Karate Part I: Try your gi on the day before

Not too far from my work, there is a karate club of the same style I studied years ago. When I emailed the group to find out their rates, they offered me the opportunity to come try a class for free.

The day of my class, I decided to try on my karate gi 30 minutes before I had to leave.

It had not been worn in eight years. My brief stint in karate coincided with my Freshman 15. Currently, my weight is about 10 lbs below my normal baseline. The 25 lb gap between then and now meant I was swimming in the gi. No problem, I thought, I'll just pull harder on the drawstring and tie my belt really tight. That's when I noticed there was a stain on the front of the uniform. I'll just bleach it. I've never bleached anything in my life. Ever. After pouring bleach directly on the gi, I realized what a dumb idea that was. I added water to the bleached -- though now stain-free -- area. So, now I had a wet gi, my kitchen smelled like a public swimming pool, and I needed to leave in 10 minutes. Epic fail. I ended up abandoning the project and tossing the gi into the washing machine. Luckily, I had an Aikido gi kicking around, and I just wore that.

For anyone else who is domestically challenged, Martha Stewart has a great stain removal chart, which I should have consulted sooner.

The karate class itself was great.