Nothing too special to tell you about this week. Sorry.
This past weekend was the first one in about a month where I didn’t go anywhere for the weekend. I really just wanted to relax and catch up on some sleep for at least one of the days. I was definitely successful in that endeavor… Although I had to stay up all night partying in Osaka to be able to sleep the entire following day away… only natural right?
I saw my mother and aunt off last Tuesday morning in Kyoto. I felt sad they were leaving as I helped them get things together before we left the hotel room. I had a good time with them over the past few weeks and I know it will be a long time before I can see them again. However, by the time we made it to Kyoto station and navigated them to their gate with all their baggage I realized that I was not 100% forlorn over their departure. I was reminded how much easier and less stressful it is to travel solo. No one to question your navigation, only your own ESSENTIALS (I think my definition of that word may be unique to some) to worry about, and not having to slow down for other bodies and minds to catch up to my day’s mission(s).
In all seriousness though, I am glad they came to visit me. I had a great time showing them around the places I have been enjoying, and exploring a few new places as well. I am glad my mom and aunt have experienced Japan as well. It will be nice to have someone I can share stories with when I get back home and not feel completely alone in my experiences. I think they enjoyed their visit too, but were ready to get back to their routines in the “real world”. They are both home now. My mom sent me an update when she got home saying she was comfortably situated on the back porch with a book and a glass of lemonade (I was jealous for a few seconds after reading that).
My mom has come a long way since I left her in March. She can use an iPhone now and is she even ate raw horse meat while she was here. Seems like just yesterday she was yelling at me for defrosting venison in the microwave without opening a window, and asking how to type a text message on her flip phone… Way to go mom 🙂
And she even blogged for me the past two weeks which made my life a little easier. I like writing these things but sometimes it keeps me up later than I would like, and sometimes I don’t feel like writing at all. I think she did alright, I hope you all didn’t mind us pulling the old switcheroo.
After I parted ways with the lovely ladies of the Mason-Dixon, I began a slow week at work. I was looking forward to the following weekend way to intently so time dragged by accordingly.
Saturday night I had plans to meet some friends for a surprise dinner party for our friend Sam. I was a bit slow getting ready after work, so I missed whatever surprise their was, but I think I made up for it. It was just a few of us at the dinner but we ran up quite a bill. It was a bit more than I was expecting to pay but the food was pretty good and we had fun. We headed out for drinks after wards. We hit a few different places around town and eventually separated at some point. Margo and Ingrid left us very early in the night to catch the last train home to their place. Greg had to catch the first train (5am) to the airport to catch a plane to Tokyo for the weekend. I got separated from Koichi and Sam a little while after that and made my way around to some other places with another group of friends. In short, I had an awesome night. I think Sam should have birthdays more often.
Sunday was a lazy day, there was a typhoon approaching our area so it was pretty windy and cloudy all day. I got some food with Koichi and then took a nap, before dragging myself back to Nara and collapsing in my own bed for the next 10 hours. Monday was a pretty crappy day as well, the typhoon was still in the area so it was raining off and on until about 3 so I took advantage of the limited amount of light trying to invade my room through the windows and stayed in bed for another little while.
I managed to go out to the dollar store to pick up some things for school in the afternoon, then met Elizabeth in Osaka for some food at our new favorite craft brew pub Garage 39. We practiced Japanese with the guys there a bit and they told us about some other cool craft beer pubs around Osaka to check out. Our list keeps growing, but we like chatting with our new friends at Garage 39 so that will probably remain our “Go-To”
I made it back home around 1030 and wasn’t able to sleep to well. I think I slept to much during the day and my body couldn’t sleep any more. I woke up around 630 this morning and could not get back to sleep at all. So I made some coffee and watched Monday Night Football before heading into work a few hours later. Work was good today. I got a lot of planning out of the way so I can start getting ready for next week when all my kids parents meetings and open classes are. I am really looking forward to getting that all behind me. I think I will be living for the weekends for the next several weeks… At least I have some good plans ahead, a music festival in Kyushu this weekend, Okinawa for the first weekend of November, and some other fun activities scattered in between. Good thing I got a chance to charge the batteries this weekend.
Have a good week everyone. Thanks for reading…….and LET’S GO O’s!!!!
Enjoyed as usual. LYTM