Anyway, on to the goods!

Since the last time I updated I’ve been up to a lot… I meant to update with some of my recent exploits on my last day off (Monday) but obviously that didn’t happen, haha. We went on a couple of trips over the last couple weeks; first to Hakone, then Nagoya! We also had a lovely cherry blossom season that we enjoyed this year and I took at least a gazillion pictures. On top of that we’ve been chugging along as always, with me starting the new school year at work, which means making a few adjustments schedule-wise, kid-wise, coworker-wise… Everything-wise! But I will get to those in another entry, because last week was our first real meeting with our wedding planner, N-san, since making our deposit and planning officially began.

We probably earned a C- for preparation and effort. I think it was like being back in school and coming to presentation day with a rough draft and notes. N-san laughed and said it was remarkable how he has rarely seen a planning binder as white and pristine as ours!

I should probably back up a little and explain. I might have talked a little already about the difference between planning a wedding in Japan versus America. Here it really is like a school assignment… All of the materials for the most part are provided for you and all we have to do, as the bride- and groom-to-be, is go down the list and check things off as we make decisions and get things for the planning done. After handing over the cash for our deposit, N-san gave us three giant, heavy bags filled with pamphlets and brochures to comb through. However, the most important thing he gave us that day is the the central control panel for our entire wedding, which we have started calling “our pink book”. Okay, so it’s a binder.

Everything we need basically is in it… And everything our wedding place needs should be there too. There’s plenty of lists, charts, and questionnaires to fill out as we go along, which N-san can read and use to get us exactly what we want for our wedding. The problem is a lot of that stuff was, as of last week, still left blank there and instead recorded in a separate green notebook; only somewhat organized, constantly revised, definitely chicken scratches. I mean, how can you blame me, you don’t want to put all that shit on the good paper until you’re ready, right?

Tatsuya and I have had a few wedding related meetings in the last couple weeks to talk about stuff before we saw N-san, but I think we’re really starting to realize now that this isn’t something you can get done by just flipping through a couple magazines for a few hours once a week and having a few open-ended dialogues in our free-time that usually end with, “I guess we’ll just keep thinking about it and figure it out later.” Because it’s not only just that. I think I’m starting to get exactly why planning a wedding is so busy and so stressful: nobody has any idea what the heck they’re doing. I mean, I’ve never had a wedding before, and I don’t really intend on having another one any time soon. I’ve been to both American weddings and Japanese weddings, but I had no idea how many things WE decide, down to the last detail (married people who have been down this path already can feel free to nod your heads knowingly at me… I’m sure you know this already!) We want to have this wedding done our way but I barely have any clue what the “usual way” is either. Plus since this shindig is Japanese style in a lot of ways, I have to remember that a lot of my assumptions are out the window. Take this conversation we had two nights ago, about who will make the first toast to kick off the reception:

E: So who usually does that? I think in America it’s the best man but we won’t have one of those.
T: I think we have to pick one of my coworkers, like my boss.
E: Oh. Why can’t we pick one of my coworkers?
T: Because the husband’s job is more important. I’m not saying that yours isn’t, that’s just what everybody expects traditionally.
E: Ok, I see.

We realized if we’re doing anything that breaks from tradition or is different in order to accommodate American customs along with the Japanese, we have to do it in a neutral way that doesn’t offend anybody from either side. At this point I feel like it’s just easier to default to Japanese style unless we have strong feelings about something being a certain way. LOL so yeah, that’s a thing.

But anyway, that night before last the two of us had a big meeting and made a complete schedule of how to finish everything we need to get done by our next appointment with N-san on May 25th. We’ve got a little catching up to do, but we also agreed to rock the family-resu’s at least 1-2 times a week for the next four and a half months. The staff at Johnathan’s are going to know us very well by the time this is all over! And luckily for us, Golden Week is also coming up, which means I’m intending to make it count for the bit of catching up we have to do, since it’ll be the last big break before the final long push over the spring and summer. A perfect chance to get on top of things! We might have to lock ourselves in a room and not leave for several days (at least until we run out of coffee or one of injuries we inflict on each other requires a doctor’s visit) but I’m resolved to bang this thing out and make some decisions! Shit is about to get real! No more excuses…!!

Oh, but before I get too positive and motivated (oops too late) can I just complain about one more thing? It’s about money too so uh oh, strap yourselves in. (Is it tacky to complain about money on a public blog? Oh well.) Ok, so I literally had the majority of this entry typed up and ready to go, but last night (Friday) we got a letter in the mail from N-san as a follow-up from the last appointment (“Nice seeing you, I know you’re busy, looking forward to next time, blah blah blah.”) but also inside was an invoice, for a cool 3.2mil yen. What the fudge, you guys??? >:( What happened to our 2.0m wedding we wanted?? I was going down the list and comparing that invoice to the initial estimate we were given (yanno, the one they gave us before we committed to anything and also the one we based a lot of our decisions on so far) and they keep adding crap that we don’t need or said we wanted. For example, a dessert buffet. Which alone is like 120,000 for 60 people. Sorry, I think y’all are awesome but I don’t think we need to be spending that much money on extra dessert when, let’s be honest, everyone is already there for the CAKE! So there’s a lot of things we’ll be able to cull, but I also just how much is painfully MISSING from that list that we’ll be paying for separately (rings, transportation for out-of-town family members, the nijikai…) I mean… I knew there would be hidden costs and a lot of those we even considered ahead of time, but I don’t like the idea of possibly being over 1 mil over budget… sigh. And I thought/was hoping that because we’ve been saving all this money for the last year (the 2.0mil we wanted, to be exact, and we’re nearly there) that after the wedding and go-shuugi is taken into consideration, we’d still have enough left over to pay for or at least give us head start on paying for the honeymoon we want to take. Now… I don’t know if we’ll even be lucky enough to break even at the end of this whole thing :/

OH, WEDDINGS. I wish I knew how to quit you. Srsly though is it too late to start over? lol.

No, I’m sure we’ll get it figured out/we’ll win the lottery/money will suddenly shoot of our asses, but for now it would be nice to have a seat at a tea table. So that I can flip it over.

I think I’ll just go play this game until I calm down.

Heh heh heh.

I was actually coming into this feeling a little ill prepared. I thought I would have a little more time to think about it; we’re still six months out but N-san, our wedding planner, said that since we’re having our wedding during the start of the busy season, getting a dress as soon as possible would be best. I mean, I flipped through a couple magazines a few times and got some general ideas in the last couple months, including from Pinterest and stalking friends’ facebooks for wedding photos (lol sorry everyone, like that’s not creepy at all). But there was definitely hardly any mental preparation involved… I was never the type of girl who dreamed about her wedding day everyday since she was twelve years old, and so as a result I wasn’t exactly coming to the shops ready to demand MY DRESS. The only thing I knew for sure was a certain type of veil I wanted. As far as I had imagined, The Dress could be a paper bag, so long as it looked good with that veil style. But since it’s not all about Say Yes To The Veil, I knew I had to find something nice to wear anyway.

I think jumping in with few expectations was for the best after all, if for no other reason than the culture of Japanese wedding planning. Some Americans might find it suffocating and not conducive for planning one’s PERFECT WEDDING, but in Japan, a lot of the choices are narrowed down for you as soon as you choose a venue. The place we chose has special contracts with various services around town; like dress shops, ring shops, photographers, caterers, and so on. When we signed our contract, we agreed we would use one of each of their associated services, including three dress shops. We were bound to pick from one of those three, unless I happened to have a dress that I already owned and was planning to use. And as far as I know, all these places are for rental only. At least I never had my heart set on owning my wedding dress (I believe lots of pictures will be a good enough memento), so it was a compromise I was willing to make. And in return, we get lots of special discounts for being referred. Plus, I can’t even imagine how much time, stress, and hassle has been saved from researching and booking these places all on our own! I was content to go in with an open mind.

We booked appointments for two of the dress shops, which made for one busy day. I tried on about four pieces in the morning from Shop A. They were all very lovely, but none of them really seemed to make any magic happen. During our lunch break, I remarked how everyone seemed to know when they found The One, or maybe that was just in movies and on TV. In any case, as soon as we arrived to the showroom of the Shop B, I knew I was going to have much better luck, because at least there WAS a showroom. In Shop A, we were ushered to a small little fitting room with a sitting area for consultation. I had to show Lady A my pictures, describe in vague terms what kind of dress I wanted (again, with no clear expectations whatsoever), after which she would whisk herself away to the secret Dress Land in the back room and bring back things for me which she hoped would fit the criteria I described. Not a really good way to do it, in my opinion, since I didn’t really know what I liked until I saw it.

Anyway, I saw it all at Shop B. All of my favorites were among a section of GORGEOUS Spanish and Italian imports. I picked out four more dresses, certain that one of them would be my dress. The first one was adorable and Tatsuya’s personal favorite, but (gasp!!) it was TOO SMALL, AHHHH!! Lady B was able to get it on my body no problem, but my fat tits (more like phat tits, amirite?) wouldn’t allow her to zip the middle up all the way. The situation quickly became like that scene from Mean Girls (you know, the one where Regina George tries on her prom dress) and Lady B said that since all the dresses I picked were designer, one-size-only imports, the rest would probably be the same situation, and maybe I should try Sears. Okay, so she didn’t say that last part, but Fat Gaijin Syndrome started settling in a little bit and I was worried we might have to go home empty-handed. However, I still asked to try on the others. I think that was the wedding dress gods’ way of steering me away from that first dress because actually it was WAYYYY too expensive anyway (530,000 yen for a one day rental? Yeah, no thanks.) And I’m glad I didn’t give up, because when I tried on the equally beautiful second dress, Lady B made a hopeful noise as she put it on and then finally said, “I think it’s gonna be okay!” AND IT WAS. AND IT WAS PERFECT. IT WAS MY DRESS!!!

I still tried on the third and fourth dresses; fourth dress was also quite beautiful and considered for a moment; third dress was too small like first dress. But no matter, by then I had made up my mind.

In the end, my dress was nothing like I imagined, and everything I wanted. It’s a step-up from Paper Bag; I think I’ll still manage to be a knock-out, don’t you think? :)

Shop B allowed us to also try things for Tatsuya… it’s funny to me how fast he made his selection! It could just be a guy thing, but he also didn’t have very many choices to begin with and by then we were getting exhausted and just wanted to go home. Anyway, after trying on the first tux, he declared himself “Finished!” LOL. But no worries, he looked like a million bucks on that first go, just a couple accessory changes and he’ll be set. No pictures of him though, they’re only full body shots and he (rightly) doesn’t want me to spoil the surprise ;)

This is a post I’ve been wanting to make for… well, the last 12 months, which of course I never got around to doing, but I suppose now that the days, weeks, and months have come full circle, I thought this would be a good time. Or maybe it’s the right time. No doubt I was too busy “being in the moment” to really sit back and reflect, but now that I’ve had one year to sit on it, I have a chance to tell this story with a little more insight.

Anyway, of course what I’m talking about is the March 11th earthquake, something that had (and is continuing to have) a significant impact on my life.

This is how it all went down, as I experienced it.

I was at work when it happened. At the time, my Friday schedule involved teaching a 4.5 hours preschool in the morning in one building, followed by a 50 minute break, during which I would take a 15 minute or so walk to in our other building, a few blocks away, for a 2 hour kinder school. Even though I had all that free time, I always did a pretty good job of showing up only 15 minutes before the class started because of my hereditary, passed down ability to be halfway out the door while having yet another story or topic on the tip of my tongue (a god-given gift I indulge our school manager with on a regular basis, I assure you.) But not that day! No, I was determined to be early for once! So when preschool class finished 2:40pm sharp, we waved goodbye to our second-to-last student, and then settled-down to prepare a snack-time for our last student, staying behind for spot care. That’s what we were doing at exactly 2:46pm.

I think if I were in a more precarious situation during an extremely large earthquake, I would totally be dead meat, judging by my reaction to this medium-large one we felt in Tokyo that day. Of course, since earthquakes are a fact of life ’round these parts, we usually just let the earth do its thing and move on with our day. So when this one started out like most, we (we meaning me, co-teacher A-san, and manager K-san) were just, “Oh, an earthquake.”

But then it kept going. And getting bigger. And I now know that, if faced with this type of situation, I will stand there like a doofus while everything around me is rattling, with a slightly furrowed brow and an inner monologue along the lines of, “Hmmm… This isn’t normal.” But after standing there bemused for a few moments, we all finally realized there was also a small, 3-year old child with us, so we focused on keeping him calm while everything around us rattled, shook, and creaked for what seemed like an eternity.

When it was all over, we doted on and praised the boy for a bit, joking lightly that he protected us and he was braver than us three girls, because he didn’t cry at all. We went online to check the meteorological agency website, which initially (in the seconds after it happened) categorized that whopper as a shindo 3 in Tokyo, which is barely a hiccup. No way was that a 3!! We did also notice at that time though that the epicenter was near Miyagi prefecture… How strange, we thought. How odd, so many earthquakes that have been happening in that area and now this.

By that time I was once again on the verge of running late… curse these freak acts of nature distracting me! So I pushed thoughts of suspicious earthquakes up north from my mind, flailed my arms a bit for good measure, and went on my way.

That walk from one building to the other was quite weird, and was my first clue that something was up. Grannies, salarymen in suits, and errand-running housewives, rather than rushing from one place to another, were meandering around the streets like they had just woken up from being cryogenically frozen and then released into society. Which, of you’re at all familiar with Tokyo, is very strange. They seem distracted. Confused.

Finally I made it, only to find that all the rest of my coworkers were standing outside the building. Apparently, in the middle of the earthquake, they were told to evacuate the building by a construction worker making his way down from the top floor. And the door to the stairwell, which only opens from the inside, was slammed shut by the heaving sways of the building. Of course, in the chaos, no one managed to pocket the keys on the way out, so we were all stuck. I barely said my hellos and was told their story when the first big aftershock hit, and we all shrieked as power lines and buildings above and around us wobbled violently. There was a weird tone to our group after that. We made black jokes. We sarcastically recited parts of our circle time curriculum (“~How’s the weather?? It’s an earthquaaaaake!!~”) We giggled within earshot of elementary school students walking by in emergency protection cloaks… (so much so we actually shamed one of the young teachers into taking hers off. sorry girl, we were being bitches.) While we were standing around, I managed to get through clogged cell phone signals to my mother-in-law in Fukui, telling me not to go home because she heard there were tsunamis in Chiba. Tatsuya was in Kanagawa for his official company orientation. This was before his job started, so he was usually at home, but of all days! I assumed he was fine, but I wouldn’t get to hear from him for another couple of hours, which made me uneasy. I also managed to pick up an NHK signal with my phone for a brief time, I just saw images of an oil refinery in Chiba on fire, and a boat somewhere bobbing in waves like a bath toy. I had no idea what was happening or what the context was of these random news clips.

After a while, we started to grow weary of our little evacuation hooky, and with most of my coworkers’ belongings still inside, we brainstormed a way to get ourselves back in. Luckily, my kinder co-teacher, H-san, took the opportunity to go into action hero mode and managed to climb up to our fourth floor balcony via the fire escape to get in through the unlocked sliding doors and let us in. Good to go!

…Except not. Once the discussion turned to going home for the day, we discovered every train in metropolitan Tokyo was completely shut down, giving everyone who didn’t live nearby only two options: camp out at work overnight, or walk home.

With my 20/20 hindsight to guide me, if I ever find myself in a situation like this again in the future, I will definitely be taking option C, which is sitting my ass firmly down at an izakaya or karaoke bar to drink and snack and sing the night away. But, for various reasons, including Tatsuya being miles away, my MIL’s warnings, and the fact that one of my coworkers, Molly, who also happened to be one of my best friends, was there that day (although she shouldn’t have been, she just so happened to be substituting that day) we decided to make the trek back to her place in Shin-Koenji. For reference, our school is in Chuo-ku, near Ginza, and her place was clear across town in Suginami-ku. Something like 7 or 8 miles away, which doesn’t sound so bad, but in dense Tokyo, it takes at least an hour to get anywhere by car or train. This journey would be on foot. So even though we were a little scared, the promise of a warm bed and a yummy “otsukare” dinner afterward was too tempting. We were going to make it, by golly!

Four and a half hours. It took us four and a half hours on foot to make it back, among a procession of what felt like every other commuter in Tokyo. Young women in high heels. Tired salarymen just wanting to get home on Friday night after working hard all week. We passed by many odd things on our way home: long lines of elderly people waiting for buses that may have never come. Giant colorful screens, iconic of Tokyo, rather than playing music and advertisements in a loop, were now broadcasting the news, loud and larger than life. A bullet train on an overpass, literally stopped in its tracks. One highlight of the trip was finally getting ahold of Tatsuya, which I remember was just as we were about to pass by Sophia University. He called to say that he was ok and he’d be spending the night in a hotel, paid for by his company. I asked him how after I’d been worrying about him all this time, he had the audacity to call me to say he’s living it up in a swanky hotel while I’m out here in the middle of chaos, walking home. He laughed and added there was an onsen there too. :P

Anyway, we left at 5pm, and arrived just after 9:30. The trip started out pleasantly enough, with a lot of laughing and joking, but I remember by the time we made it to Nakano, we were silent, tired, hungry, and cranky. We resolved to stop for nothing, because we thought if we did, we wouldn’t be able to move anymore and we’d be stuck god knows where for the entire night. Plus there was Dominos near her house, and Johnathan’s restaurant, if we could just make it, we were going to be ok!

Syke! Of course, considering the circumstances, everything closed up early for the night, so we were stuck with Lawson 100 yen food, as it was the only thing that (thank god) had stayed open. I bought spaghetti but I barely touched it, my lips were bloody and chapped from walking in the cold air for so long, and each bite stung as it reached my mouth. That, and I pretty much lost my appetite when we turned on the TV.

We were walking around for so long, we had no idea. Obscene images of waves swallowing entire towns whole invaded our tiny space. To our exhausted minds and bodies, it didn’t seem real. So much horror in Tohoku, our ordeal of slightly unpleasant inconvenience seemed insignificant in comparison.

We skyped our worried families, who brought us up to speed from the news they had been following. Then, after decompressing, we slept. I just remember it was a long, uneasy night, as my still aching body and the aftershocks that were preceded by cell phone yurekuru alerts every few hours kept me awake. And because our school remained open the next day, we had to make our way back over the next morning. It was nearly 36 hours after I left my house on the morning of the 11th before I would finally return, and see Tatsuya again (who made it back just a few hours before me.)

If that account seems long… well, then I’m sorry that you don’t like reading and I definitely think you’re in the wrong place, on my rambly-ass blog, ahahahaha :B In all seriousness though, I feel that day was the longest day of my life. And if I thought that day was the longest, I had no clue that I could feel the weight of years compacted into the span of one month. Because that’s exactly what happened next.

I’ll just say that the next few weeks were a time of extreme stress and uncertainty. Soon enough, the situation at Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant began to replace headlines of the situation in Tohoku and contaminated, sometimes literally as well as figuratively, almost every aspect of our lives in Tokyo. Rolling blackouts were planned. Train schedules were pruned, adding more stress and time to my work week, which overnight went from 18 class hours to 34, plus prep. People hoarded food, supplies, and water; especially after radiation levels in the drinking water supply spiked for a brief time. Many of my friends, including my dear friend Molly, fled the country while the situation remained precarious. And the rest of us staying behind kept one eye on the news all the time, worried that the situation would get worse (while praying that it wouldn’t); eventually it became overwhelming for me, trying to keep up with the local news in my second language, while also cross-referencing foreign English-language news, which was telling a very different, much more apocalyptic story. All of this wore on our nerves, which were already rattled by constant aftershocks.

I stayed in Japan through it all. My plan was to jump back into my usual routine and create a sense of normalcy, with a trip to Fukui waiting in the wings, in case things in Tokyo became too serious. I wanted to stay because many things we had been working toward were about to happen. I was going to start working full-time, so I didn’t want to leave my job. Tatsuya was starting his own full-time job in April. Not only that, but we were planning to move to Kanagawa in a matter of weeks. And as we sifted through all kinds of news and information coming from every direction, the best plan seemed to be staying where we were. I didn’t want to lose my job, my life, everything I was working for if I could help it. I also wanted to feel like whatever I was doing would be helpful in some way, even if my contribution was small. Working, donating money, volunteering, comforting; anything.

Of course I also had Tatsuya, my husband, who wanted to stay put. I wanted to be where he was, as a team, standing together. And really, I don’t think I could’ve coped without him. Our conversation about his hotel accommodations was only the first of many times he could help me to stop and have a laugh to stay sane. He wasn’t the only one, however. I was so fortunate (and still am fortunate!) to have so many people in my life who were supporting me. Tatsuya’s family, who offered their love (and my MIL, who donated all her White Day giri-choco to me! Yeah!!) My coworkers, who marched forward along with me, determined to stay strong for our students. My students, too! I learned this year that children heal me in a way that almost no one else can. Seeing their smiles (and controlling their monkey antics) kept me busy and distracted, when I think I would’ve otherwise been sitting at home in the dark with the walls closing in on me. My Mom, and the rest of my family, an ocean away, who had my back no matter what. Also, the community of foreign wives on facebook, who were there to talk through every aftershock and every new bit of information that came through the turnpike. And finally, Japan itself. If nothing else, this tragedy has made me love Japan like never before. For better or for worse, I am proud to call this country my home.

Even at the time, I remarked how it’s interesting that big, life-changing events like these allow us to compare “Life Before” and “Life After”. As an American, I remember having the same feelings around September 11th. I was only barely a teenager on that day, so perhaps it was appropriate that it literally brought me out of an era of innocent childhood and onto a path toward growing up, kicked-off by acquiring an awareness of world realities (as well as an increasing interest in those world affairs! See: College.) So perhaps it’s also fitting that this disaster occurred on the eve of another shift in my life: the one from years as a young adult in school, to a more true adulthood with self-responsibility and independence. 3/11 marked the end of my era of carefree student life, and into the era of working for everything I have every day and feeling lucky and grateful for everything that I may accomplish.

So today, I’ll be spending the day at home, surrounding myself with all I have, in hopes that I can make myself understand how lucky I am to be here. Tatsuya and I spent that day last year being far apart and unaware of each other’s conditions for several hours, so we are sticking close together today. I will hug him close, breathe in his scent, and tell him how much I love him; once more, as a reminder of how lucky we are to be together, unlike the many who are mourning the death of friends, family, and loved ones today. Even though it is a day of reflection for all, their struggle still continues, and is bound to continue for some time.

Our thoughts will be with them.

It’s been over a year already (yikes!!) since I last updated, and a LOT has happened since then… if you know me in person/are friends with me on Facebook, you probably know what I’ve been up to. Actually, I kept coming back here every once in a while, always in an attempt to bang out a post. But each time I always lost interest; perhaps I figured updating after such a long time would upset the balance of the universe, or maybe I saw something shiny and got distracted. Or, the most likely reason: I’ve just been so busy livin’ life and lovin’ it. Blogging pretty much fell to the bottom of my priority list. That’s because, in the last approximately 13 months, I have:

+ Started working a full time job (as well as Tatsuya), and both worked on adjusting ourselves to a post-college, financially independent lifestyle. Workin’ 9 to 5! Or in my case, 10 to 6. And in Tatsuya’s case, 9 to 8 because this is Japan :P I’m also a part-time housewife on top of that! Busyyyy.
- Lived through the biggest natural disaster in modern Japanese history and an overall difficult year for the country
+ Moved! We now live in Kawasaki, Kanagawa and have been here since last May. I think for the most part, we have decided to settle down here for good!
+ Began to indulge in some new hobbies: in particular, concerts! I think Tatsuya and I have been to 5-6 concerts in the last three months, and at the moment we have tickets at least three more big gigs through May
+ Took my first trip back to the US in nearly two years for the holidays. Had a great couple of weeks spending Christmas and New Years with my American family!
+ Lost some friends, but met many more new ones. There are many special people who make me love my life in Tokyo more than ever!

I am updating today not because any of these things have changed and now I’m living in a cardboard box with all the time in the world to blog. Ohoho, no. I’m still pretty busy and my blogging mojo is still fragile enough that this could still be my last entry for the next 918369103416 years (though I hope not!) I just thought now would be a good time to dive back in, because I feel like this year will be a particularly auspicious one in my life. It is the year of the Dragon, which is MY year and bound to be lucky in some way, lol.

Moreover though, the real big news is… that Tatsuya and I are finally getting ready for our OFFICIAL WEDDING CEREMONY! We’ve been saving up money for months like mad people, And just the other day, we finally booked a date and paid the deposit at a georgeous shikijo near Tokyo Midtown; the big day is September 8th. This also means many of my friends and family all over the US and world, including my mother, will be coming to visit ME! I’m SO excited about it, it’ll be the first time to Japan for a lot of them. It’s still a little over 6 months away and we have A LOT to get done in that time, but I know it’ll be a whirlwind and will all be over before I know it. So that’s why I wanted to try my best to set aside an hour or so once or twice a week to keep track of everything I’ll be doing and what’s going on around me. Doesn’t hurt to try, right? Aaaaaand if not, at least we’ll come out the other side with some nice pictures :P

Anyway, it’s nice to be back. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

A desert we received from a prospective shikijo ♥ So yummy… too bad we didn’t go with them, LOL

Here we have a blurry photograph of a copy of the nengajou we sent out this year. I know it’s extreeemely dorky, you don’t have to say anything. I’m not exactly sure if it’s above or below the kind of portrait where the couple wears turtlenecks against a backdrop of New England on the official Dorque Scale… I’m hoping it’s above, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. I accept us for the kind of people we are, lol.

So anyway, did everyone have a fun holiday? I’ve been keeping up with some friends through facebook and other social networks, but not everyone, of course! Tell me what you did this season!

Tatsuya and I have just returned to Chiba today after spending the last week in Fukui. It was a lot of fun, and my in-laws always spoil us “kids” rotten as always, LOL. Of course that includes what will probably be our last ever toshidama’s… I think Tatsuya alone scored nearly 120,000 yen this year, most of it being “congrats on getting a job!” money from his uncles. I made off with only 30,000 yen but hey, that’s still making out like a bandit in my book, and now I’ll definitely survive until next paycheck (including perhaps a few treats, of course!) I also got my hair cut into a super duper short boy/pixie cut while we were there. It’s cute I suppose but I’m still not really sure if it’s “me” or not… though I suppose for now it IS me, whether I think so or not! :P It’s potentially the beginning of an interesting experiment, perhaps though. If I let my hair grow out all year, I can see exactly how much it grows until 2012, amirite!

As for the holidays, New Years’ Eve we ate homemade mochi for breakfast and in the evening we watched Kohaku, then went to the shrines around the neighborhood at midnight. New Years Day felt unnaturally long, but that was because we woke up around 7:30 and in T’s and my case, we didn’t go to sleep until around 2am. I don’t know how we made it, haha. It was a fun day though: among other things, we braved a rain/snow torrent in the morning for the annual pilgrimage to Naritasan temple for prayers/hot snacks, and after that we went shopping with Tatsuya’s Mom, played a Bingo game at the local shopping center near home, and it was there that T thought it would be fun to tell me in exquisite detail about a picture he saw on 2ch of a person who apparently pooped their pants while standing in line for Comiket. I then learned that Tatsuya would totally be willing to crap his pants in public if it meant getting season tickets to ManU games, I’m still not sure exactly how I feel about that XD Naturally, though, that segued into an enlightening/disturbing discussion about humiliating acts we’d be willing to do/not do for a variety of rewards. I pretty much almost fainted, I was laughing so hard. LOL, I know this is one of those “you had to be there” stories, but oh my husband ♥ Seriously, we always have the best conversations.

Anyway, overall it was a lot of family visiting, watching tv, and eating food… just as I had hoped ♥ It was just as cold and snowy in Fukui as it was there last year… nothing I’m not used to from growing up in Spokane, but I’m beginning to enjoy coming back to the fair and mild winter weather that Tokyo offers :3

++

I didn’t make any blog/journal entries around this time last year, so I can’t go back and check to see if I had fulfilled any resolutions I may have made. But I figure either way, I accomplished a lot in 2010. That includes, in chronological order:

+ visiting my family in America/saying goodbye to my father before he passed away
+ getting married
+ graduating from college
+ getting a job
+ going to Disneyland… twice!

Haha, I can’t believe that all happened in one year, to be honest. If only I had gotten pregnant, I could’ve knocked out a good portion of my adult milestones all in one go! Oh well, gotta space it out a little bit, right?

I don’t know if I have any specifically resolutions in mind for 2011, though. Still, I’m already on my way to achieve some goals for this year:

+ go to Disney Sea (still gotta buy tickets, but we’re planning to go on the 12th, which is our 4 year coupleversary!)
+ save money (starting next week I’ll be starting my new work schedule with increased hours… combined with whatever Tatsuya makes over the next few months, saving is totally possible!)
+ move to Kanagawa (also officially marked! T’s parents will be coming over during Golden Week to help us. That’s also the week of my birthday so I think an epic housewarming/birthday party is in order, roflmao.)

Also on the to-do list:

+ get a puppy (THIS YEAR FOR SURE OMG!)
+ work on my housekeeping skills
+ start my new sewing hobby in earnest (after the machine we just ordered TODAY arrives! My goal is to complete most of the patterns in my sewing instruction book, and make and wear an outfit I’ve designed by myself, even if it’s simple, by the end of the year)
+ I’ve actually had some small itches to draw again lately! Even if I can get myself to complete just one or two colored drawings this year, that would be great XD;
+ start studying for JLPT 1 (passing it, or even taking the test at all might be a resolution for another year though, HAHA)
+ also on the Japanese front, work on improving my speaking/conversation skills (cuz I’m still too much of a cat-got-your-tongue most of the time, which probably makes me come off like a dummy :/) If nothing else, that means doing some shadowing at least once a week :x
+ plan our wedding, and hopefully a honeymoon trip as well
+ get my mom to come visit!
+ ????
+ PROFIT!

CAN IT BE DONE?? Let’s find out!

今年もよろしくお願いします, y’all :P

PS, sorry for dropping the ball on the 30 day meme, haha I suck. Although it this point it would be more of a “30 questions answered at my leisure” meme, I still want to do it at least! Next entry for sure, I’ll answer a few, mmkay?

Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).

To be honest, I’m a pretty adventurous eater… there’s hardly anything I’m not willing to put in my face at least once, and Japanese food is no exception. Octopus sashimi, basashi (raw horse sashimi), even stinky snotty natto is no match for my stomach. But with the exception of maybe natto, none of them are really anything I would want to eat everyday for the rest of my life. Even still, I remember a couple years back when I was in Japan for the summer program at Mukogawa Women’s University, my host family fed me hijiki (a kind of seaweed) and at the time I remember it smelled awful and felt so slimy and gross in my mouth that I swore I would never eat it again. However, literally just a couple of days ago, I brought a bento to work which included a hijiki/veggie mix okazu and it actually tasted pretty good! Not stinky or slimy at all! I guess it was worth giving a second chance…. I remain undefeated by any food challenge! Ha ha ha!!

Day 07 – Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)

I’m assuming this question wants us to talk about Japanese words that aren’t already considered to be loanwords in English vernacular… everyone uses words like “tsunami” and “sushi”, derp! :P

Anyway, I think because I speak English with my husband in our home and (learning to) speak Japanese when I’m out and about, I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of mixing my languages a lot. This means I speak English with a bunch of random Japanese mixed in. Just like a J-pop song but in reverse, haha! Stuff like, “I’m samui!” (I’m cold!) or “I’m going to go benkyou nihongo now” (I’m going to go study Japanese now). I even started the “Hanashimasuing Japanese with an English sentence structure” fan page on facebook (totally nerdy, I know.) It’s completely ridiculous, but I’m sure it must be a common side effect when attempting to become bilingual because all my friends do it too, lol!

There’s also times when I want to express myself and only a word in Japanese will do. My favorite? “Mendokusaiiiii!” (it means “bothersome”, but when used as an interjection the connotation is basically equivalent to “I don’t wannaaaaa!!”) I think Tatsuya can confirm that I have used this word at least 50 times daily for the last two years, usually directed at school, going to work, or some 20-page essay I had to do for homework. It probably drives him nuts, lmao. I rarely mean it, but it’s so fun and satisfying to say, it helps me chill out a bit.

++

Now for a change of subject…

It’s funny how even though I’ve just landed my first job in Japan and I’m enjoying it immensely, I already seem to be considering and calculating my next move. You might be able to tell just from reading this blog, but anyone who knows me well surely knows that if there’s something I really want to do (such as go to a certain college, learn to speak the language of and live in a foreign country) I like to come up with a game plan: figure out how to make it happen, and then pretty much work toward it until the goal is achieved. I like planning ahead.

Anyway, what I’m thinking is I want to go back to school someday soon to study law. This is something I’ve been sitting on for a while because I keep going back and forth about it, but I’m wondering if the fact that I can’t shake it off after years and years might be a sign that it’s destiny and I’ll regret it if I don’t do it. Or who knows, maybe my Dad’s spirit is sending my subliminal messages, LOL! He was a lawyer too and for as long as I can remember, he would always tell me that he thought it was something that I would like and be good at. I was always like, “WTF NOOOO!!” I think in my mind I always pictured the sleazebag lawyer stereotype, with more money than good conscience. I don’t know why, that’s not the kind of lawyer my Dad was. He was a deputy prosector at the county level; a public servant who advocated for victims and contributed to the system of guaranteeing a fair trial for all. Of course, my own father knew me too well, and I think especially since he became sick and passed away that I realize how much alike we really are.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I want to be exactly a lawyer per se… but I do want to study something like International or Comparative US and Japanese Law and… I don’t know, work for some organization or company that needs experts on that kind of law. Jobs like that exist, right? LOL, obviously I haven’t worked out too many of the details. But I think either way, it will take me a few months to research and explore my options, save money, etc. All that I know for sure so far is I want to stay in Japan for school. This means getting my Japanese up to a level where I can pass the EJU and not to mention passing University entrance exams and surviving the classes! For a millisecond I considered going back to America for a few years to study, but if I did that there’s no way Tatsuya would be able to come with me because of his job, and being apart from my husband for 3 years when it’s really quite unnecessary would suuuuuck. I’d be coming back to Japan anyway, and there are certainly good schools here as well.

I said before that I kept going back and forth… most recently the reason is because I’m trying to figure out what the best plan would be for me, Tatsuya, and our future family. I definitely want kids before I reach my 30s, and I always envisioned being a stay-at-home, or at least part-time working Mom for the first few years of our child(ren)’s lives. My Dad went to law school after I was born, but in my case, as a female with a full-time working husband, it probably won’t be an option for me. I know I’m certainly not the only one, but sometimes I feel so conflicted. Part of me wants the post-graduate education and the interesting career, while the other part wants to dedicate all my time and effort into family. I’m still young of course, but what I might like to do is stay at my current job for the next couple of years and/or do some internships for my resume, then spend the next 3ish years getting my JD. After that, I would take the next few years off to have kids, and by the time they are old enough for hoikuen/youchien, THEN I start looking for a job. Is that completely stupid and crazy? Do people even do that? Would I be screwing myself by taking myself out of the game before I even have a chance to use my degree?

I wish I could get some advice. What do you think, friends? Anyone have any insight for me? :)

On Monday I met with my friend Molly and went to go see a movie called Ooku (大奥). I never read the original manga (I think I want to now), but we wanted to see it because the premise sounded interesting: it takes place in an alternate universe of Edo Japan where much of the male population are wiped out by disease, making the female to male ratio 4:1. Because men are so rare and “fragile” in society, women take over the roles of labor and leadership, including the Shogun, who is a woman. The story in the movie is about one particular boy (played by Arashi’s Ninomiya Kazunari… people like my Mom might remember him as the young soldier from Letters From Iwo Jima) who goes to live as a “concubine” in the Ooku, or Inner Chamber of the female Shogun’s castle. Anyway, the movie was all right, but by the end I was thinking I would miss the men too much if such a thing ever happened in real life, LOL!! :P Before the movie, we also discovered Halloween flavors being offered at Baskin Robbins, and they were ridiculously delicious. I got the Magical Mint Night (the blue and brown one) and it tasted exactly like a chocolate mint cookie. YUM.

Yesterday I spent much of the afternoon playing bug exterminator, since we were having a bit of a dani (mite) problem in our tatami room, which is our bedroom. YUCK-O! But I injected a buttload of dani poison into the tatami and for good measure sprayed on top as well, so now they are all dead… hopefully forever, muwahahaha. While I was in the middle of that, I got a message from my good friend John from Sophia U, who asked if I wanted to come out for drinks. At first I was all, “oh I don’t know… I’m sick, I’m cleaning, I have work in the morning, I’m this, I’m that.” But then I thought, “Oh, why the heck not?” So I went out and I was so glad I did, I met my friends I hadn’t seen since the last semester ended, as well as some new exchange students. I think before I was the kind of person who could come up with any excuse NOT to do something… “I just want to stay home with Tatsuya” or “I have to stay home and study.” I think I have to remind myself that it’s still ok for me to relax and have a little fun with my friends sometimes… even if I am married, don’t you think? hehe :)

But anyway, as much as I’ve rambled on, that’s not what this post is about! Back to the meme, I’ve got some catching up to do!

See all 30 meme questions here!

Day 03 – Most interesting person you met.

Oh man, this one is hard! I think going to Sophia University for a year, I met a ton of interesting people from very diverse backgrounds, both students and teachers. A lot of my professors had these amazing lives that I can only imagine. My Buddhist theology studies professor was a Jesuit sent to Japan by the Pope, and spent several years learning about Buddhism by living in monasteries with Buddhist monks. My Asian politics/security studies professor was a Cambodian who lived through the Khmer Rouge, fled to Canada, ended up as a college professor in Japan, and recently began a search for his long-lost father. Amazing! I could meet students from all over the world, including from within Japan, who blew me away with all their passions and aspirations. Sometimes I can’t believe I was lucky enough to be counted among them, converging at a point when our lives had brought us here. It’s very inspiring to me. I wonder where we will be years from now…

Day 04 – What’s your favorite place that’s not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?

This is another tough one for me because I don’t really move off the beaten path so often. I rarely wander around and explore, and sometimes I only think of stuff to do when I look up famous places, haha. I like going shopping or window shopping, usually for clothes, so I’m often walking around the Lalaport mall, Lumine in Shinjuku, or various shops in Shibuya and Harajuku. I’ll go to non-famous places too, though, like shopping centers around my house, and occasionally hole-in-the-wall second-hand or vintage boutiques. I bought a cute lacy white dress in Koenji recently, for example.

Also this might sound sappy, but a place I like to go that’s definitely not in any of the guidebooks is Tatsuya’s house and neighborhood in Fukui. There’s nothing like riding our bikes through endless rice fields over to Ami (a small shopping center near his house) or to the grocery store, or to Tsutaya for some movies. It’s really like my second home! I wish it was closer to Tokyo and we could visit more often :(

Day 05 – Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?

Oh my gosh, hahaha. it’s amazing how much little stuff like this takes over your life, especially when you have a Japanese husband and couples in general have a tendency to pick up on each other’s mannerisms. The biggest one is probably getting in the habit of using aizuchi (with optional duck lips, lmao.) I think this quickly becomes second nature for anyone studying Japanese or living in Japan, haha. Also, Tatsuya makes this very specific ふゅうううん〜 noise for when he’s tired… there’s a certain melody to it, it’s like his a bird, lol! I do it too, now. The funny thing is, that one is something he picked up from his Dad… hahaha! It’s the family I’m-tired-bird-call!

Also, I fancy myself an old Japanese lady in-training. I’m going to be an EXPERT in the next 20 years, let me tell you. I cannot go anywhere without my towels, umbrellas, bottle of tea/water, etc. when appropriate. But I still have adopted my share of young person mannerisms as well. Nose buried in my cell phone at all times. Putting on makeup on the train. Ha.

Day 02 – Describe your neighborhood in Japan.

I live in Funabashi, Chiba, which is pretty much a suburb in the Greater Tokyo Area… it’s only a few kilometers outside Tokyo Metropolis, and it takes me less than an hour by train to reach all the hub-bub within the central wards. Around my own apartment however, it’s comparatively much more quiet and detached, which was the idea when we moved in. I don’t do much exploring in my own neighborhood (not when big shiny Tokyo is so close by!) but there’s still some interesting stuff within walking distance.

First off, directly in front of my apartment is a plot of land in which rice is raised every year. I have no clue who owns the field or why it’s there of all places, but I like it because in spring in summer, we’re treated to the sounds of crickets and frogs living there, as well as the sweet smell of maturing rice plants. It’s like having the best of both city and country! Also right next to my apartment, there’s a small American style cafe, which often hosts karaoke nights or live bands. I’m not sure if the owners are related to our apartment building or not, but they will often say hello when I walk past. Some other notable “neighbors” of ours are a pachinko parlor, a keio gas company building, a volvo car dealership-turned softbank mobile store-turned used car dealership, a small hospital, and even a police station!

We live on a busy street, right on the edge of car dealership land. Lots of cars are always passing through, but luckily we can’t really hear them much from inside our apartment. Ambulances dispatched from the nearby hospital are annoying though, especially when it’s in the middle of the night >_o On the other hand, the train station is only a short 8-minute walk away! And if we follow the yellow brick road busy street toward the central part of Funabashi, we pass by some good stuff: a drug store, a convenience store (in addition to at least 3 others nearby), a Book Off (a used book/dvd/video game store), Yoshinoya restaurant, and even a park (where the GREAT SAKURA STORM OF 2010 happened… NEVAR FORGET.) There’s also a post office, a bakery, 9074309724065734 dry cleaning shops, not to mention lots of houses and other apartment complexes nearby. The only thing we don’t have within ten steps of our home is a supermarket, in which we have to go through to the other side of the train tracks to access. Not SO bad really, but even still, in terms of convenience it’s quicker to make a last-minute evening run for a Lexus hybrid than for a carton milk or eggs. lulz! All in all though, a pretty okay place to live.

Here are the questions I’ll be answering over the next month:

Day 01 – A picture of you “in Japan”. (doing or wearing something “Japanese”)
Day 02 – Describe your neighborhood in Japan.
Day 03 – Most interesting person you met.
Day 04 – What’s your favorite place that’s not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?
Day 05 – Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?
Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
Day 07 – Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)
Day 08 – Are you a Herbivore or Carnivore? S or M?
Day 09 – Favorite stores/shopping centers.
Day 10 – Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
Day 11 – What did you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?
Day 12 – Describe a fail!gaijin moment. (Where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn’t ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren’t born and raised here) Describe a gaijin!smash moment .(Where your foreignness was to your benefit)
Day 13 – Something about Japan that reminds you of home? [I made up this question actually... it was originally a repeat of number 10 so I came up with a new one to answer instead!]
Day 14 – What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?
Day 15 – Weirdest food item you’ve seen, and weirdest food item you’ve actually eaten.
Day 16 – How you realised you’d acclimated to Japan. (if you have)
Day 17 – Your karaoke top 5, your sushi top 5, your conbini top 5.
Day 18 – Post some amusing/cute/faily purikura.
Day 19 – Your favorite Japanese character(s) and Gachapon/UFO Catcher toys
Day 20 – Favorite Japanese festival or folklore.
Day 21 – Favorite and least favorite Japanese fashion trends.
Day 22 – Your favorite Japanese saying or kotowaza (proverb).
Day 23 – What is something you have/do in Japan that you wish you had/could do in your home country?
Day 24 – Your favorite Japanese slang or borrow-word (外来語), e.g. セフレ “sex friend”
Day 25 – Most interesting vending machine find.
Day 26 – What’s your favorite/least favorite train line.
Day 27 – Place you avoid going to if at all possible.
Day 28 – A picture of you looking like a weaboo/A picture of you trying to blend in and failing.
Day 29 – What’s the thing you [will] miss most about Japan when you leave (either on vacation, or move away)?
Day 30 – Did Japan meet your expectations, both good and bad? What has been the most surprising thing about Japan for you, or the thing you least expected?

And here is my response for today!

Day 01 – A picture of you “in Japan”. (doing or wearing something “Japanese”)

I have plenty of these, too many to choose. So even though it’s kinda lame compared to some other stuff I’ve shared in the past, I’ll just pick the most recent photo of me saved on our camera:

Here is me at our neighborhood Autumn Matsuri in Fukui, on the first day of Autumn of course! It was raining like cats and dogs that night, but it didn’t stop all the Japanese baby boomers from dressing in their finest wafuku to cover their favorite enka classics on-stage for all to enjoy! (To quote Tatsuya: “This is SOOOO inaka (country) matsuri!”) Also, you can see Otousan in the background talking to a neighbor friend. Good times.

I still want to do regular life updates in addition to these, but at least now I definitely have something to talk about every day for a while! Thanks for reading, see you again tomorrow! ;D

Anyway, things have been pretty eventful lately. You know that Skype job interview I mentioned two sentences ago? Well, I got the job! So now I’m a native English teacher at a language school for preschoolers/kindergarteners! I’m pretty excited, and so far I’ve been having a great time. The job is so fun, the kids are cute, and the pay is pretty good… much better than it was even when I worked full-time at Banana Republic. Not to mention any kind of money is OH SO WELCOME in this household, where financial dependence on school aid and help from family members has been the norm for ages! I’m only part time for now; I’ve just about finished training to be the Monday pre-school and Friday afternoon kinderschool teacher, but I’ve also been given a bunch of substitute hours, so I’ll be having work around 3-4 days per week for the rest of October. Not bad for my first post-College gig, especially once I get some more regular hours. Woo hoo!

Tatsuya is still looking for part-time work for himself. He applied at a nearby movie theatre last week, but received a rejection letter in the mail yesterday. He would’ve turned down a job offer anyway, though. The pay would not have been good (only 900yen/hour), and the manager confessed that right now is the slow season, so it wouldn’t be an ideal gig for someone like him trying to make some extra cash before the work season starts next April. On top of that, he was told he wouldn’t be “allowed” to take up a second job either… so yeah, screw that. He’s looking into some karaoke staff jobs now (since that’s what he did during college.)

Anyway, because he’s still looking for work and I won’t get my first paycheck until mid-November, we’re wondering if maybe the Europe trip might be off the table for a while. If we were to take the trip in January or February, we’d probably have to buy the ticket+hotel package in December (T read somewhere that they’re cheapest at that point) and it’s pretty unlikely that we’d have enough money saved up by then. On the other hand, we’re kind of cool with it anyway, since we’re looking forward more to finally having the money to buy some things we’ve been wanting for a LONG time (new TV, a sewing machine, a puppy dog). We’re also getting more excited about moving in June, and we figure the more time we have to save up the small FORTUNE we need to cover deposits for a Japanese apartment, the better. I suppose it still wouldn’t be too hard to plan a trip within Asia if we really wanted a few days out of dodge, but eh. I guess we’ll see.

Now for the part where I can recycle what I was writing two weeks ago! Yay!

As I said in my last entry (which some of you still may not know, depending on your understanding of Japanese or Google-Translateish) I’m planning to take the JLPT for the THIRD time this December, whoo hoo! I know that makes me sound like a dummy, but honestly the other times were usually me vowing to do all kinds of extra studying in order to catch up with level 2, but of course that never works out on top of school work and livin’ life. But this time I should have this one in the bag since by now I’ve studied up to that level IN CLASS and indeed, looking through my study books, I feel like most of it is review. I can tell my weakness right now is vocabulary though (did anyone know how to say “to go fishing” in their foreign language? I didn’t until just now, LOL) so I’m going to try my best in the next two months to live fast and cram hard. At least if I get frustrated, I can go back and re-review kanji to boost my confidence back up \o/

In a lot of ways, I think being in Fukui did a lot to clear my head and get me focused on starting a new life after college. The last year was a little overwhelming, like my life was on cruise-control and no matter what happened, I just had to make it from point A to point B, even if that meant sacrificing hobbies, making friends, or being anything other than in survival mode. But it’s interesting to realize that what I was doing for most of September was the same thing I was that time last year… which was spend time in Fukui. It feels a lot like I came around full-circle. Now that I have a better handle on this whole life in Japan type deal, I can gain back control of my life and start doing what I want, rather than feeling like I’m in survival mode all the time. And I’ve definitely noticed a difference since I came back to Funabashi. It could partly having the job and the promise of a steady salary again. But I’ve been more social lately (I managed to meet up with my friends Molly, Amy, and Juliane recently, plus made plans with Tara-who-lives-in-Korea when she’s in Japan for a visit later this month!) I started to watch what I eat a little more closely and do exercise (after gaining 5kgs last year) and now I’ve already lost 2. I’m actually doing my hair and dressing up again (which is totally a big deal for me, as clothes are one of the few hobbies I still have.) I’m even planning on opening up a fashion blog soon… something I’ve wanted to do for a long time! I doubt it would be interesting for anyone but me but, lol whatever it’ll be fun.

On a closing note, tomorrow (well, technically today) is Tatsuya’s 25th birthday! He’s officially in his mid-twenties… LOL he seems like such an old man now!! (he was barely 21 the day I met him, which 4 days ago was exactly 4 years ago. Oh how the time flies.) I see cake, punch and pie happening after work. Yaaayy~