I'm still very excited for May to be over, but luckily that's happening soon. I don't even have to do anything to make it happen.

Short updates:

• Work is requiring varying amounts of energy, and will continue so for a few months. It's going okay: it's sort of cute, every now and again the bosses take an interest in what I'm working on, then forget about it again. I will not miss this job; luckily, we should run out of money around the time I'd like to be packing up and leaving for Chile. (No, my application isn't done. Shut UP.)
• Aikido is going really well. My chiropractor fixed my knee, which had caused a variety of tight muscles. (That thing that I felt about 6-8 weeks ago, where something moved around my right knee? That was the head of my fibula moving out of alignment. I usually have no idea these things are even possible.) I'm teaching the basics class this Wednesday, and I'm shifting into training for my black belt. No word on when that might be, but I'm thinking December is more likely than September.
• During Wednesday's class I got clocked in the right jaw muscle by my friend Erhard, who is taller than me and full of very dense, powerful muscles, which he uses when he loses focus and spazzes a little. Three-pound hand to the side of the face, so...ow. Still a little sore. He felt really bad about it, which is hopeful for it not happening again.
• The hard part of my rakusu is done: these little squares called joro that get appliquéd on, and they can be a devil to keep straight and to get the little stitches in. (The stitching is much smaller than all the other stitching, and trickier because of the layers of fabric in place.) The remaining bits are a lot simpler.
• I went to ride my motorcycle to Menlo Park this afternoon, and with my persistent neglect, the battery didn't have enough power to start the engine: it just made this pathetic clicking sound. After a brief failure at push-starting, I jumped it from my car, leaned it up against the house to let it run (as a safety measure, the engine stops if you put the kickstand down), put the car away, and went for a 10-minute ride to charge the battery. Poor thing. I'll have to ride it more often this summer, possibly out to my cousin's place near Yosemite, where there are lots of nice roads.
• Kat and I see each other every few weeks, which on the whole seems to be a good frequency for us right now.
• I've been spending lots of time with a nice girl from the dojo. Well, as much as possible, she has a little kid and she's busy. Our gears mesh pretty smoothly, though, which is nice.

Phew. Bedtime.