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no, i mean, in a good way, but things have been happening!
I spent most of last week up at her place starting to get the utilities moved from the old apartment to the new house, and about 6 hours on the phone with AT&T for various reasons (which was literal hell and i do not love AT&T at ALL), but at least now all those things are mostly taken care of.
Headed back to the Dad's house at the end of the week so that I'd be around for baby birthing and dog walking and normal life living. Oh, and I rewatched Moonstruck with my stepmom - have you guys seen that? It's kind of an adorable movie and I forgot that it was. I also got to cook, though I think it disconcerts my stepmom when i do, because she's not in control of dinner and it weirds her out, but I made savory zucchini and mushroom crepes with a Parmesan sauce and then dessert crepes with a crazy fruit salad. They were DELICIOUS. I could eat my own weight in crepes though, and i single handedly at like 7 dessert crepes. Maybe 8? Maybe 9? i lost count.
Now though I feel like I'm back in the wilds of some foreign country that just happens to be filled with Americans. Who, I have to say, in comparison to Japanese, are really colorful, and not just in skin and hair coloring. I got used to the sort of subtle shades that most Japanese wear in their day to day lives (of course there are awesome exceptions to that rule - once me and my friends saw a guy wearing a purple and orange paisley pants and shirt combo with a striped orange scarf - eye catching doesn't even begin to cut it), but the day to day dress of Americans is still a lot more colorful. And OMG we waste SO MUCH SPACE HERE. I noticed it when we drove to the Grass Valley Hospital where my new grandnephew was born - and it's not even about giant super stores so much as these 'mini' malls that take up acres of space and whose parking lots are ridiculously long. It's the same in South Dakota (well, in Rapid City - which is the major metropolitan center for this side of the state) - there are these mini malls that are just MASSIVE and stretch on (in my Japan-informed eyes) far too long and too wide and just are too big. But Tyler noted that there's nothing out here *but* space in a lot of ways, so why not use it? And I suppose he's right, though neither one of us really are excited about it being used for these purposes.
The use I do like is the Rapid City green belt, which is just acres of green grass and trees and bike paths and the occasional sun clock and flower garden. Apparently there was a massive flood here in the 70s that wiped out half the town, and instead of rebuilding they turned it into a green belt. I like that kind of thinking.
Our plans for the 4th are to scale Bear Butte (which should be a trek for me, unhealthy person that i am, but i'm game, and it's Tyler's favorite place to hike here), then come back into town for something called Rapid City Nights (which will equal some kind of live music and downtown entertainment). It's gonna be fun.
What about you guys who are on the america side of the pond? Any 4th plans? The practically-state-mandated BBQ?
- i am in south dakota visiting my friend tyler! (so i guess technically i shouldn't be calling these the NCal chronicles, but whatever)
- i have another grand-nephew who is adorable! He got birthed after like 20 hours of 'eep her water broke and she's having contractions so let's get her to the hospital but wait it's not *really* labor' so his mom was super duper tired when we went to see her, but everybody is doing fine and healthy and that's the important part. Unfortunately this kid's parents are still teenagers, so I'm not so excited about them being parents at 18 and 19, but that's their choice not mine and there's plenty of people to worry about them in addition to me, so I'm going to just enjoy cute baby-ness.
- my computer broke so i dropped it off to get fixed before i left! The sad part is that it broke, the other sad part is i'm going to pay $250 to get it fixed, but the good part is that it can be fixed and $250 is less than it would cost to buy myself a new computer of comparable power (besides, I'm afraid of Windows 8)
- i posted some stuff at Summer of Giles! and the community is awesome this year. If you like your Giles you should totally check stuf out!
- i am apparently unable to not type in exclamation points!! but this is not a bad thing because i am excited!!
I spent most of last week up at her place starting to get the utilities moved from the old apartment to the new house, and about 6 hours on the phone with AT&T for various reasons (which was literal hell and i do not love AT&T at ALL), but at least now all those things are mostly taken care of.
Headed back to the Dad's house at the end of the week so that I'd be around for baby birthing and dog walking and normal life living. Oh, and I rewatched Moonstruck with my stepmom - have you guys seen that? It's kind of an adorable movie and I forgot that it was. I also got to cook, though I think it disconcerts my stepmom when i do, because she's not in control of dinner and it weirds her out, but I made savory zucchini and mushroom crepes with a Parmesan sauce and then dessert crepes with a crazy fruit salad. They were DELICIOUS. I could eat my own weight in crepes though, and i single handedly at like 7 dessert crepes. Maybe 8? Maybe 9? i lost count.
Now though I feel like I'm back in the wilds of some foreign country that just happens to be filled with Americans. Who, I have to say, in comparison to Japanese, are really colorful, and not just in skin and hair coloring. I got used to the sort of subtle shades that most Japanese wear in their day to day lives (of course there are awesome exceptions to that rule - once me and my friends saw a guy wearing a purple and orange paisley pants and shirt combo with a striped orange scarf - eye catching doesn't even begin to cut it), but the day to day dress of Americans is still a lot more colorful. And OMG we waste SO MUCH SPACE HERE. I noticed it when we drove to the Grass Valley Hospital where my new grandnephew was born - and it's not even about giant super stores so much as these 'mini' malls that take up acres of space and whose parking lots are ridiculously long. It's the same in South Dakota (well, in Rapid City - which is the major metropolitan center for this side of the state) - there are these mini malls that are just MASSIVE and stretch on (in my Japan-informed eyes) far too long and too wide and just are too big. But Tyler noted that there's nothing out here *but* space in a lot of ways, so why not use it? And I suppose he's right, though neither one of us really are excited about it being used for these purposes.
The use I do like is the Rapid City green belt, which is just acres of green grass and trees and bike paths and the occasional sun clock and flower garden. Apparently there was a massive flood here in the 70s that wiped out half the town, and instead of rebuilding they turned it into a green belt. I like that kind of thinking.
Our plans for the 4th are to scale Bear Butte (which should be a trek for me, unhealthy person that i am, but i'm game, and it's Tyler's favorite place to hike here), then come back into town for something called Rapid City Nights (which will equal some kind of live music and downtown entertainment). It's gonna be fun.
What about you guys who are on the america side of the pond? Any 4th plans? The practically-state-mandated BBQ?
