I feel that I know him really well. How many people do you regularly see for 7 years straight that aren't family members.

Sensei told me that if I make it back to Madison on the weekend sometimes he'd be more than happy to pick me up and take me back to my house, which can be on the way back to his. He also said that he'd of liked for me to help teach, but he's cool with me leaving because it's for school and all.

I leave this week

I've only got a little while longer! I'm both excited and sad to leave. There're a lot of people I don't want to be that far from.

I've got to go to a dentist appt in a little while. Then to test for Black Belt tonight.

so i posted a little rashly

rashly... is that a word? sure it is -- I say so.

anyways, I was a bit pissed when I posted that last bit. I was intentionally being overly harsh too. So, sorry about that, Bunny. I retract what I said -- not going to delete what I wrote, because I think that'd be cheating in the blogging-sense.

I am rather curious to see what it was that she had posted and deleted though.

don't flatter yourself

so yeah. um, just had a chance to peruse bunny's blog. here's where I'll say that it pisses me off when people talk about stuff they know nothing about. this is in reference to whatever "drama" she's referring to. I'm not sure who's she's referring to but I believe it's heather. anyways, she says that she was involved in some drama and some such nonsense. whatever.

here's what bunny wrote:

"Ooooooh, turns out there was some drama i didn't even realize i was involved in. sweet! i kinda feel bad about it, in retrospect. i shouldn't be the one to stop ugly girls from throwing themselves at paul, by all means. Schober doesn't like her, either. Ha! Hahaha! XD! this is getting funnier, now that i think about it. i don't feel bad about it anymore. oh well.

paul's having another party on wednesday. he didn't exactly invite me, so i dunno if i'm allowed to go. i don't know if i want to go. of course, this might simply be a ploy to get a pity-invite.... which it probably is... g'arrr. nevermind. i'll find something else to do. "

I'm going to say once and only once that there IS NO DRAMA. NONE. Whatsoever. I believe she's referring to the fact that Heather-dear came in when I went to pass out and gave me a back massage before I fell asleep. Apparently there are rumours going about that we're more than friends? That's the only thing I could think of. Anyways, it pisses me off when people scrap for whatever juicy gossip they can get and make a huge deal out of nothing. People are piddly. I know Heather and I don't think of a back massage as anything more than a friendly gesture so I wish other people would quit pretending like they're important and part of some big drama when they're not.

okay. now i kinda feel bad. or not. people have it coming.

after the party

so last night we had our party. it was big. at least bigger than any other party we've had here. I think the most people at one time here was something like 25 people in our tiny apartment. we had a crapload of beer and stuff. still a lot left. mostly budweiser left. i don't mind -- it's what I like the most. Still a lot of Coors and MGD left too though.

Hopefully having a party next Wednesday to use up some of the beer.

ouchies. my head's starting to hurt and there's some infomercial about blenders on tv.