Backflip

I just got back from a week trip to Alaska. It was awesome! I’ll be posting my journal entries as well as pictures in the upcoming days. Until then, this is a bit late in arriving but I wrote an article about my Gi Yu Dojo rank testing experience a few weeks ago and would like to post it. It can also be found here:

http://www.giyudojo.com/Articles.html

Recently I had the honor to test for the rank of San Kyu (Green Belt) at the Gi Yu Dojo. As a Mu Kyu (White Belt) I was looking to advance to a Green Belt as the next step in my training. I approached the challenge knowing I would learn new techniques, become more confident and gain more mental fortitude. I was surprised to find that on top of these skills I also learned about my character and how I interact with the world, something I desperately needed to see.

I vividly recall standing in front of Sensei Sukh and the Black Belts at the end of my testing. I was physically exhausted with sweat dripping off my face onto my already drenched gi. Mentally, I was aware and alive. It was as if nothing mattered more in the world than being present at that very moment in that very place. It was exhilarating. I had just passed through a trial by fire and was able to stand at the end. Having survived through the application of my training and experiences learned at the dojo.

The verdict was still out as to whether I passed or not and one by one Sensei Sukh called us White Belts forward to inform us of the collective decision of the teachers present. As I walked forward I was uncertain as to whether or not I passed. Before he let me know, Sensei Sukh gave me a blindingly accurate snapshot of my life and how I was living. He said that while I showed innate talent and ability for the martial arts, my lack of discipline and dedication was evident in my execution of the techniques. He called me a natural but at the same time showed his disappointment in the fact that I chose to not apply myself to gain my full potential. He went on to inform me that I did successfully gain the rank of San Kyu but the real victory that day was a glimpse of myself that I had not seen before.

When I first started training Sensei Sukh told a story from his past. I shall attempt to summarize it. There were two boxers who trained at the same school. One was a naturally gifted boxer, he had the moves and techniques without practicing or giving them much thought. He was made for boxing and he knew it. The other was very poor at boxing, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in discipline and determination. As the story goes, the naturally gifted boxer would skip out on practice and not take boxing seriously since it came so easy to him. While the disciplined boxer spent every available minute training and striving to improve himself. Time passed and the boxers had a fight in the ring. The disciplined boxer emerged victorious and the moral of the story is sealed. No matter how gifted or talented we may be, without hard work and discipline that talent is wasted.

Now that I know I am the “gifted” slacker, I can see that pattern repeated through my past. I can see myself in college doing just enough to get by without actually applying myself and excelling. I was content with mediocre grades because it was easy and didn’t require much work. But I’ve found through my experience at the Gi Yu Dojo that many things in life are worth fighting for and worth mastering. It isn’t enough to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That is the same as being a lukewarm drink, it’s boring and will be spit out. It’s much better to focus ones energy to become a master at disciplines that truly matter in life.

This stark analysis of my behavior has given me a new outlook on life. I now recognize where I am lacking discipline and choosing to drift by on skill alone. Now that I can see the problem I can take steps to correct it. I am working on strengthening my spirit and will power. To choose discipline and hard work over laziness and mediocrity. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. But each step in the right direction is one less step in the wrong direction.  And by choosing the right direction one step at a time, I will reach my goal.

Testing for San Kyu taught me a valuable lesson on how I am living my life. I am very grateful to have a Dojo and a Sensei that care about my personal well being with such sincerity. Who strive to show me a better way of living. And who are setting examples of how a true warrior should live in the way they conduct themselves. It is a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

Well this place has sure been quiet for a while. But, that is soon to change.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? Whoa, back in March.

Quick update on life in no particular order.

Visited Greg – Settlers, XBox and Pay Per View
Kings Island – Greg, Nate and Glenn, good times
Moonlight and Magnolias (Play) – Lame-o
Sogeti Soccer win – Finally a win!
Clodbusters (Vintage Baseball) first game – 1 win, 2 losses, lots of fun
A Chorus Line (Musical) – Decent, more of a ballet type thing than a musical, 4 out of the 8 I picked made it at the end
Lake Loramie – Lake, food and XBox 360 fun
Painting Dave’s – Never going to be a handyman
Red’s Game and Fireworks – Parents and Drew
Dayton Dragons Game – Cub Scouts
Lydia’s (cousin) Graduation – Cornhole challenge (me vs. Drew, he won but it was close)
Extension at WF1 – woo!
Dojo – still going pseudo strong
D&D – Healing rox
Mother’s Day – Spent in Cincinnati with the fam

I was planning on going into more detail but lost all motivation. That’s gonna have to do.

This past Saturday I went to the Aluminum Show with some friends from work (Glenn, Theresa and Uy). Beforehand we met Juan at Dublin Pub for some delicious food and then took a leisurely stroll to the Victoria Theatre for the show.

First, let me state the positives (when someone says that you know they didn’t enjoy the experience, this story is no exception). It was different, the opening was pretty neat, the performers were talented (wandering around on stage in a huge aluminum tubes cannot be easy), it was short, and it had potential.

With that being said, the overall feeling I got from the show was boredom. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but it never did. There was a lot of melodramatic music (I was hoping for techno), movement on the stage, strange costumes and of course aluminum but somehow they didn’t come together to form something enjoyable. Two scenes or ideas seem to stick out from the show and hopefully these will give you an idea of why I didn’t find it interesting.

The first memorable occurrence happened at the start of the show. 3 aluminum clad figures emerged and proceeded to give gestures and meaning to a disembodied voice that gave instructions. It was the same idea as a plane stewardess at the start of a flight. The figures had lamps embedded in their hats and I got a big kick out of their gestures and accompanying sound effects. This started the show off on a good food and I was a bummer that this turned out to be my favorite part of the show.

The next thing I remember is a long (excruciatingly long) scene in which the aluminum clad people build a giant aluminum person. Doesn’t sound so bad right? And actually could have been kinda cool. However, combine it with sleep inducing music and make everyone move in slow motion for about 10 minutes (it was definitely longer than 5). What was created was an effect similar to watching paint dry.

I would have overlooked this painfully slow buildup if the giant aluminum dude actually did something interesting. But it was not so. They had him walk around a little bit, sit down and then walked him through the audience sitting below (we were in a balcony so we missed whatever it did down below us).

Which brings up a good point. My friend Glenn pointed out that the show may have been more enjoyable if we were actually sitting level with the performers and got to participate in the numerous times they shot, threw, launched and gave different kinda of aluminum to the audience. Sitting in the balcony we missed most of this excitement and we could see how they were doing some of the “tricks” because apparently the show was not meant to be performed in buildings with a balcony.

The show lacked a “wow” factor. It never built up to anything big. There were some neat moments but nothing really worth mentioning. There was no definite storyline or song choice or theme to the show (besides doing everything with aluminum) and it left me confused and disappointed.

In closing, the show could be pretty entertaining and cool if a little more thought was put in with regard to making it fun for the audience. The actors looked like they were having fun and some of the stuff they were doing was neat but they lost the audience somewhere along the way (me right at the beginning) and didn’t stop to pick us back up.

A few weeks ago we were learning the Happo Kiri Gakure No Kata technique at my dojo. At the time we were learning Togakure Ryu (which is the school of the Hidden Door).

It was some pretty fun stuff.

A smaller video is also up on my Dojo’s Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144195759248&ref=ts

This past weekend I had the very enjoyable experience of watching Wicked the musical at the Schuster Center in Dayton. If you recall a post in December I was pretty underwhelmed by the the Broadway performance of a Broadway Holiday. And while I took Josh’s words to heart and decided to like Wicked no matter what I was still a bit worried it would not live up to my expectations.

However, the play met my expectations quite early in the night and then proceeded to blow up my expectation meter and go into the stratosphere. It was amazin’!

Before I get into why I greatly enjoyed the musical let me start off by telling you of my weekend and the events leading up to the big night. Friday was pretty typical at work and once I got home my roomate Dan helped me replace a headlight on my Mazda (driver side bulb burned out). I thought this was going to be a 5 min. project but it turned out to be more complicated than I had expected and turned into about 45 min. worth of tinkering. Thankfully Dan is very knowledgeable about cars so we were able to replace it and it’s working great.

That night I met some peeps at Sakai to eat some delicious sushi and they all wandered over to the house to play some Street Fighter IV and Castle Crashers on the XBox 360 (play and watch would be a more correct description). It was a great night. However I got a little carried away and didn’t end up going to sleep till around 2 a.m. Which is pretty late. I was also volunteering at Carillon Park on Sat. morning as an interpreter (tour guide) and I had to be there at 9 so this wasn’t the wisest of all decisions. Just to clarify, this was not a LARPing event as SOME people like to think.

This was realized pretty early on Saturday morning when I was 1/2 way to the Park (it’s located near downtown Dayton) and I realized I had forgotten my ticket to Wicked. Since I was planning on volunteering till 5, grabbing dinner at 6 and catching the show at 8 this was very problematic since I would have no time to run back up to Troy to get my ticket. So I turned around to pick up my ticket causing me to be late to the park. Thankfully the volunteer coordinators are not strict and since the park doesn’t officially open till 9:30 I still made it at a decent time.

Interpreting was great, the park has a ton of cool artifacts and buildings and it’s great taking groups through and talking about the history and people who put Dayton on the map. Most famous are the Wright Brothers and we actually have the original (not a replica) Wright Flyer III which was the first plane to be perfected by the Brothers. It’s pretty neat stuff.

After leaving the park I headed to Thai 9 to meet some friends from work for a delicious Thai meal. At this point I was a little worried my decision to stay up so late the night before would have a negative effect on the upcoming show. I had a mild headache and was feeling quite sleepy. However, after a tasty meal and a few Coke’s I was ready to go. We headed off to Wicked grabbing our seats mere moments before the awesomeness that is the show began.

Just being in the theatre caused great excitement and once the musical started I was completely hooked and greatly enjoyed the next 3 hours. The actors pulled the audience into their story and were amazing in their acting, singing and presentation. The special effects were way cool and flowed flawlessly. I won’t go into the story so as to not spoil it for anyone planning on seeing it but it was very witty, funny, epic and education all while being extremely enjoyable. I can’t quite describe how I felt, but I didn’t want the show to end and was actually ready to just campout in the theatre until the next show so I could watch it again. Unfortunately common sense prevailed on Saturday night and I ended up goin home and goin to bed.

I would highly recommend this musical to anyone so inclined to such things. It’s quite a show and one that won’t leave you disappointed.

Having seen a show that flows and fits I’m excited for Phantom of the Opera which hits sometime in the next few months. I think musicals are a form of storytelling that impacts me the most and it’s great to be caught up in the music and story. I know Wicked will be staying on my playlists for quite a while.

I did this last year and thought it would be a good time to put down a quick year in review. I am not one to look too closely at the past. But it is nice to take a few minutes to reflect on what took place last year. Looks like it was a good year.

This list is by no means all inclusive, included are events/things that stood out from my normal tasks in life. Here goes in no particular order:

• Hong Kong with Jordan to see Whitney
• New Bike (thanks Jordan)
• Michigan Bike Trip
• Detroit with the family
• Boy Scout Cub Master
• Settlers of Catan (thanks Glenn)
• Moving Lis and Brian since a tree fell on their house (thanks Dan and Glenn)
• House sitting for numerous peeps
• Father/Son Campout at Hueston Woods
• Family Camp 2009 at Camp Graham
• Quitting WoW (still goin strong)
• Roombas!
• IIBA Member
• Hospice of Dayton (consulting)
• Guitar playing
• Started wearing jeans again (yeah, weird)
• Blackberry (woohoo!)
• Teradata (consulting)
• Annual Fall Festival
• Rimz + Wheels
• WF1 (consulting)
• Scruff’s Graduation
• Sogeti Soccer
• AO Smith (consulting)
• Kings Island x 2 (Greg, Nate and Glenn + Sogeti)

Think that about sums it up. It was a good year. Looking forward to 2010, I’m gonna keep my same resolution as last year. That is to improve myself as a person, or level up if you will. I won’t get into any details at this time, still working on some focus areas to devote my energy. But they may include martial arts and guitar lessons. We shall see.

This past weekend I attended a Broadway production at the Victoria Theatre with some friends from work. It was called Broadway Holiday and it was enjoyable. A handful of famous Broadway singers sang a smorgasborg of Holiday and Broadway music (as the title suggests). The performance was good but I was a bit disappointed. This is due to a few reasons.

First off, my expectations for the show were a bit high. I went in expecting to be awed and wowed. And while there were one or two moments during the show that I was amazed it was not nearly as impressive as I was hoping. Don’t get me wrong, the singing was great and the performers did a good job of entertaining the audience. However, it seemed to me that they weren’t trying very hard.

This brings me to my second point, effort. The performers were good at what they were doing. Heck, they mentioned they did the show in over 100 cities this year alone so I’m sure they could perform with their eyes closed. However, the performance was missing that special something that comes with putting forth all ones effort. It was missing a life or realism that usually draws in an audience. It seemed like they were just performing their jobs and reciting an act.

As a comparison, a few months ago I went to a Muse Machine performance a few months ago and was blown away and astonished at the show. The Muse Machine is composed of High School and College age kids from the Dayton area. For the show they put on a variety of musical numbers just as in the Broadway Holiday show. However, the performers from Muse were much more into their songs and were really achieving and overcoming their fears by performing in such a venue. It was exhilarating and very enjoyable to partake in such a triumph.

I will admit, my expectations for the Muse Machine performance were very low. I didn’t expect the level of singing and professionalism I saw in the performance. So this definitely played a roll in me enjoying the show.

But going back to the point of effort. It is amazing to me that such famous Broadway performers can get away with slacking at their jobs. They are professional entertainers at the top level of the business. I expect more from them.

Looking to the future, I am going to see Phantom of the Opera and Wicked as well as a handful of other performances this year and I’m a bit anxious about the experience. Ever since I was little I have been listening to music from Phantom since my parents went to a show and bought a CD. I love the music and what pieces of the story I have been able to piece together.

I fear my expectations for the live performance will be through the roof. And expectations are a tricky beast. How can one diminish or curb such thoughts? I have planned on not listening to the Phantom recording in the 2 months leading up to the live performance in hopes that I will not compare the two. This seems an effort in futility but I can’t think of what else to do.

I want to enjoy the show and the performance by the actors. But if it doesn’t live up to my expectations I know I will be dissatisfied. So what to do?

WARNING: Super, x-tra long post ahead. Continue at your own risk!

What an awesome weekend.

It all started on Thursday after work when I stopped over at Glenn’s house to hang out for a bit and then head down to Cincy to meet Greg and Nate. The plan was to go to Kings Island on Friday and hopefully avoid the crowds since it was a work day.

Let’s start back at Glenn’s. Right before we left I was super surprised to hear Glenn ask, “Should I bring Settlers?” He was speaking of Settlers of Catan which is this x-cellent board game that I was introduced to a few weekends ago by Josiah. The real excitement was that I had ordered the game in hopes of taking it to Cincy but it hadn’t arrived in the mail yet. The big rush was due to the fact that Nate refused to play the game due to circumstances at work and it would be a good prank to bring the game (especially since he knew I wasn’t getting my copy in time). Glenn knew nothing of all this so it was pretty horkin’ amazing he mentioned bringing it. Armed with Settlers and some other gear we headed down to Cincy.

After some good conversation and music we arrived in Cincy and hung out with Greg and Nate. Eating at B-Dubs and playing some Rock Band made the night very enjoyable. But the real fun started when we broke out Settlers and had a go. I know inside jokes are only fun if you know the joke but I have to make a record of the events for future reference. Apologies for not explaining, this post is already super long and it’s still only Thursday night. New lingo for Settlers – shale (instead of ore), forest (not lumber), brick (supposed to be clay), wheat (instead of grain), sheep (for wool) (we actually didn’t get any of them correct, whoops), Soldier Boi, Indiana Jones Theme Song (this became a re-occuring song for the whole weekend), House (for settlement), and Hotel (not city). Heh heh. Good times.

We awoke pretty early and headed to McD’s then to Kings Island to ride the new coaster named Diamondback. It was pretty sweet. Super smooth and fun. The wait wasn’t bad at all either (just 45 min.). Another sweet ride is the Firehawk which has riders lying on their backs or stomachs and moving parallel to the ground. Completely different than any other coaster and very enjoyable. Other happenings at KI included us stopping some line cutters and getting into an argument, an interesting discussion about being prudent, the Indiana Jones Theme Song, the line – “She was with another man” – from a song by some guy with a crazy voice, picking up a balloon with my 5-finger shoes while on a ride only to get it taken away by a nice KI worker named Emily, accidentally popping the same balloon in line and people freaking out, bing! bing! bing! (watch the commercials for the Palm Pre and you’ll know where this comes from), some comments on my 5-finger shoes, a sweet ride called the Crypt, stealing a table from a kid (me, not one of my prouder moments), giving it back to him (thanks Glenn) only to have a different group of people take it (ah well), perfect weather (cloudy and cool), beating Greg and Nate on the Racers and talking smack to ‘em the n-tire time on the ride, and conquering the park by 4:30. All in all it was a great time.

After grabbing dinner at BD’s Mongolian grill Nate headed back to C-bus (boo!) and Greg, Glenn and I headed back to Greg’s and then into downtown Cincy to look for a hotel. Using technology (laptop computer getting free wifi + a GPS) we ended up in a decent hotel (even for Kentucky, haha!). We played some Settlers and then headed out to meet some of Glenn’s friends at Bar Louie. We hung out there most of the night and had a good time. Parted ways with Glenn’s friends and Greg and headed back to the hotel for some more Settlers (1v1) and some pizza (yum!).

Saturday morning we got up early and headed over to Lis and Brian’s house to help them move. A tree fell on their house on the 4th of July and they were finally able to get in to move all their belongings. This also meant that nothing was packed. So we moved from 9:45ish to 4:30ish. It was tough work but there was lots of help (thanks Glenn, Dan and Allison!). And it was a pretty fun move. Dan and Glenn are x-cellent at keeping things light and funny. This helped time pass uber quickly and we got Lis and Brian all moved into their super nice house (quite an upgrade in my opinion) safely. I was pretty toasted after the move and after an enlightening car ride back to Dayton to drop Glenn off I headed home and vegged out the rest of the night.

I did start reading a book titled “Scratch Beginnings” by Adam Shepard. It’s a story about a middle class guy who sells everything and tries to make a living with just the clothes on his back and $25 in a completely foreign city. His goal is to get out of poverty and to show that the American Dream is still alive. He’s sick of hearing crap from Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) about how the American Dream is dead. So he sets out to prove it’s still alive. It’s a very intriguing story and I ended up finishing it on Sunday. More on that later.

Saturday night also heralded the arrival of my friend Josiah. We hung out for a bit, watched some TLJC movie previews  with Jordan (which are x-cellent) and then called it a night.

Sunday was church (“Faith comes first – everything else follows”), the rootbeer stand with my parents, and bowling with peeps from Sogeti. I bowled a 160 and felt pretty good about it but didn’t come close to Glenn or Todd who both bowled a 212. Sogeti bowling team anyone?

The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry, going to the grocery, grilling (no burnage!) and reading. I finished Scratch Beginnings and had a great conversation with Jordan R. about poverty and class differences. Some startling revelations from the book and convo are included below:

Speaking about why people aren’t happy, “So many of us don’t have five-year plans on how we are going to better our lot over time rather than search for quick fixes. A five-year plan is invaluable. It gives us a sense of purpose in our present lives, the peace of mind every day that what we are doing has a purpose, a means to an end.”

“Unfortunately, few of us take ownership of our lives. We live in an “It ain’t my fault” society. Nothing is our fault. Ever. We’re fat because of genetics, we suck at math because we had a bad teacher… it has nothing to do with the fact that we aren’t eating right or exercising, or that we aren’t doing our homework… It’s everybody else’s fault. It ain’t ours.”

“3 types of people in life:
1. Those who make things happen
2. Those who watch things happen
3. Those who sit back, scratch their heads and think, “What the in the hork just happened?”

There are actual differences in speach patterns in different classes. Lower classes tend to speak in circular patterns, never getting the their point. Middle class people are usually direct and don’t waste time.

Pretty interesting eh? It is a great book and a quick read. The whole poverty topic is very strange to me and I look forward to finding out more about it.

As a good end to a great weekend my Monday has gone super well. To start things off I began billing at AO Smith in Tipp City today. I’m doing some Project Management and Business Analyst work for their Matrix One system. Billing rox (I’m a productive member of society once more!) but what really made my day happened in the lobby at 8 a.m. I was signing in when a lady who must have been behind me while walking in stops and stares at me.

“You must be a Lindeman.”

Shocked, I look up and don’t recognize who was speaking. Then she introduces herself, she’s the daughter of a guy that goes to my church. I have seen her a few times at picnics and such but had never talked to her. She was happy to see me and I her. It was a great start to a great day.

As a side note. That was the second time I had been pegged as a Lindeman in just about as many weeks. So strange and so flattering – or should it be embarrassing? Haha, who knows?

Work and Play. These two activities take up most of my time on a daily basis. Usually work is from 8-5 and play is the time after 5. There are other sub categories within these (such as sleeping, overcoming, helping others, eating, etc) but I’m gonna lay those aside and focus on the two above.

I’m coming to the realization that play can be mixed with work but that work should not be mixed with play. I enjoy having some laughs and some fun at work while staying productive and on task. Humor is essential to any work environment and I’d hate to work in one devoid of it. I also strongly feel that work should be left at work and that is shouldn’t interfere with play time. Before I sound like a huge slacker (which isn’t far from the truth) let me say I’m all for putting in extra time at work if needed. And even doing work at home if the occasion calls for such. However when there is nothing more to be done then work should be left at work.

This past week there were some delivery issues at a client in which a miscommunication on my part sent the project into a frenzy. The client was ticked, time was running out and it was a situation where I couldn’t just do more work to have it resolved. As a result I was under some stress (in comparison to other work related issues this one was actually pretty minor but it was still stressful) and had a hard time relaxing after work hours. Which is when I came to the conclusion that while I take pride in my work I shouldn’t let it rule my life.

There is a point where I have to let work go. When there is nothing more I can do I need to set it on a shelf and pick it up again in the morning. Thankfully I was able to stop worrying about work and have fun this past weekend. I think this is very healthy. Especially when a situation at work is out of my power to complete.

I had a great weekend watching Wolverine, playing Tennis, having lunch with Lis, Brian and Hind (where Lis and Hind got to practice their French, it was very interesting), seeing Scruff graduate, hanging out with the Shively clan and with the parents for a bit o’ Mother’s Day.

It was fabulous to have work suspended and to spend a weekend of fun and relaxation without the crushing worry that could easily have plagued me. I know as I become more experienced and tackle increasingly difficult projects this stress will increase. While I can’t say how I’ll handle those situations it was great to see that I could hold up under some stress yet still enjoy my life after work.

It’s such a simple thing, yet at times very difficult to achieve.

As a result it’s my goal to mix work and play but not play and work. Haha, guess that means I’ll have to give up WoW. We’ll see how that goes.

This weekend officially kicked off my summer. I had been feeling quite lazy and unmotivated to get back on my bicycle or to do anything which required physical exertion. I guess you could say I was still hibernating. But this weekend I finally awoke.

Saturday was a nice Hike at Brukner with Jordan and Hind (a friend from work:Teradata). Highlights of the trip included watching the Bobcat in his cage (cats are so cool), unsuccessfully hiding from Jordan while he stopped to take some pictures, making the perilous crossing of the boardwalk which sank into the water and was prone to moving (reminded me of Mario), and overall having a great time. I took some pix but don’t have them with me currently so they are gonna have to wait.

After the hike we headed out to the church to help prepare for the Mexican Dinner. Not as if we needed an excuse to have a huge horkin’ dinner but Cinco De Mayo is just around the corner so it’s somewhat appropriate. The dinner was a smashing success. I was in charge of heating the nacho cheese and making sure it tasted excellent. As a result I had to test it about every 10 seconds which was awesome. That stuff is soooooo good.

Funny occurrences during the meal – my friend Hind (she is a native of Morocco, living with her husband in Rhode Island) was helping (she diced about 30 tomatoes which was sweet) and my church is a pretty tight knit group of people so people were introducing themselves to her since they knew she was a visitor. Well on 2 seperate occasions people asked who she was visiting with and when she said “Luke” they were quite shocked. Now I can’t really tell if the shock was from me inviting a female to hang out or if they were shocked I actually had friends. But it came as a surprise to myself. I’m still mulling it over. I can’t even argue that Hind is the first visitor I’ve brought to a church event, it would have been nice since it would have fit in with the title, but it’s not true.

The rest of the night went very well, the dinner was great, breaking of the pinatas was fun (watching little kids is very enjoyable, which I’m guessing is because they aren’t mine), and hanging out over at Matt and Bob’s with the guys was pretty interesting. We were watching the Bulls v Celtics game, I wasn’t too interested so I took my laptop over and was playing some WoW. It was a decent mix of hanging out + playing.

Sunday is when the firsts began. After church I had my first tennis match of the year against Matt. I joined a tennis league that plays once a week and it just happened that Matt was my first opponent. We were both pretty rusty but it turned out I was less rusty and I ended up winning 6-2, 6-2. Anyone watching would have found the game quite boring since it pretty much came down to who made the least amount of mistakes. I think we play again later in the year so that match should be more exciting.

After tennis I ran around in WoW a bit with my sister and hit level 79. For those of you who don’t know, level 80 is the highest level in the game. So once a character reaches that level the “game begins” or some nonsense. I’m kinda dreading it since it means you have to put in about twice amount of time as before to get anything decent. But Lis, Brian (Lis’ hubby) and their friends Tom and Rachel are all lvl 80 so I guess we could start running around with each other again which can be fun.

Then came another first, I went with Matt and Bob on a 16 (or was it 17?) mile bike ride. It was pretty enjoyable. The weather was great and we rode south to Tipp City on the recently completed bike path that connects the two cities. I hear it’s possible to get all the way down to Dayton from Troy but haven’t found the right path yet. That’ll be a nice challenge for the summer. The path is mostly in the woods along the river so it’s secluded and the scenery is great. I got to test out my new bike seat which was neat. I think I’m gonna like it (as much as one can like a bike seat).

After the ride I hung out at Matt and Bob’s and we resurrected some great stories from our college days at Miami where we all hung out. There were some great laughs, some ice cream and some beer. Root beer.

All in all it was an amazing weekend. The best part was that it seemed to last forever and it had a good mix of hanging out with people as well as computer playing time (which is essential).

Now I just gotta sort out what is so crazy about me bringing a female friend to an event. Perhaps I have a skewed perception of myself. This will take some looking into.