Times, they are a-training...

I still don't know when my sho-dan test is. I paid for it, so it'll be soon, but I'm nervous, and who wouldn't be. After just two years of training in iai, I am testing. It seems more real now after this past week. The little senseis were moved up to ni-kyu yesterday, and judging by their current speed of being ranked, they'll be sho-dans in two arts in a matter of a year and a half. That's nuts.Head honcho sensei is coming down September 16th and 17th, for two clinics and a sho-dan test for brown belt kid. My brother and sister have fond memories of him. They visited the week my brother flew in from Austin, and brown belt kid was getting his butt chewed out by his mother for not practicing with his $65 bo. Ah, the luxuries of parental investment.

I'm not worried about not being ready. Despite only having been doing iai for two years, I have 3 years of kendo under my belt as well as 5 years of Japanese language training, which contributes to the ease of ranking, I guess. I practice every day with my sword, 30 minutes a day if I can, and I study my book. Now is as good a time as any to test, because once I get into Chiropractic college or a medical college, I won't have time. I guess there's one good point of testing early.

Next week, I'll be 23 years old. I still look like a 14 year old, and sometimes I get reviewed by teachers out of the juniors book because they don't know any better. Some of the kids in karate think I'm as old as they are. It's a little embarrassing to tell people I do karate for that reason. It's unheard of for adults my age to be a lower rank. At our school, it's me and Verizon guy.

Change flies around the school like a beagle on a sugar high. Last month, orange belt girl moved away to the Philippines, but not before getting her green belt and being forever immortalized as a member of the greenies. Valleyboy from iai left after he graduated from high school and has not been back since. One guy (I'll have to come up with a nickname for him) left iai after he got laid off but now he's back again, though his wife decided not to. I saw Applebee's guy working the other day- couldn't talk to him, he was too busy, it's become a contest to see who can bug him into coming in for a class first. Nobody likes the new aiki book still. Yet some things never change. Nerdverd is just as bad as ever.