Seattle Beaches

Jay, from the Slackfiles blog on the right, was giving me crap about not posting an entry in a while. It is a fair criticism, after all the flunko's from the previous post left I was pretty drained and work left me a little drained mentally. It's a series of excuses but nothing blog worthy was happening and when I was getting home from work at night I certainly didn't feel like writing a blog... but I'm BACK.

When I first moved to Seattle I got invited to a beach party. I didn't think too much of it but it turned out to be one of the craziest stories of my life. I haven't told anybody about this story because it's a little hard to believe but it's fascinating.

I went to the beach party not really knowing anybody but it was pretty fun, for a while. I started talking with this girl and it was pretty fun with just general conversation and things of that nature. Unbeknown to be me, she had just recently broken up with her boyfriend. Said boyfriend showed up and started be mean to Michelle, (not her real name) and messing around with her radio. Me, being the gentleman that I am, stood up for her and told the ex to leave. It got kind of crazy, he apparently knew karate or something and messed me up a little bit. I got in a few good shots but I was left bleeding on the beach.

It turns out the guy, Brett (also not a real name) worked in the same building as me. He was a pretty big ass. Brett and his buddies would mess with me on my way to work and in the hallways and wouldn't let me talk with Michelle. It wasn't very good but things kind of settled down for a while... then came Halloween last year. There was a big Halloween party and I got this hookup from a maintenance worker at one of our buildings in the international district. The maintenance workers name was Mr. Unagi. Mr. Unagi gave me some PVC pipe, an old backpack, and a shower curtain - it worked great and nobody really knew who I was. I made a pretty bad decision but Brett was in the bathroom and I had an opportunity to mess with him. In hindsight taking a garden hose and spraying him with water was a bad idea. It ended up with me getting beat up outside work and Mr. Unagi helping me fight off Brett and his cronies. It sucked.

The next week I went to Brett's boss to tell him his employee was threatening me and such. Brett's boss was also a HUGE jerk for some reason, it took a little doing but I worked out a truce where Brett and I would be free and clear to walk around our building without fear but at the company Christmas party there was going to be a fight at the all Sound Karate Tournament. I didn't really know anything about Karate but that bought me nearly two months of piece and quiet.

It turns out Mr. Unagi is a karate teacher. He started teaching me Karate but it was using a variety of non-traditional methods. I spent a lot of time doing what seemed like chores around work... waxing, painting, sanding and things of that nature. I don't know how it worked but doing the repetitive motions of those actions gave me a basic karate defense. We progressed quickly and during the course of the fall I went on a few dates with Michelle. I wasn't from the same part of town as her and her parents weren't really fans of my upbringing. It was a little awkward but it progressed nicely during my training.

So on the day of the Karate tournament weekend I went to the event and realized I didn't officially have a belt but Mr. Unagi procured a black belt from somewhere and it was awesome. I fought in the tournament for a little while and it turned out my basic training was excellent. They actually played this song while I was fighting and it was AMAZING. The crowd was behind me and started beating some of Brett's buddies during the course of the event, it was amazing! The final couple of matches however were even more amazing.

It started out with me fighting against one of Brett's best friends, Jeff. Jeff is a solid karate guy and we had a solid, close fight going. It ended up going poorly when Jeff got some questionable directions from his jerky coach. His coach said he should try to get me knees since they were weak from hours of fighting. It was unnecessary because I probably would have lost anyway but Jeff ended up being disqualified and I was questionable because my knee was killing me!

I went in the back room and the event Dr. looked at my knee was like "you could fight but I can't recommend it, I'll tell the event people you're out" and I was so mad. It was crazy but it turns out Mr. Unagi had some natural medicine training (read chiropractic) and he went to work on my knee and leg. After a few minutes worth of work I was ready to got back to the fight. They were just about to award the championship trophy to my arch-nemesis, Brett, when a walked back out to the mat. They announced I was going to fight and the place went crazy!

Once the fight started it was pretty back and forth. I got a few points and Brett got a few points and he hit my weak knee once or twice. I survived but it really hurt kind of bad... people were yelling the craziest stuff too! One guy yelled "put 'em in a body bag Brett!" and that kind of freaked me out. I'm a pretty quiet guy and these jerks were talking about body bags and implying I was gonna die. It came down to the final point and I used my training. During the course of my training Mr. Unagi showed me a move called the flamingo and I used it to kick Brett in the face and win the final point. I was amazing! I won the all Sound Karate tournament!!

*****

So obviously that is a little bit of a stretch. I did play a lot of kickball and ended up getting whacked a few times this season. Today in particular I ended up taking a good shot and now my arm is killing me, I think I hit my ulnar nerve really hard. Look it up.

I went to Bellingham WA one weekend to visit with my distant relation and close friends for the weekend. Happy birthday Melissa. I might be going to visit her at law school in the week or two as well. She goes to law school in Spokane WA.

A good chunk of $$ was spent at REI this weekend as I bought a camping backpack, a nice sleeping bag, and some needed accoutrement's like a sleeping pad. I don't know if I use this stuff this year or not but it was an end of season sale so I got some pretty good deals. I'm going to be a heck of a camper next season to make these purchases worth while.

Next on the list is snowboarding stuff and an HDTV. I like HD! The Twins didn't make the playoffs, the Brewers made it but lost 3-1 to the Phillies, and the Cubs got swept by the Dodgers. I think I want the National league to win know and the Red Sox to lose as soon as possible.

There Jay, I wrote a blog.