holliday

It's 5:18 AM.

I took the night off from drinking...so for once I'm not hung-over...

I have my big hands on welding test today and thought it would be best to have all my wits about me...

I'm not entirely freaked out about it, although it IS a very big deal. It's free for me to take the test right now, since I'm in my welding class. However, if I should fail any part of the test, I have to pay $55 to re-take it. And...I can't graduate without passing it.

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My thoughts for today?

My daily calendar says this...and I use to term god loosely here...

"For God, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Love heals all wounds. No problem is too small for God's attention, or too big for him to handle."

So today, I'm asking my god/god/goddesses...the powers that be...to keep an eye on me and my welding test. As a favor that might seem small...but feels pretty big.

My OTHER thought for today?

If I can fly a 10,000 lb monster truck 15 feet in the air and live to tell about it...I can handle this here test.

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THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN EDITED TO ADD:

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I totally bombed my welding test...

It was seriously one of the most ridiculous things I've ever fucking seen!

I'm a good welder, man. I'm not gonna lie. Me and the army dude are two of the best welders in the class...

However, the minute they said, "go!" it all fell apart.

The test goes like this...
They give you 40 minutes to practice the three types of vertical welds they need...then you get the specific number of pieces of steel to weld...and you get to make two of each kind. Then you pick the better of the two, they wrap them up, send them off, and they're tested for strength and quality at another facility. Then you do the same thing for the over-head welds.

I failed it within the first few minutes...

Welds I can normally do beautifully...backwards and with my eyes closed...just weren't happening.

I had troubles that I've never had before...

The teacher comes over to me and says, "Give me something I can use." I told him I didn't have anything he could use. He says, "Read between the lines...give me something I can use."

So I spent the entire rest of the day just trying to hit my 3 types of vertical welds.

It was seriously one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen...

Army guy was having the same problem. He spent HIS whole day trying to hit his verticle welds too.

In competition, there is a saying...never do anything different on the day of the race.

Don't wear new shoes...don't try a different energy bar...don't do ANYTHING different than you've been doing in training.

So I'm standing there...entirely bombing my test...thinking, what am I doing differently today than all the other days?

The answer? I wasn't hung over.

The one thing I'd done differently was that I hadn't gotten drunk and shown up to school all tired and hung over.

Here I was trying to do the responsible thing...getting enough sleep...not staying up drinking all night...only so I could have all my wits about me...

Turns out, I'm better when I don't have my wits at all...

The plan? Get real smashed Sunday night...head to school Monday morning tired and hung over and finish my overheads...

Man, I can't say it enough, but it was the most ridiculous fucking display of welding I've ever seen!!!