CombatGal seeks to explore why they love her at one school and hate her at the other, while at the same time proving that other people say things WAY more damaging.

They remembered my birthday at Islander's. I'm not one to go telling everybody that it's my birthday--they dragged it out of me a long time ago because b-days are a great excuse to go out. They gave me a card signed by everbody--one with all those funny animals with party hats on each they assigned one of their names. In the line, "From all of us at work", "Work" was crossed out and replaced with, "karate".  They had a cake with my name on it and a big bouquet of flowers.  Kirk's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks and were all going to go out for both our birthdays. . We last went out in late May for Ken's birthday. 

At the other place, instructors won't even talk to certain people and the boss says that  that's the way it is with kids' sports.  Is it that it's a low cost program? I don't know. There are really few people there who are actually scary.  One person is involved with drugs. Gee, how do I happen to know that?  I certainly didn't go up and ask him.  I was told the whole story about the concerned aunt, the special needs and fragile emotional state of the  kid.  I learned that stuff the same way I learned about the instructor's old girlfriend Patty, her kid, the jealous significant other, and in a mocking voice, I learned how this person could never be as good as she had been at her job. Maybe she straightened the dollar bills out better.  I also know that in the early days when when the instructor used to go over to this person's house and it at her kitchen table, her husband said that he sure liked to talk about himself a lot.  I thought that this was very rude  because not only did I think he was justified in speaking highly of his accomplishments, I also took into account that I've never seen the guy show up ever; not  when his kid got his brown belt or even his black belt...a mere 7.5 years in the making. Of course I didn't inquire, but I was told, "He doesn't do that". For all I know that in every other aspect, he's the perfect parent, but it's a nice thank you to a person who's served as a great father figure nontheless.

This stuff may not be earth shattering, but again, all that will be revealed too.  Any gossip stored in my brain had to be acquired during my very limited contact with the parents. I can only imagine that talkative people who sit there for 45 minutes must've heard all of this and God knows what else. Maybe I should have gone and complained that such gossip might have a negative effect on the program.