1 month and 5 days ago

Was my last entry. Oops. Since then, I have been laid off. Unemployment is easily the most boring thing I have ever done in my life. Luckily, Sensei/Coach/Jason Morris is letting me take judo until I can pay him. Swish. Also, I am enrolled in the EMT class. FINALLY. This has been YEARS in the making.

Let's take it back to when I was 18. I was 5 years into a police training program, and way too squared away for an 18 year old. Alcohol and drugs weren't anything I would even dream of doing. There was a girl I was crazy about. Around this time I got into EMS. I loved it, there was nothing like being the first people to the scene of an accident or any sort of health concern. I was one of the people that the public turned to. Sunday nights were the most exciting time ever. From 6-10pm, I was living my dream. It became a ritual, every Sunday night I'd show up at 6 with Tim and we'd immediately do a rig check. Once that was set, we waited for the rest of the Explorers to get there and we would do our usual meetings and training. I would always try to partner with this girl. The whole while, we would wait for the tones to drop. Summer was a blast, we'd always toss a football inside the bay or outside if we could see. Winters were always cold, hence us both rocking Under Armor with the already hilarious yellow and black uniforms. Everyone thought we were related. Then, one night when we showed up, it was all over. The program had suddenly been dissolved. I met a lifelong friend there as well. My friend "Doctor Dave," or David Neubert. We're still friends to this day, and whenever we go anywhere together people think we're brothers. Apparently, all us whiteys look the same. Anyways, the Explorer program was gone, and I was going to college. Things changed so suddenly.

I still did the police explorer program, and the looks I got walking down the dorm hallway in a full class A uniform, badge and all were priceless. EMS went on the backburner, as did the police explorers for awhile. I'm now working at Best Buy and I left college. Sure, I have everything I want but I'm not really DOING anything.

Now, I'm 22 and working at a bank. I am unhappy. My usual demeanor is completely altered thanks to working in a stifled, flourescent-lit hell. After 10 months, I get laid off. Uh-oh. Hey, wait a sec....

"Back to school." One of the most dreaded quotes ever was now the most inspiring. I enrolled in the EMT class 2 days later, and am heading in the right direction.

Let's hope this works.

I has a bonsai tree.

And it is awesome. I almost left it outside last night, which would have undoubtedly killed it. Oops. Maybe I'm learning to be responsible?

Yeah, no.

Judo is going. 3 months off killed me, and I did nothing but get fat, lazy and lose any technique I had. Believe me, it wasn't much. Going to keep on keeping on though.

I am less angry.

Yet another day of RSX drama. Thank God for networking. The shop quoted my repair as $4,000. FOUR THOUSAND *FUCKING* DOLLARS. I think I'd prefer a blowjob from some piranhas. Moving on, a very reputable and well-recommended local garage located an engine for $900 and will do the work for $800. Fuckin' a, Ilsa will be back in business. Also, I'll be refinancing my loan through SEFCU. With the refinance, I might get a little extra and throw some headers in that bitch. Maybe even a K20A3.

Anyways, the RSX will be back and better than ever. That is all I care about.

I am angry. Again.

Fuck. My. Life. The KKK took my baby away. Imagine it's Saturday night. You are driving yourself, your best friend and two females down to a block party for a night of shenanigans. You're driving in your shiny, black 2002 Acura RSX. The window is partially down so you can hear the whine of your intake when you hammer the accelerator to show off. Your ion yellow foglights are on, again, just to show off. The interior is as if a submarine, lit by red LEDs. The car is a work of art. Everything was thought about. Honda spared no detail with this car. Look at any review of it, the entire shebang was about the driver. The car begged to be driven. As you are fulfilled what will soon be the last wishes of such an art piece, everything. stops.

"What the fuck was that?"

Everyone's fine. Get out of panic mode. Get out. Smoke. Combustion smoke. Open the hood, don't choke on the cloud. What the fuck? What happened? Everything looks fine. Move it out of the road. What did you just step in? Oil. Why? You just lost half a quart. No engine pressure. Why? Dad's here, you're saved. Push it to the side of the road. Go home, wash up. Take mom's car to go pretend to have fun.

Tuesday. Your car is finally towed to a shop, you wait all day and hear nothing. Wednesday, bloody Wednesday. "Bad news about car, call on lunch. -Mom." I knew it. It's all over. Maybe I just popped the oil filter out of place, wishful thinking. A piston nearly went through the engine block. You are fucked, and need a new motor. There is no way around this. You cannot get a loan for a new car, insurance will not cover this and you don't have enough saved for a new engine. You are on your own, with no help available from anybody. The feeling of helplessness is crippling.

Hi there, welcome to my last 5 days.

I am angry.

You know what, I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. We got hurt weeks ago, and what have we done since then? Nothing. Been fat and lazy. What the fuck Mike? Are you serious? You should have set a goal of getting back to judo stronger, more agile and in better shape. Instead you ignored our diet, stopped working out and stopped going to judo. Major problem. Tryouts for the Empire State Games are TOMORROW. We could have gone right from work, but nope. Even better, there is nobody from our club fighting the -73kg weight class. We would have been the one to represent JMJC to the state. Instead, your weight is up and your judo is down. Garbage. Unacceptable, complete and utter trash. Go work out, go run 2 miles or you're going to bed without anything to eat.

Textbook narcissist?

Agreed.

Third Place...

Morris Cup was yesterday, longest day ever. Got there at 8:30, worked a table until some time had passed. The little kids are so scrappy when they fight. Then more time passed until the junior division, which took 1000000 years. Seriously, I was a little aggravated and I don't think I got to fight until like 9pm. Which leads us to the results. I took third place for Novice Men -74kg. Third. Place. Ugh. I should have won, except in match 2 I (well, a Russian) dislocated my left shoulder. It didn't hurt too badly due to adrenaline or me just wanting to win, so I didn't go on the DL and just fought through to match 3. That might have been an awful idea, as I couldn't fight well at all, and got thrown for ippon in 2 and 3. I'm immensely aggravated that I lost to two judoka I could have beaten. Again, ugh. The high point of my day was the support from my friends and my family. Jessica, Dave, you guys rock, thank you for sticking it out until the end. (Almost the end for you Jess!) Mom and Dad too, love you guys and thank you for coming out and watching me get injured, sorry about all that. Mike D'Alessio, Sensei DaLessio, thank you for all the training and for getting me into judo. Everyone from JMJC- you guys rule, thanks for all the help and support. All in all, I'm extremely disappointed. It was a great day but I should have performed much better. Empire State Games tryouts in June once this shoulder is healed up.