Dartboard

I’ve been very honest about relationship-stuff on my blog recently. I’m pretty open about most things, but talking about Harald can be painful and when writing on a blog, there’s nothing private about it. I’m not sure exactly who reads it, when you read it, what your reaction to it is. I rarely get feedback. (You’re the exception Steven!) It’s just—out there. Even for someone who is used to being open, that’s pretty intimidating. So I do appreciate your thoughts. Unless your thoughts are “You’re going to marry him.” I’ve heard that enough this week. I don’t need thoughts like those.

Last night I made Halloween cookies with my eikaiwa. I quickly taught them some baking terms and conversions and then gave them the recipe to try. They did an excellent job, but my kitchen floor was such a mess afterwards. Mostly it was from Hinako-chan, the 3-year old girl who was given a piece of “play”-dough and rolled and rolled the dough across the table until it dropped down the sides and onto the floor.

I’m pretty anal in my own kitchen. I like to keep things clean while I work so that there’s not a huge pile of dishes or a million surfaces to clean at the end. Newsflash: Kids don’t think like that! In fact, she’s always wiping her hands everywhere—or not wiping them all all—and I have to give my surfaces a good sweep anytime she comes over. I like her. I don’t think she’s spoiled or especially unclean. She’s just a kid. But I’m not used to having kids around. I’m sure I’ll get over this with my own children and all their grubby-fingered little friends, but for now, I like a clean kitchen.

“You’re beautiful lately.” I’ve heard this a lot recently. The “lately” makes me laugh, but it’s doing wonders for my self-esteem. I feel great! The trip to the dermatologist a couple weeks ago really paid off. He prescribed me something for my “acne.” It wasn’t exactly bad enough to call it acne, but I hate the other words for those things. My face has really cleared up—just in time for my Aqua Blue BBQ this Sunday! I know nothing for sure, but I’m hoping Tanabe will be there so we can “catch up.” I haven’t been swimming in a long time and I haven’t been to his swimming class in even longer.

When I ride my bike to school I just don’t have energy to drive up north and do more exercise. Then with this cough, I haven’t done any activity in about a week. Thank my mom for that one. I can’t seem to slow down even when I’m sick which never helps me to recovery quickly. She insisted last week that I stop doing all activity until I was completely better. And I have. Except honestly, I’m just saving up my energy to go scuba diving on Sunday. I’ve got two dives planned and I simply must to be healthy enough to finish them.

I also have Halloween parties all day tomorrow. I have no costume. No idea for a costume. But I’m bringing cookies. They better be happy. Lori and I are going together. I was kind of surprised at how enthusiastic she is about it too. She thought of all sorts of games for the kids. I haven’t seen that side of her before, but I’m so glad she’s coming.

My supervisor is not at work today and I couldn’t be happier!! This is also the day I choose to pass out Halloween cookies to everyone at work. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Every time I bring food to work, Takeda-sensei asks me if it’s poisoned. I always say yes.

I’ve had a Japanese book on my bookshelf for the last year. The author’s name, Banana, intrigued me, but I never got around to reading it. Well this week I finally read it, and I’m so glad I did. It made my Top 5 Favorite Books list.

Just to clarify the top 5 includes in no particular order:
The Faithful Elephants
How to Live a Meaningful Life by the Dalai Lama
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
My Spanish to English Dictionary
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

It was two short stories in one book, but I didn’t realize that until I finished the whole thing and realized the two stories weren’t coming together in the end. It was still amazing. The second story, Moonlight Shadow make me cry and cry and cry. It was so good. Some of the best writing I’ve read in a really, really long time. The stories, about how a young girl deals with death, touched me and made me think about things I hadn’t thought about in a long time. Although the author is Japanese, it was translated into English very well. The language flowed naturally and was very modern.

The Life of Helen Keller, which I started recently, was fascinating for the first half (her biography) but I couldn’t finish the “Letters” section—the latter half.

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe, which was also in my apartment when I arrived, was pretty good, but I definitely prefered Things Fall Apart.

Read any good books lately? Please recommend them!

Next Thursday is a holiday! Oh! What shall I do?!?

Love, Sierra