Quarantine is lifted (for now), Lia is graduating Residency, I moved to Milwaukee, Lia is moving to Ohio, I seem to live my entire professional life on Zoom, the cat is getting skinnier and I was mentioned ever so briefly in Black Belt Magazine (Thank you Jackson Rudolph!) Also, I’m becoming something of an expert on virtual tournaments and have spent more time in introspective reflection in the last few weeks than I have in the previous few years.

Or so it feels.

Let’s attack all that in on particular order and with the verve and gusto more appropriate to a 13 year old who juuuuust discovered Mt. Dew.

Black Belt Magazine!

Jackson Rudolph wrote a pretty solid article on the best teams in Sport Karate today and, as I’m on Team AKA, I was mentioned, literally a name in a list of names.

However, there are some pretty cool things about this.

1. I’ve been reading and aware of Black Belt Magazine since I was 9 years old. And having my name in there, even in passing, is pretty awesome. (Fun aside, you should have seen my Dad’s face when I mentioned this whole thing. He was the one who would buy me Black Belt Magazine way back when).
2. Reading through the teams and the names, it hit me how small of a community we are. I’ve been competing, laughing, supporting and learning from dozens and dozens of people on that list for YEARS. Decades, in some cases. I’m on Team AKA, something that was a lofty goal of mine 15 years ago. I have ties to Team Revolution, I have friends and people I truly respect on Teams KTOC, Impex, JPM, AmeriKick, Infinity, and pretty much every other team on that list. We spend a lot less time worrying about what we’re wearing on our back, than what we’re doing on the floor. And no one is a bigger supporter than the guy who’s coming up next and WANTS you to just crush it out there. Because, y’know, that makes everyone better.

Graduation: Residency Edition

Over the last three years I’ve been living in Madison, and commuting to Milwaukee in the neighborhood of 4-7 days a week. Depending on what was needed and what was going on. It’s something like 84 miles each way, which is 164 miles a day, let’s say I averaged at 5.5 days, times 50 weeks (holidays, y’know) times 3 years. That comes out to 135,300 miles on I-94.

With the whole quarantine shebang, lets call that 130,000.

Just from home to Dojo.

That’s a lot.

Now while I was driving, Lia was doing a whole slew of other things more interesting and less repetitive. Like saving lives, running traumas, traveling the world, and being all awesome and doctory. Y’know, like a rockstar!

But also, working crazy hours, putting together schedules, being at the hospital and generally doing absolutely everything necessary to be an exemplary physician and leader.

And now? Now she’s in Ohio, I’m back in Milwaukee, and we get to jump into the entire experience of seeing what this “long distance” thing is all about.

Bring it on.