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OMG 2011!! heart

Having a blast on vacation!! Spent a great week in Okinawa with John, Pam, and the kids. I've been holed up in my room for a few days BECAUSE IT SNOWED and it's freaking cold. But am taking off tonight for Kuro-chan's place in Yokohama (going via night bus!) so that should be good.

RESOLUTIONS!
1. Write some books. Seriously, man.
2. Drink more wine. Get familiar with it and enjoy it more.
3. Travel to another country. FINALLY.
4. Save money - I need to get SOME sort of savings together for when I go home.
5. Cook a new dish twice a month. Not too often, as it gets expensive.
6. Take the CBEST. Need to.
7. Exercise more and eat healthier. Need to shape up a lot more.

All of these are do-able. I can do it. Already started on #2, so I'm off with a bang.

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These are bad times.

I haven't gone running in days. I've got a pretty bad cold. My novel is behind.
I haven't seen Melissa in ages. I've gotta plan Thanksgiving and figure out the logistics.
I have to buy my plane ticket for Christmas to Okinawa.
And somehow, I have to pay for all this.

Happyokai is in two weeks. My manga chapter is way overdue.

I JUST NEED A VACATION NOW. PLEASE.
And a lot of money to pay for all the things I need to buy.

At least Ben got his sword and that's all cool.

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I might have some time tomorrow to write! sweatdrop

I better - I'm signed up for National Novel Writing Month, which starts on Monday.

Last week and this week have been insane. I'll be happy to vent about it this weekend...
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It is. I've never been so tired - well, I can't remember the last time I was this flat-out exhausted.

Not that I'm in the best shape anyway. The cold has got me down, and then I'm totally seeing red.

And not like I was on top of my game this morning. I left my apartment AND THEN remembered it's a legal holiday, so I was too late to catch the appropriate train. I had to wait an extra 15 minutes.

And then I get to the school and I realize it's Open Class at the Park day. CRAP.

I walked in to find everyone with all the stuff gathered, sitting around the entrance, about to have the morning meeting. I remembered the morning activities, but beyond that I knew nothing. What about the language portion of class? We couldn't write stuff at the park. Weren't we supposed to be doing the "traffic safety" topic? UGH.

I helped load the car and sacrificed myself to Yukari's car rather than Miki's car. It's a nice drive up the hills and then there's the big "Culture Zone" - a giant wooded area with some meadows and benches. The good weather made it a wonderful day for the park, and quite a few people and small children were there as well.

We set down our tarp and I got the gist of the language portion I would do with Shino. Thank GOODNESS I'd only have my kinders - preschool would drive me insane.

After putting down the tarp, Kippei was the first to arrive. In fact, the majority of my kinders descended on us first. We ended up having fun finding the billions of acorns laying around; I had a fun idea to draw faces on them with my pen.

Immediately we started having problems once the preschoolers got there. Masashige was EVERYWHERE. Hell, the first time I saw him, David was sprinting after him - he'd somehow gotten across the creek to the wooded area. His mom had come, but she was constantly busy with Masa's younger sister, who is equally terrifying. Seriously. Poor Masa - I understand so much now.

And then there was Tsubasa. Tsubasa had only been to the school ONCE before. This was his second bloody time. Tsubasa has problems. He can't focus. He ignores authority figures. He likes to run. He doesn't understand any English. He enjoys screaming. He's good at screaming.

And while I really can't blame his father for not watching him, I was pretty sad at the lack of control the father exerted.

Horen was the only kid whose parent didn't come. Awww. That's OK - I love Ho-chan like my own and was happy to take turns. He likes clinging to my leg anyway.

I managed to entertain the kids until the morning events. The Japanese teachers have been prepping us and the kids for a while now. First was just a simple race from one point to another - a short distance. We divided the kids into Older Kinder, Younger Kinder, Older Preschool, and Younger Preschool.

And that's when the flaws in our plans blazed bright. We had parents taking their kids to the toilet. Or, more often, kids going to the toilet while the parents wandered around with their SMALLER children and didn't participate or look after their kids. Or kids getting hot under the mid-morning sun and going for tea. Or whatnot. But certainly not lining up for us. And no one had a whistle. xp

But we made it through the basic races. Then we had the parents join in. I became Horen's mama; some of the older siblings who'd been dragged along filled in as surrogate parents for the kids whose parents were with their siblings.

We did the "push the oversized ball down the strip and then around a cone and back" relay race; we did the "hold a balloon between two batons and race the same strip and around the cone and back" race. Then the parents retired so the kids could do an obstacle race - only two kids at a time, but it worked out.

Horen kept saying he was hot and tired, and I took pity on him and didn't force him terribly. But Shino took him away from me and dragged him through a race at one point.

After that, we had music time. That meant we made a huge circle and sang all the songs. I kind of floated around the circle and helped the parents anticipate the gestures we use. And then I noticed Tsubasa, Masashige, Yuzuki, and others would occasionally escape their parents' notice and run around the park. Masashige, I noted, went to the men's bathroom three times in 5 minutes - with no one. I booked it after the escapees and dragged them back to the circle, only to chase them back a minute later.

After that, we had tea/toilet time - very necessary! Then it was language time. The easiest part of my day. Shino had brought two sets of alphabet cards. I was supposed to review the alphabet, the phonics for each letter, and get the kids to think of a few words starting with that letter. I started by allowing all the kids to suggest words by raising their hands; but that took forever. So I shifted to picking one person and we'd go around in a circle. And that took forever too. So I ended up just having them scream the word they wanted to say in unison. That worked perfectly.

Then we explained the game: the kids formed two teams, the teams stood in parallel lines. There was line on the ground to mark where the front of the line began. Beyond that was a hula hoop. I spread the cards on the ground face down beyond the hoop, then stood beyond that.

On the mark, the first person would cross the line, step into the hula hoop, pick it up and hold it waist-level, then run to get a card. Then they'd run to me and have to think of word starting with that letter - and finally, make a sentence USING that word. Once I or Shino approved the sentence, then they gave us the card, ran back, put the hoop back where it was, and tagged the next person to repeat the process.

It was a smashing success. Although a few of my kids have problems, by the end they had the hang of it and were doing great (even if Suzuno DID only use the grammar pattern "I like __." wink . We had a close race, and we ended on time.

After that was lunch. That was interesting I asked how it would work out, and was told people would sit around our tarp.

How it turned out was the kinder kids all made a tarp area a distance away, and the preschoolers seemed to totally disappear. David mentioned the "itadakimasu" thing we say, and as I started go through the routine, Yukari stopped me. "We do it all together."

I gestured to the three preschoolers and their families that I saw. "Um, they're already eating though." And continued to do the routine.

I heard some embarrassed "oh"s from the preschool tarps.

Lunch was nice. I ate one of my sandwiches with Non, who was only there with her older sister, Rin - who also happens to be my student on Saturday. These two seemed to be alone - they refused to sit with the other kinder kids. I didn't force them, but just tried to make it an enjoyable lunchtime enjoyable anyway. I noticed they both have the same laugh - it's super cute. Then I spent another sandwich with rest of the kinder kids, letting the kids guess what kind of sandwich I'd made and having them show me what they were eating. I prevented Yuzuki from chopping down a tree with a small log. I attempted to help Tsubasa eat his lunch. After that was a bit of free play, when Yuzuki, Mio, and Tsubasa ended up running into the parking lot. I had to tackle Tsubasa. He decided he liked me then.

Really, 3-year-old boys adore you if you can toss them over your shoulder. It's a simple matter to gain their affection.

After that, we cleaned up and put everything away. Then picked up all our stuff. I thought we were leaving.

Instead, we went on a hike. We went over this huge hill, then up a paved incline, then climbed five flights of stairs and walked up to this hidden playground on the back of a large hill. We let the kids free-play (and my heart nearly stopped when little 2-year-old Hana fell off the ladder to slide. Fortunately, my hand caught her as she went horizontal and steadied her. Then I yelled at Rin to drag Hana up until her mother could get there).

I noticed So Y. wasn't playing with anyone. He wanted to race. After some fun "timed" races with me, I got him to finally play with Suzuno, Karin, and So W. Mostly I spent my time trying to CONTAIN the kids. And enforce properly slide etiquette.

After that, David showed us the afternoon game. I completely forget what the name is, but kids have to cross an area of meadow. There will be one person in the middle of the meadow who have to catch the kids. If the kids are caught before the reach the safe zone, then they have hold hands with the catcher and catch more kids. We told them that the catchers were "lions."

The majority of the kids loved this. Masashige played 50% of the time. Yuzuki gave up after 5 minutes, then joined Hana in running across the field at dangerous points. Tsubasa ignored us, despite the fact that we were doing his favorite activities - screaming and running. (Guess he was bored with it after a few hours of doing it by himself?) Itsuru cried because the "lions" were scary.

And then it was the ending song, and then the ending moral-of-the-day. ("Take your trash home." wink

And then we came back to the school. And I was exhausted. Like, I just wanted to curl up and sleep. Preferably after drinking a gallon of water.

I dragged myself to the store, got some bread and a couple energy drinks. Drank them on the way back.

Took a 45 minute nap back at the school. Woke up feeling refreshed! whee

Afternoon was AWESOME. My younger class (about 6-years-old) have had trouble warming up to each other and feeling comfortable in class, but those barriers have FINALLY shattered. We had the best atmosphere and more laughter than we've ever had. The kids did great the entire lesson. Then my final class, one of the two girls couldn't come, so it was a nice, relaxed private lesson with an excellent 11-year-old student.

After that, I lickity-split it out came home to crash.

I polished off the brownies and the tea. Dinner was an egg sandwich with onion and sesame seed dressing. Very yum.

And now I'm going to pack it in early.

Because tomorrow, I've been told, I teach pre-school. With more kids. AT A BIGGER PARK.

God help me.

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Got paid last Friday. xd

Yukari drove me nuts working with the kids on their plays, but other than that Friday was pretty uneventful. It started raining that night and I got a bit drenched on the way home. The only thing was that I had to wash the sheets Friday night so Melissa could sleepover comfortably, and thus my futon was very bare of warmth... crying

So imagine my surprise when I'm woken up a bit early by a text from Melissa saying that Contact Boy (whom she has a massive crush on) had sent her a late night email asking her for a date that night - the night of our planned sleepover. She asked me what she should do.

My first reaction was to be pissed off. Like, OMG, seriously? You want to cancel our agreed girls' night for a random last-second date? A boy over your buddy? Seriously? And you want me to say, "Yes, ditch me and go with this boy despite the fact that I washed my nice blankets and am chilly on a day that's perfect for snuggling under the covers? I will relieve you of any guilt you'd feel from ditching me at the last minute?"

But I was feeling sick from my cold still, and I didn't want to be angry, and I was still sleepy. So I ignored the text. Figured that was better than sending an angry email or just writing off our slumber party like I didn't care - because I did care, and I don't want to be a doormat. I turned on my heater and slept.

A few hours later, I woke up properly - warm and drowsy from oversleeping. I also woke up with the answer - I wrote back honestly, saying that I would be pissed, but I did have a cold, and so it could go either way - whatever she wanted to do. I figured she had already made a decision anyway. I don't know way she bothered to ask me for "advice" in something that would positively or negatively affect me depending on the decision.

She answered back with an angry-sounding text, saying that she had TURNED DOWN Contact Boy, and was I going to be any fun anyway? It might not have meant to be angry, but I couldn't figure her out. Was she pissed she'd turned him down or was she pissed I wouldn't be fun?

I figured there was nothing I could do about the former, but I could try and rally for the latter. I texted her back with an attempt at writing it off as a joke, then headed out to get ready for our night.

This meant FINALLY sending out the packages I'd had sitting in my apartment since August, as well as the postcards. Someone jacked my umbrella (!) so I improvised with a jacket and a sweater. Got an umbrella along the way. Stopped by and got some imported food goodies, then groceries. I figured we hadn't discussed dinner, but homemade pizza was a good option. I also saw that the grocery store had sucky sushi options - but I picked up some yummy-looking chirashi-sushi. I was very pleased with it, though it's crazy expensive.

I also had to pick up a brownie pan. Dude, that was crazy. The store, for all that it has a huge cooking/housewares section, had a very small baking section. And then they didn't have any brownie pans. They had roll cake pans, which work - but only ONE. I had no other option. crying Oh Japan.

Lugged it all back to my apartment through the rain. I then cleaned up the apartment, tried some desperate tricks with my air-con to try and dry the blankets, and started baking the brownies. Melissa texted me to say she was coming as I was prepping the brownies, so I wasn't able to meet her at the station. She called me when her train got there and asked about a nearby conbini - though she was aware of my offer of food here. She stopped by to pick up an onigiri and peach juice on the way.

I had just pulled out the brownies (NOTE: I need to buy a potholder!) when she rang my doorbell. I greeted her and gave her room to come in. "You alright?" I asked.

"No," she answered.

Uh-oh. "What's wrong?" I asked.

She didn't answer.

I've been getting that a lot from her recently.

She sat down and, as she unwrapped her onigiri, told me she needed to eat now because "she hadn't eaten anything yet that day."

FYI, it was about 8 pm. Melissa has done this before as well. Seriously.

So I tried to make some happy chatter while I fretted over my brownies and the failed idea to put marshmallows in them (NOTE: Marshmallows burn faster than brownies brown). I asked if she wanted pizza and she affirmed. I made us pizzas, glad I'd bought more bread at the store for extra pizzas. We ate brownies (which she said she had been craving for ages). I don't know if she liked them - she only had one. I had two (and am still eating them. biggrin )

Melissa, meanwhile, had gone up to grab the next book in the series I was lending her, laid down on my bed, and started reading.

Uh... OK.

I had closed my computer when she got there because usually we chat and chatter, but she seemed determine to not talk. I opened up my computer again - hey, if she didn't want to talk, fine.

But I felt so WEIRD not talking with her. She was clearly in a mood, and I thought talking would be the only thing to help. So I would randomly talk about what I saw on my computer screen. Eventually she put down the book and we DID talk a bit... but then it devolved into a stupid argument.

True, I can be pedantic and a devil's advocate, but I felt her reactions were a bit... strong.

She finally mini-blew up. I apologized. We sifted into silence.

I changed the subject and we continued on a bit more normally. Eventually she said she was still hungry, but she was craving meat. So we took off for my local conbini. And we ended up walking to three of them, before finally returning to the first one and she got something.

The walk considerably cheered her up, and we were back to giggling. The only thing that alarmed me was at the start of the walk, when she made the comment that Contact Boy wasn't going to ask her out again. I tried to say "but of course he would," but she was adamant that he would never talk to her again. And she refused to discuss it further or elaborate.

SERIOUSLY. What was I supposed to say? "Sorry I got between you and your crush?" "Sorry you chose me over him?" Sorry you feel that way?

I may not be the brightest advisor, but I do get it sometimes. I dropped the subject.

(BTW - he called her that night. She missed his call because her phone was on silent. She was very surprised. I was very NOT surprised, even though I don't have all the info.)

But after our walk, we were significantly more chummy and cheerful. Melissa enjoyed her food, I enjoyed being in a not-moody atmosphere. We drank honeyed tea and took ridiculous quizzes. Melissa did more reading, I did more Facebooking. We did some YouTubing together. It was nice.

We actually got sleepy pretty early and went to bed about 2 am.

I woke up at 10:30 this morning - quite refreshed. Melissa had kindly just read quietly until I woke up.

Melissa never leaves promptly. She likes to linger. This is fine, now that I can anticipate it. (Ha ha - the first time Melissa ever stayed over, it was 6 pm the next day after her sleepover that she left, and I had been trying to get her to leave since 10 am... I was so irritated.) We had fun - toast for breakfast, tea, sunny skies and a good breeze out the window. We painted our nails (yes! I wanted to do this!) and just... chatted. It was great.

She left when Ron called and told her that the barbeque she was going to started at 4 pm instead of 6 pm. I walked her down to the station and enjoyed getting more bread, then walking back to my apartment. The day is soooo perfect. And this afternoon! A perfect sunbeam on my bed, making it impossible to do anything but lay in bed with a book, the window open and brownies and tea at my fingertips, the occasional Facebook check a stretch of the hand away.

Seriously. Today was perfect.

And tomorrow is Monday. Despite it being a national holiday, I have a regular work-day and a full work-week.

I still need to find Ben a sword and send it to him. I hope I can watch my spending so Melissa and I can have a sushi lunch soon. And I hope I can figure out how I can help her. She's so... different. Something has definitely changed. She's more melancholy.

Maybe she needs to leave Japan? Maybe she needs a real boyfriend? I don't know - I would hate to lose her here, and I suspect that her boy options aren't terribly great here. She might be tired of trying? How do I help? UGH, I wish I had someone to give ME advice...

But I can't really put my finger on it anyway, so I don't even know how to ASK for advice... sad

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PLEASE let tomorrow be payday.

Shikamaru bit the the bullet after three years of hanging on my cell phone. Rest in pieces, little ninja. We've been through some great times.


I have the sniffles.

The latest House was awesome - watching House be a fanboy, then the go-cart double-date was AWESOME. Heroes ep 4 was great - I KNEW you couldn't trust Parkman's dad. I can't believe Parkman fell for that "it's in the back" routine. Sheesh. And what the hell is Mohindar doing giving Molly to the bad guys!?! Can't he wait for Matt to check in? It's only been 12 hours...

And I'm so glad for deleted scenes on the Heroes DVD. Some good choices to delete some of those, but wow.

Dear Lord, please let tomorrow be pay day. Thank you. Amen.

GOLD: 1,334,053

Yesterday, I slept in pretty late. I got up, got some coffee, made lunch. Opened my curtains. Opened my windows.

The tree has lost a lot of branches and is a lot shorter than I remember.

First I was shocked I'd slept through that process. Then I was a bit pissed. That tree has been a nuisance since I moved in last April - the branches have been poking my laundry and blocking the sun. I only put up with it because I anticipated putting up fun Halloween stuff in it.

And now that it's about Halloween season!? They chop it down NOW!?!? Couldn't they have waited a month!?!? Or done this ages ago!?

SHEESH.

GOLD: 1,330,059

Or any other browser. I'm addicted to Chrome. And it's only a few unnecessary things that have come up as issues. There was an Adobe think that could have been an issue, but it wasn't. Seriously, I love changing the Chrome skin image and I love the layout and I love the lack of frou-ha-ha at the top. Chrome all the way! <3

So it MUST be God behind my fabulous day, because I don't know how it wasn't terrible. I had gargled with salt water last night, and I woke up feeling slightly stuffed up and cough-y (horrors!). I made the less-reasonable decision to take NYQUIL as I trotted off to work - that stuff is very effective against my colds, but it puts me to sleep like nothing else. I managed to stay awake on the train (Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller is that fantastic!!) and as soon as I got off, made my dizzy way out of the station (and perilously down a couple flights of stairs) before obtaining my favorite milk-coffee drink from the conbini. <3

It was incredibly interesting to teach a small group of 2 through 4-year-olds under the effects of Nyquil and coffee. Hoooooly crap. I was completely zoned out, but my energy was up and I felt very... in tune with the kids.

It was like... the kids are on a Nyquil-coffee level ALL the time, and I finally managed to figure it out and join them.

The lesson worked out - Nacchan had a few random attacks of Mama-abandonment; Aina through a FIT for the final 40 minutes because she wanted to stay at the park; Wataru lost his shoe and we all fell down in the middle of the crosswalk; I mistakenly upset Kazuma at lunch - but other than that, smooth sailing.

Compared to five months ago, it's a miracle we've come so far in such a positive direction. And that was when we only had 2 two-year-old girls and 1 three-year-old girl. Now we have a group of 5 kids! <3

I treated myself (as self-promised) to Baskin-Robbins' kids single scoop of the new Halloween flavor called "Pumpkin Lantern." Slightly disappointing - it's white chocolate and regular chocolate ice cream with some white chocolate flakes (with cornflake-like crunch) and some orange candy pumpkin lanterns sprinkled throughout.

And then I got my venti Creme Brulee Macchiato. <3 Oh, heavens, it was delightful. Perhaps the best part of the day, because it involved chilling in a light slumber to some sort of ethnic-techno mood music, reading more Gun Sellar, drinking my fav beverage in the world and sitting in the sun on a cool autumn day.

In fact, it was so pleasant that I had a weird sense of vertigo when I walked out of the shop - I'd swear I was walking out of Borders' coffee shop of the Montclair Mall in Claremont, California, having spent the entire day reading manga for free and drinking creme brulee lattes, and starting the walk back up to Scripps College. OMG, that made me so nostalgic for good times.

It's almost made me reflect again on how much I wasted my college years being... well, a lazy college student. I should have been far more active, far more joyful, far more ambitious. Far more appreciative of all that I am still paying for. xp

After that the rest of the lessons went alright. The 4Ms class went very smoothly and we had fun at the end practicing our loud voices (only two of the four can manage it). Yuhiro was absent in the next class, but Shiori was back for make-ups and we some out made it through very smoothly. And Takuya's class was excellent, for all that there was insanity regarding his lesson plans.

I STILL don't understand why I'm spending three weeks teaching him vocabulary words for different professions, then I'm supposed to teach him how to explain professions of a completely different set of vocabulary words (still words for careers, though). Like, he's supposed to memorize words like "mechanic," and "factory worker," and "flight attendant," but then we're supposed to be able to say "A student studies" and "A doctor helps sick people." LAME. And so unprofessional.

And then there was my adult class, which was gotten through with no problems.

I had a huge dinner, and life is wonderful again as I embark on another 36-hour work-free chunk of time. <3

Time to get over this cold...

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