Paycheck free and High on Life... Monday, February 18

I’m a spy, or so I told myself when I walked into the second MMA club I visited today. 

With my “secret camera” application snapping secret pictures stalker-style, I had to giggle at how mischievous I felt. Snickers and I didn’t know the owner of this club, nor did they recognize either of us like other clubs had, so we told them that we were interested in a membership. 

“He’s scary smart”, I told Snickers, and he was. The manager of this particular club had poured out all his ideas unto a binder of packed pages and flipped through it showing us. I’ve never in my life seen so much attention to detail and such a sensory overload at a gym. It was incredible, super impressive, but definitely not the full extent both Snickers and I want to take our boxing club. I’m talking about he having every hour of every working day planned and mapped out on paper. Only two chunks within his club’s work week were open for “free training”, the rest of the hours were designated towards various training classes. I definitely admired his attention to detail but it was rather intimidating and overbearing. Right now Snickers and I are only interested in hosting boxercise classes and perhaps also a crossfit group class, in addition to boxing training that is. 

When the manager asked us where we were training he was quick to assume Snickers must be training with the army because of his jacket. I had a good giggle at that. Snickers in the army?! Ya ok, that’s never going to happen. Totally illegal for him to do so actually, given his background. 

I am officially and legally resigned. I had given my notice on my father’s birthday but today I headed in to Suwon to sign the required legal document. And you know what, despite being officially paycheck-free and technically having no job, I’ve never felt more free or happier. I celebrated me signing my resignation paper today by meeting up with our boxing club’s leading financial sponsor and heading out for dinner with him. Kimchi Jjigga for everyone!!! 

I’ve been in Korea eight full years now and today marked the first time I’ve ever been offered a drug here. It was when I was out at our new tattoo parlor that I was offered. Besides coffee, which isn’t a drug in my sense of the word, I’ve only ever tried ephedrine and I got hooked on it. A minor heart attack at boxing was enough for me to go cold turkey with it. I had started taking it back in university when I was pulling crazy hours as the head bartender at a club and going to school full time. I stopped for a couple of years once I arrived in Korea because I didn’t know how to get a hold of it. It was now illegal in Canada so I assumed the same was true with Korea but after I started boxing again I found a source and started taking it because of the demands of my training. It just kept me so hyper and I needed the excessive energy it supplied because of working full time and training seven days a week. Anyways, it’s been over four years since I stopped. But besides ephedrine, I've never tried other.

I’m not too sure what exactly it was that this guy was smoking but it surely left him totally chill and mellow for his tattoo. When he asked me if I wanted a puff I gave a giggle and blurted out, “I’m already high”. It’s true. I am quite high, totally high – high on life.