Long story short though, this guy had yet another Tang-So-Doo promotional event JUST yesterday. I knew about it for a short while now and desperately wanted the Friday before hand to be a really short work day. You see, all last week my average time to clocking out of work has been around 1:30am. Not a very friendly time of night for a long drive home.
Normally a Friday night is a short day for us. Our work volume is pretty low and everyone tries harder at work so we can go home to our weekend sooner. Well, as the Wal-Mart gods would have it, Friday was going to be the longest night of the work week.
It was around 3:30am when my sorry butt got to come home. What made it better is that I needed to be up in 3 and half hours to drive to Cincinnati and take a promotional test for my martial arts. I felt pretty terrible. My wife Katherine was a huge support though. She thought ahead and packed everything for me while I was at work. Including a lunch, my gear, papers, money ect. She woke me up that morning, ran a shower for me, and helped me get this thing over with.
Once my brain was functional enough to know that "cars go vroom!" we locked and loaded and was off to do this thing. It normally takes a hour and twenty mins to get to gym where the test will be held. That didn't account for road construction of course. That was a good 30 mins of our time wasted in a mile long line of traffic. So by the time we got there the whole place was already starting.
I rushed into the locker room, changed into my uniform, ran out to the floor. With a hasty bow to all the Grand Masters I got settled in my place in line. It was then my real nervousness kicked in. I was so sleep deprived I couldn't remember hardly anything! Do I turn to my left when I perform this move or do I spin on my right leg? Ah! All I wanted was to do good for myself and I had this feeling it was all going to be a joke to everyone watching.
When it was finally my turn to test, it felt like a long half hour. Everyone move I was making was being watched by the judges. I would mess up and try to hide it. Like I meant to do that move with that type of error. At one point, when I was performing my basic forms I skipped a entire portion of it. I have NO IDEA how. I just know I was about to finish Basic Form 1, I moved into doing Basic Form 2 next, then a time warp hit me and I was doing Basic Form 3. I even put on fighting gear backwards. It was like I was 6 years old all over again.
In the end it must have paid off because after being there for over 4 hours I was approached by my school's Master and told me I scored high enough to pass! I am now a green belt. It was a long and hard (giggity) road but I am only 4 belts away from Black. I think..I'll let you know how that works when I get some actual sleep.
-Jed
His black belt challenge is to face ME
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