"I thought you quit!"

...exclaimed a visiting kenshi who I haven't seen in a long time.

Kendo practice was aight, I wasn't really 100% into it tonight, but then again, when I get into certain moods, I'm never really 100% into anything. I thought about skipping tonight, but I'm glad I didn't. My old friend Jin Shin from my UW kendo days came to visit and practice at Renton, which was coo. I haven't seen the guy in like 3 or 4 years.

Basically after graduation, Jin went back home to South Korea, because he thought he had a job and a "work exemption" from military service... but oops, nope. The poor guy got drafted into the Korean army almost soon as he set foot again on Korean soil. Jin is a pretty laidback guy, a funny guy who doesn't mind cracking jokes and such, which is probably why military service sucked for him... he ain't really the serious or disciplined type. On the otherhand, that's one of the reasons I always liked sparring with him. He brought out the joy in fighting, a sort of "AND 1" style of fighting that was fun.

So anyways, he served in the army for about 2.5 years, and just last year, finally got out. Now he's working, and he came back to Seattle to visit for a little bit.

Seeing Jin reminds me of a funny party story that happened I think my sophmore year at the UW. During that time, my life and faith was at another low point, having messed up a perfectly great platonic friendship with a girl I had been spending a lot of time with that year - as you might guess, I started catching romantic feelings and like a dummy, I spilled in an idiotic letter that let it all out. I shoulda chucked that letter, but I was weak and I gave it to her. The rejection stung pretty bad. Feeling pretty much like another stupid heartbroken fool, I sought drink as a brief vice.

So it was Jin's birthday party, and he threw this obnoxious kegger at his house. He invited all the people from UW kendo club to come, along with the rest of his other friends, mostly Korean, and mostly guys. There also was this group of like 4 Korean girls dressed up like they were going to go clubbing who were at the house when I came, and the party was reeeeeeeally quiet. Like all the guys wanted to be courteous or something while they were around.

As soon as "club girls" bugged out, everybody started getting their CRAZY drink on... drinking games, shotgunning beer. They even made the birthday boy Jin hit like 5-7 shots of this cheap tequila in a row, with the last shot having the WORM that was in the bottle. I think drinking the worm sent Jin outside puking... that was like straight-up Fear Factor-ish stuff. Red-faced people were everywhere acting stupid (except for me of course, thanks to my genes and a healthy tolerance). As usual, I skipped over the beer and I made a beeline to secure me some hard stuff... gotta love a super-sized rum & coke in one of dem plastic red cups, heh heh.

Anyways, by the end of the night, fools were passed out everywhere, including people from the kendo club. My pal Neil, another kendo guy, was this huge muscular white d00d who ummm... had passed out facedown in his own vomit. Nasty. Another guy, Eric, was drunkenly quoting lines from "Conan the Barbarian"... hilarious. Along with the only other guy in control of his liquor, Gerald the designated driver, we had to drag all the passed out and half-faded folks into his car, 4 of 'em all together. Neil, the big guy... took like 3 of us to get his unconscious self into the back.

We drove back to campus with 4 drunken fools in the back, with me riding shotgun... UW police pulled us over and we just about pissed our pants, 'cause 2 of them were minors. I shut my mouth and braced myself for the worst, but the cop actually complimented us on driving our drunken homies back to home, and he left us go. Phew. Man, the stupidity of alcohol... if seeing fools puking worms, and lying facedown in barf doesn't convince you to drink wisely, nothing will.

OK, no more stories. Time for morning cereal and sleep.
posted by G at 4:09 AM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33