Update

It's nearly 01:00. I'm sitting in the guest room of a house in rural Georgia with a bruised elbow, a bruise on top of my head, a rented car out front, and a netbook on my lap. Today I rode a horse for about two hours on a trail. It's not nearly as easy as it looks. Cricket is his name, and while he’s certainly docile enough for a n00b, he’s still got a mind to go where he wants from time to time.

Let’s back up. Just shy of two weeks ago (06 June at 16:45, to be closer to exact), Tim Brandenburg informed me that I was no longer to be employed by Sypris Technologies. The day prior (Sunday), I had come in for four hours so that Donnie could sleep in for once. The next morning, I called in (well, I texted Donnie, who shared it). Later that morning, I decided that I felt good enough to finish out the day. So, how does that look? Evidently, it looks nothing like someone who called in but later felt good enough to come in, it looks like someone who showed up 5 hours late. Naturally, instead of asking, Tim decided that he would simply terminate me.

The conversation was almost comical. Tim was very formal about the whole ordeal, and I, as opposed to intently listening in my chair, slouched a bit and looked bored. I knew what was coming, and after making a brief inquiry to see if my particular take would matter (it didn’t), I just waited it out. “If you feel you need to vent, yell, scream and holler, or call me an ass, now is that time to do that; we’re behind closed doors,” he said. Actually, I’m pretty sure Tim would have no idea his sentence would be best using a semicolon (or what the differences between a semicolon and a colon are), but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, I sat forward for the first time in his multi-minute explanation. “Tim, we clearly don’t know each other at all. I don’t get mad over small stuff like this. Let’s just end it like we started it.” I went to offer a firm handshake, and then walked out.

So, thus began my time of unemployment. I’ll get to applying for unemployment shortly (Monday).

Anyway, the bruise on my head came from doing pull ups on a set of steel spiral steps. The elbow bruise came from blacking out mere moments after waking up this morning and falling on a hardwood floor. The horse trail ride was a direct result of my location, as was the laser tag played this evening in a roller rink so 1980s-tastic that I wanted to get out a black light and see what glowed (everything was in some sort of neon color). But, it was cheap, fun, and I obliterated my competition. Yup, I sprinted, dodged, hid, and hunted my way to victory over opponents so docile that a cat would have trouble out-napping them.

I have an appointment Tuesday at 10:30 to renew my passport… in Chicago. My visa paperwork has finally been completed, and, oh wait, I’ve got some storytelling to do. On March 26th, Mark got married to Aya. On the 28th, I interviewed for an English teaching job with iTTTi, a company that teaches English to kids. On April 28th, I accepted their offer. So, I’m moving to Japan. There, I said it. Sypris already had my three weeks of notice by the time Tim let me go. No big loss.

I feel like I’ve divulged enough for one entry. I have a lot to do to get ready for this, not the least of which is learn Japanese. Eh, I’ll figure it out; it’s what I do.