Dartboard

Although there are “Goto Party Pics” posted all over the internet, I think there need to be a few pictures that make MY blog. I didn’t take any of these pictures so thanks to Dawn and Vicky (and maybe Carrie, too?) for lending me yours…

These are really late, but I seem to enjoy posting pictures way after the fact. This was another Kamigoto party held at Vicky’s house several weeks ago.

Dawn, Me, Ai Sasaki, (yes, the Japanese woman is my supervisor!) and Yuki eating dinner in the living room.

We played charades in Vicky’s tiny upstairs. It was cramped, but everyone was too drunk to notice and having too much fun to care. That’s me in Yuki’s cowboy hat.

Yuki came out in his Ebi Fry costume. A few people got to try it on and take their pictures in it. I think everyone just though Yuki was crazy.

Then we went to karaoke. Here’s Vicky with her three backup singers.

Ai Sasaki and Dawn. I’ve NEVER seen Ai so happy in my life.

Lori—needing all the attention and using both microphones to sing her karaoke song.

I was really hesitant to invite Ai to the party because of our rocky professional relationship and our non-existent friendship. I’m still not sure if it was the best idea ever, but I was trying to reach out to her. Our relationship has been good since last December, but we’re still teetering on the edge a bit and I’m afraid more issues could come up again if we’re not careful. At the end of the night she ended up playing taxi driver for two carloads because the real taxis had finished already (it was only 1 a.m.!). She hadn’t been drinking because she had wanted to go home to Narao, but I felt really guilty because of course she was tired and she didn’t know any of the ALTs she was driving home. I don’t think she minded too much, but I just wanted her to have fun and certainly not feel like we were using her.

Anyway, once she drove everyone home and got back to Narao, she accidentally locked her keys in her car and couldn’t get into her car OR her apartment. She called and asked if she could sleep in my car (which I had left parked and unlocked in the teacher's parking lot because Yuki drove me) until she could ask the apartment manager in the morning to unlock her door. She spent the coldest few hours in the morning sleeping in my drafty Jeep. If there was ANYTHING I could have done, I would have, but I was an hour away, at Yuki’s house and without transportation of any kind. Again, I think she was fine, but what a horrible way to end the evening!

The next day was so depressing for me. Besides the alcohol bringing me down, Yuki and I had gotten in a huge fight after karaoke and we were miserable Sunday morning. We had to put on smiling faces for the others who came out to Kamigoto as we taxied them around to various ferry ports and got people to their respective locations, but I just wanted to crawl under my kotatsu and cry--which is essentially what I ended up doing that evening. The previous night was fun up until karaoke, but if I could choose to forget every thing else after that I would.

Anyway, things are better now, which is way I am able to write about it and show pictures. Yuki and I have dealt with the problems that came up and we are probably closer because of them. And I realized that alcohol is truly a depressant—when I get in that after-party-funk I just need to let time heal!