The Journey Begins

Awful means extremely unpleasant, or of poor quality; also amazing, full of awe, awe-inspiring, awesome.

     Of course the journey truly began 19 years ago.  As he grew and started trying to conquer the world with his energy, my wild little guy got a nickname.  It was a time of rhyming, and mysterious creatures.  Awesome Austin--that part was easy--but then, what?  Amicable Antelope, no...Ambling Aardvark, no.  Awful...yes.....Awful Anteater, no.  Awesome Austin the Awful Octopus!  A smart, strong, agile creature.  As Austin started dreaming of Muay Thai, MMA, and the UFC, he and I were talking one day about Anderson, the Spider, Silva.  Austin said they all have "names" and I asked what he would use.  I think we both kind of laughed at the same time as we thought of, you know....Awesome Aus.  He said in this style of fighting it is known as fighting with eight limbs.  Hands, elbows, knees, and feet.  Well, that was a prescient nickname wasn't it?  I felt a little unsure of the "awful" part, and decided to actually check its definition.  I like the dichotomy of it, because Austin can certainly be extremely unpleasant along with that awesomeness.
     Anyway, as most of you know, Austin spent the spring in upstate New York at his grandfather's horse farm.  It was a good experience, helping with the horses, working at a racetrack, and getting to know a lot of family he had never even met before.  Mike, Austin's dad, is from Rochester, but hadn't gone back to visit in the 20 years we'd been married.  So, as the end of June approached, there was a family get-together planned for a joint birthday party to celebrate Austin's birthday on the 28th, and his great-grandfather Carl's, on the 26th.  I said to Mike, "Wow, wouldn't that be cool if you showed up to surprise them at the birthday party?"  So...two days later Mike was on a plane.  Austin was shoveling horseshit at the racetrack, his back to Mike as he approached, seeing him for the first time in 3 months.  "Hey you, you doing that right?" A good father-son joke...and a start to a nice reunion.
     Austin was attending United Martial Arts Center in Victor, studying Jiu-Jitsu,  and Mike went along with him that day.  Mike called me from there and said, "Hey, let's get Austin to Thailand for Muay Thai training. Do some research on it."  So, that was the beginning of the reality for this trip.  One of Mike's greatest strengths is making things happen.