What is the 50 State Challenge? Want to join the Challenge? Email me here.


Thursday, March 17, 2016

Where Have You Been?

Hello everyone.  It seems my previously mentioned hiatus was longer than I expected, but the good news is I should be posting again soon.  The main hold-up is that I am, (and I'm using the technical term here) broke.

Look, it's that stuff I don't have.

Some Reasons Why My Budget Is Crying

My relatively sudden trip to Korea put a huge dent in my travel budget, as is to be expected with international travel.  I thought I'd be back up and running soon, but there was another wrench thrown into the machine right before I came back home.  Long story short, I finally started a martial arts school.

Yeah, I named my school after my blog.  Stop laughing.  There are about 800 schools in Madison and all the
names are taken.  Except for Face Punch Martial Arts.  Or Face Palm Martial Arts.  Those are still available. 

Starting a school is something that I have always planned to do eventually.  Grandmaster Park has been encouraging me to do it for years now.  I didn't listen.  I didn't feel ready. As time passed, more people I respected began to push me and that direction.  I told them all I'd do it someday.  The encouragement became more insistent and strongly-worded until the combined force of it was greater than how un-ready I felt.  That tipping point came during this most recent trip to Korea, during a long talk with Master Do about martial arts, life, work, and being happy.  When I told Grandmaster Park about my decision to finally do it, he smiled in a way I've only seen from him a few times.

From that moment, it has been a roller coaster.  I still don't feel ready.  But as a friend once told me, "How awful would it be if we only ever did things when we were ready? We'd never do anything."  He was so right.  I don't know if anyone ever feels ready to start a business for the first time.  Maybe it's crazy to do this without more of a cash reserve.  Maybe it's even crazier to do this while still remaining committed to the 50 States Challenge.  But to quote more inspirational posters... actually any of them will do, but I was thinking of this one.  The point is, I'm doing this thing.

I know most of my readers are nowhere near Madison, Wisconsin.  But now that I have a home base, should you find yourself in town, please feel free to stop by one of my classes.  I would be honored to be a part of your vacation.

I do have some money set aside for the 50 States Challenge, but there's one last budget woe that needs to be resolved before I make any promises.  His name is Kaoru.

"I refuse to cooperate with any form of dental care, and now I need surgery.  Pet me."

Kaoru needs dental surgery, and since he's high risk with anesthesia, it will be the particularly expensive kind.  Until that's done, I can't really budget accurately for travel.

And Some Good News

I don't want to make any promises until I get the financial part sorted out, but in the best case scenario I could start travelling for the 50 States Challenge as early as next month. I'll likely have to stay close to home so I can make it a shorter, cheaper trip.  No Hawaii for me just yet.

If you want to host me, let me know!  Even if I can't make it to your state anytime soon, knowing you're interested is still helpful.  If you don't want to host me but you just want to say hi, that's welcome, too.  My Facebook and Twitter links are to your right, and my email is at the top of the page.

Let's color in this map!

Thanks, everyone, for being patient while I work out these pesky monetary details.