Sometimes when I’m at something of a loss for words on what to write I look back through my photos in my phone and see what I thought was funny/cool/interesting enough to take a picture of at the time. For the last two months, it’s been a bit of my wife, a whole lot of karate, and this particular gem.

What can I say, I’m a hopeless romantic. I thought this was so funny I chuckled for several minutes. My enthusiasm was not shared at the same level.

However, the date day at Short Stack Made up for it, I’m sure.

Scrolling through these and other photos I realized that, though the last few months have been crazy, chaotic, and full of so much karate it’s coming out of my ears. They’ve also been packed with lots of laughter and crazy happenings that I couldn’t have come up with if I tried.

We laughed for four or five hours straight AND managed to get some phenomenal instruction in. It was a pleasure to have friends come down to Milwaukee and hang out with my students and instructors for the day. It was great, it was fun. And it reminded me my karate family is pretty great.

In case I needed more reminders, I also got to watch a great show with Zhong Yi Kung Fu Associaton. They were doing Lion Dances to ring in the Lunar New Year all over Madison, and I happened to see them setting up on the sidewalk and had a feeling I would know these people. So I stopped and was immediately welcomed into the fold and just got to hang out and learn a whole bunch about what was going on.

And the adventures just continue. In the next few weeks, I’m at tournaments, in planes, in cars, training,  writing a whole bunch and (hopefully) getting my thesis for graduate school done and out of the way. There’s so much going on all the time that looking back and seeing the friends and the photos and the memories help me remember the fantastic community of people out there who are all cheering me on, and occasionally telling me a dirty joke (you know who you are.).

It’s a hell of a ride, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.