Tomorrow Is Another Day...

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #6

Happy Friday, everyone.  Thank you all so much for your incredible kindness and support after  yesterday's post.  It was a very emotional day, one in which I found my eyes welling up with tears as I tried to select a Lean Cuisine or my words catching in my throat when my bag boy at Publix asked about my husband.  But I also spent plenty of the day with tears in my eyes because of the outpouring of support not only for me, but for the entire military family.  The prayers were palpable.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today, and looking forward to reaching out to others in the military spouse community through this fun weekly feature!

1) What is your spouse’s best feature?
I think his best physical feature is his eyes.  They're such a pretty blue and filled with so much kindness and love.  He also has a great sense of humor that complements mine perfectly and is no kidding one of the nicest people I've ever met.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him angry in the ten years we've known each other, and he is always ready and willing to help out at work or at home and would do anything for his friends.

2) Mild, Medium or Hot sauce?
Well, I accept that this makes me an awful Louisianian, but give me Mild any day.  I like a little kick to my food, but I absolutely hate when food makes my eyes water or makes me physically hot.  And let me tell you, it doesn't take much!

3) What is the worst uniform you had to wear for a job?
BDUs, no doubt.  I spent four years in JROTC in high school, four years in ROTC at LSU and two and a half years in the Air Force, and every step of the way I HATED BDUs.  I hated how much work went into getting them ready to wear.  I hated how they were too hot in summer but not warm enough in winter.  I hated how they completely obliterated the shape of a woman, and I hated those stupid BDU hats with the rank insignia digging into my forehead.  Give me Class Bs with a skirt and heels any day!

4) You have invisible powers… where is the first place you would go?
Overseas to spend the rest of the deployment with Colby!

5) What’s left on your “to do” list for this summer?
Wow, so much!  I've made it a goal to finish my Ireland scrapbook before the end of summer--you know, since I've been working on it for NINE YEARS!  My mom is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, my sister and bestie are coming to visit in mid September.  I'm wrapping up a masters class on instructional technology.  And I'm planning to start the Insanity workout program on the first day of August and have it finished by the end of September.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and before you go, don't forget to enter my contest for your opportunity to win a gorgeous pearl necklace from the Aloha Kitchen Etsy Shop.  Remember, the last day to enter is Wednesday, August 4th!

Those Who Have Gone Before

Today is a hard day.

The most common remark I hear when I tell people about Colby's job is, "I don't know how you do it."

A lot of denial is involved.  I don't allow myself to dwell every day on the fact that he is flying an 88 foot long target through war zones.  I think this is a fairly common coping mechanism amongst the friends and families of military members.  To allow the reality of what they are doing every day penetrate our minds would only serve to make us crazy with sick and worry.

Here is how I do it.  I go to sleep every night and wake up every morning.  The sun continues to rise and set.  The earth continues to spin.  My body continues to send oxygen to my brain and blood.  I love a man who risks his life for our country.  It was never a conscious decision, it's just the way things are.  I'm no stronger than anyone else.  I wasn't issued a set of armor for my heart when we got married.

But the talisman I have always clutched tightly--the knowledge that has kept the most frightening thoughts away in the darkest hours--it's gone.  The mantra I repeat over and over when Colby hasn't called in days, when he gets home late from a local flight, when I get an eerie chill--never again can I comfort myself with the reminder that there has never been a fatal crash of the aircraft that Colby flies.

All four members of the aircrew on board a C-17 cargo plane that crashed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on Wednesday evening have died, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson told Fox News Channel on Thursday.

The aircraft was on a local training mission when it crashed at 6:14pm local time.
From the New York Post

My heart is so sick for the families who have lost their loved ones.  When I think of the casual way I've taken to just waving goodbye when Colby leaves for a local flight...  Or how I'll rush him off the phone when one of my shows is coming on tv.  Never, ever allowing myself to think that those words or moments together might be the last ones we share.  Because thinking like that would hurt too much.  But regretting those moments, that would hurt so much more.

I don't know what my prayers could possibly do to help those who are left behind, but still, I pray for them to heal.  For them to find some sense of peace.  For the hurt to fade.  That they will somehow know just how many of us are thinking of them.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Gorgeous Pearl Necklace Giveaway!! *Enter By AUG 4TH*

Can you believe that in five years of blogging, I have never once done a giveaway?  I’ve sold a couple of items, asked you to help me get dressed, dumped every personal issue imaginable upon your shoulders, and yet, I have never given back to my loyal bloggy friends!  Well, no more say I!

My long-time blog pal (her first comment here was in July of 2006—it’s our anniversary!) and writing co-conspirator, Lynn, runs an Etsy shop, Aloha Kitchen, and has been kind enough to offer up one of her gorgeous jewelry creations to one of my readers.  I’ve got to be honest, I am so jealous--I want to enter this contest!

Up for grabs is this stunning White Pearl Collar Necklace.  It’s such a versatile and elegant piece.  I can see it working with everything from a classic LBD when you’re out to dinner with your honey to a simple tee with jeans and ballet flats at the grocery store.

So, here’s the skinny, you can earn up to eight points in the contest, and each point entitles you to one entry.  Let me count the ways:

1) Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite piece of jewelry is from Lynn’s shop. (+1)

2) Leave a comment on Lynn’s blog telling her how awesome she is.  Or how pretty her hair looks today.  Or that you really love the way that top brings out her eyes. (+1)

3) Become a follower of my blog on Facebook (just use the link or click “like” on that little box over there to the left).* (+1)

4) Become a follower of Lynn’s blog.* (+1)

5) Follow me on Twitter.* (+1)

6) Follow Lynn on Twitter.* (+1)

7) Post about and link to this contest on your blog. (+1)

8) Retweet the contest to your followers. (+1)

*If you are already a follower in each of these cases, that counts as a point!

Now, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you follow these directions if you want all of your entries to be counted—even more important than using a number 2 pencil on the SAT!

When you leave your comment here, about your favorite piece of jewelry, include the total number of points you’ve earned in the contest and each method of entry.  Then link to your post and/or include your Twitter name so I can follow up.

The contest is open to both US and international residents and will close at 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, August 4th, so please make sure that all of your comments are posted before then so that I can give you credit.

The winner will be announced on Thursday, August 5^th.  Good luck, y'all!

Bad Things Come In... Fives??

1) Busted air conditioning for over a month.

2) Broken dryer for over a month.

3) Find out that my advisor enrolled me in the wrong class.  One that doesn't even count toward my degree.  So, instead of being in my last class with 4 weeks to go, I still have another 3 months of school stretching before me.

4) Attempt to Space A to Washington.  Wake up at 5 am.  Shower, finish packing.  Happen to think, hey, maybe I should call and double check on that flight before I drop off the dogs to board and drive all the way to the base.  Yeah, flight is canceled.  Pushed back to tomorrow night.  Given the weather forecast of afternoon/evening thunderstorms, I'm not optimistic.

5) I just can't wait to find out!!!

You know what's worse than unpacking after a vacation.  Unpacking after NOT going on vacation.  Next time, I'm just promising my first born in exchange for a plane ticket.

30 Before 30: #22 The Greatest Books List

(Background on my 30 Before 30 list can be found here.)

When you hear about the top 100 books, generally the list being referenced is The Modern Library compendium.  What made me decide against choosing this list is the fact that it was created by a group of ten men.  That's it.  These ten guys got together and decided on the top 100 books according to... them.  Admittedly, they've probably got a better grasp on what makes literature than I do, but still, it was off-putting.  So, I searched around the net for top 100 books lists, and that's how I found the Greatest Books list.

"This list is generated from 43 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th."
~The Greatest Books

The list of books is below, but for those of you who don't feel like scanning through a hundred books, here are some of my thoughts:

• I've already read 30 of the books on the list, giving me 70 more to read by December 20, 2012.
• Dear God, that's a whole lot of Russians...  The only Russian novel I've ever managed to complete was Dr. Zhivago, and as much as I love the movie, that book was a definite slog to the finish line.
• I'm most excited about reading The Catcher in the Rye and Virginia Woolf's books.
• I've started Ulysses twice and never made it more than about 20 pages in--am quite nervous.
• Some of these books, I've never even heard of... Clarissa?  Does she explain it all?  Under the Volcano??  Well, you might want to move.
• If I made a top 100 list, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and Little House on the Prairie would absolutely be included.  And I think that's a pretty unbiased opinion.
• Wuthering Heights should be above Jane Eyre.  Just saying!

(Books that I read prior to the start of the challenge are highlighted in red.  Books that are completed as part of the challenge will be highlighted in green and will be tracked in a list found in the sidebar to the left.)

1) Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes

2) Ulysses, James Joyce

3) Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

4) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

5) The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

6) 1984, George Orwell

7) War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

8) In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust

9) Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

10) Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

11) The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

12) Middlemarch, George Eliot

13) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

14) The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

15) Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

16) The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

17) To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

18) On the Road, Jack Kerouac

19) Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift

20) The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

21) Moby Dick, Herman Melville

22) Beloved, Toni Morrison

23) The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James

24) The Iliad, Homer

25) Absalom, Absolom!, William Faulkner

26) A Passage to India, E.M. Forster

27) Native Son, Richard Wright

28) Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

29) The Odyssey, Homer

30) Catch-22, Joseph Heller

31) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

32) Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

33) The Trial, Franz Kafka

34) As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

35) Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

36) Emma, Jane Austen

37) Nostromo, Joseph Conrad

38) Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

39) To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

40) Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

41) The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

42) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

43) The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

44) Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

45) Lord of the Flies, William Golding

46) All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren

47) Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

48) The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

49) The Aeneid, Virgil

50) Tom Jones, Henry Fielding

51) The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass

52) Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

53) The Call of the Wild, Jack London

54) The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford

55) Malone Dies, Samuel Beckett

56) Animal Farm, George Orwell

57) Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

58) Oedipus the King, Sophocles

59) Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais

60) U.S.A Trilogy, John Dos Passos

61) The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu

62) Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne

63) An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser

64) Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

65) The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

66) Clarissa, Samuel Richardson

67) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Louis Carroll

68) The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

69) The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

70) Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

71) Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

72) Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence

73) Finnegans Wake, James Joyce

74) Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

75) Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

76) The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

77) Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence

78) The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann

79) Charlotte's Web, E.B. White

80) Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry

81) Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan

82) The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

83) Hamlet, William Shakespeare

84) A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

85) The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing

86) Light in August, William Faulkner

87) Rabbit, Run, John Updike

88) The Stranger, Albert Camus

89) Herzog, Saul Bellow

90) Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin

91) The Awakening, Kate Chopin

92) A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

93) Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison

94) Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

95) King Lear, William Shakespeare

96) Dangerous Liaison, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

97) Journey to the End of the Night, Louis-Ferdinand Celine

98) The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

99) Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

100) Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Space A: This Is Why It's Free, Folks

I'm attempting to take a Space A flight this week for a short trip out to Washington to visit some of my long lost gal pals.  For the uninitiated, Space A (short for Space Available) flights are military aircraft that active duty, dependents, retirees and various other categories of folks can ride on as they fly from one base to another, as long as there is room on the airplane (i.e. space available).  Generally, as a dependent, I would have to be flying with Colby to take advantage of these flights, but because he's deployed for 120 days or longer, I have a fancy little letter that allows me to fly by myself.

So, the upside is that the flight is free.  The downside is that there's no guarantee you'll actually get on a flight, you don't know exactly when the flight will leave, you may get diverted from your intended destination, and the airplane is cold as balls.  But, did I mention, it's free?  So, a few weeks ago, I went to the base and put my name on the sign-up list so that hopefully I'll be high up on the list of people in my category (unaccompanied dependents--I think we're about 3rd down on the priority list) trying to get to Washington.  While I was there, I was given a handout with a phone number for the flight recording and told that it was updated with the flight information every three days.

While Colby was at one of his deployed locations, he was able to check on the flights for me and I found out that there are two flights heading to Washington on Tuesday.  Where he's based now, he doesn't have access to the flight schedules, and since it's been about a week since he got the initial information, I wanted to reconfirm it with the flight recording.

I called twice on Thursday.  Busy signal.

I called again on Saturday.  Busy signal.

I called twice today.  This time it just kept ringing and ringing times infinity.  So, I called the passenger terminal for a little assistance.

(After sitting on hold for 10 minutes)

Pax Terminal: Yes?

Angela: I've been calling the flight recording and it just keeps ringing without the recording ever picking up.

Pax Terminal:  Yeah.  Our recording is down.

Angela: Oh... Well... do you know when it will be back up?

Pax Terminal:  When we buy a new answering machine.

Angela: *Moment of stunned silence*  Excuse me??

Pax Terminal:  *Exasperated sigh* When.  We.  Buy.  A.  New.  Answering.  Machine.

Angela: ...Um, so, how are we supposed to get flight information?

Pax Terminal:  Well, you could ask me.

Angela:  Can I... have some flight information?

And so it went on, with the Passenger Terminal representative being as mind bendingly difficult as possible, and I hung up with no more information than I had before I called.  Except that now I know someone needs to buy the Charleston AFB Pax Terminal a new answering machine.  Wonder if I should drop one off when I show up for my unidentified mystery flight?

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #5

Oh, this week just keeps getting better and better.  More school drama is rearing its ugly head, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed very tightly that I'll be able to work something out with the school of education.  The short story is that I believe they enrolled me in the wrong class this term (which was supposed to be my last), and now that I'm halfway through that class, they're telling me that I still have one more class to take.  Sound familiar?  Sigh.

This weekend Colby and I will reach the end of month number one of the deployment.  Which means only a bit more than three months to go.  Um, yeah, that sounded much better in my head.  But still, it's one month closer than we were a month ago, so it's a start.  It does make the first couple of questions of the Mil-Spouse Fill-in pretty easy to answer though!

1) Besides the horizontal mambo, what do you miss most when your spouse is deployed?
Someone else cooking dinner with me... okay, for me.

2) What do you miss the least?
How he untucks the sheets on his side of the bed at night.  I have a strange need for tight, tucked in sheets, but poor dude is just too tall for our bed, and he says his feet feel trapped by the sheets if they aren't untucked.  My little Abe Lincoln.

3) You only get three crayons to finish your picture... which three do you choose and why?
I guess it depends on what my picture is, doesn't it!  Hm...  well, I'm getting pretty pumped up for LSU football season, so I'll go with purple, gold and black!!

4) If you could have your own fragrance, what would it be called?
Eau de Introvert

5) If the shoes make the man (or woman), what do your shoes say about you right now?
Well, if you mean the shoes I'm wearing--I'm not!  So I guess that says I'm a hillbilly.  If you're talking about the 60ish pairs that I have in my closet, well, I guess they'd say I have a serious addiction problem.

Musical Theater Geekery

This has been my week, in a nutshell (Help!  Help!  I'm in a nutshell!)

Dryer begins flashing mysterious code.

Angela:  Hello, some shit is wrong with my dryer.

Dryer Phone Lady:  Hello, have you tried unplugging your dryer and plugging it back in?

Angela: ...

Dryer Phone Lady: ...

Angela: No.  (Unplugs and re-plugs in dryer.)

Dryer Phone Lady: ...

Angela: Some shit is still wrong with my dryer.

Dryer Phone Lady: Okay, we will fix it for you!

Many days later...

Dryer Repair Man:  I hear some shit is wrong with your dryer.

Angela: Yes.

Dryer Repair Man:  I will fix your shit.

Angela: ...

Dryer Repair Man: ...

Dryer Repair Man: I do not have the appropriate shit to fix your dryer.  Will order it!

Angela:  ...

Many days later...

Dryer Repair Man: Hello, I am here to fix your dryer with the appropriate dryer shit!

Angela:  Good.

Dryer Repair Man: ...

Angela: ...

Dryer Repair Man: I do not have the appropriate shit to fix your dryer.  Again.  In the meantime, here is some useless dryer shit.

Angela:  ...

MEANWHILE!

Upstairs air conditioning ceases to function, Angela moves downstairs.

Angela: Hello, I would like to file a service request for my air conditioner.

Air Conditioner Service People:  Okay, we will have someone contact you!

People Who Are Meant to Contact Me:  It seems we do not exist and you will never again have air conditioning upstairs.  We hope you enjoy the lasting physical benefits of having your own personal 1000 square foot sauna.  We hear you can sweat out lots of toxins that way!

Angela:  *Head Explodes*

Basically, it's hot and all of my clothes stink.  But I am STILL excited about life because of the two following pieces of news.

1)  GLEE karaoke is coming to the Wii!  Yes, it is true!  I wish I could remember the person to whom I said, "Man, wouldn't it be a good idea to have Glee Karaoke instead of Rock Band?" because then I could call that person up and be like "OH MY GOD!  Am Glee prophet!  They totally stole my idea that no one else ever had before me and was definitely not the only next logical marketing step!"  Except I'd probably email them.  Because I don't really make phone calls, except in cases of dryer and air conditioning emergencies.

AND... drumroll please...

2) It seems as though Wicked, the movie, is finally going to happen!  And that it will be the musical version.  I got all excited about this news way back in July of 2008, but now rumblings are surfacing again, and this time they sound much more official.

"The hugely successful musical "Wicked" is on its way to becoming a feature film, and that news has already attracted the interest of several high-profile directors.

Although the project is in its very early stages of development, "Glee" co-creator Ryan Murphy and "Star Trek" and "Alias" helmer J.J. Abrams have already expressed interest. So have Rob Marshall ("Chicago," "Nine") and James Mangold ("Knight and Day", "Walk the Line")."
from Zap2News&Buzz

I think either Ryan Murphy or Rob Marshall could do an amazing job directing, but what do we think about casting?  In years past, I would have loved to have seen Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth reprise their roles as Elphaba and Glinda respectively, but sad as it is to say, I think they're too old for the parts now.  They have to play teenagers convincingly for a good portion of the story, and it just wouldn't work for me.

Elphaba is easy in my opinion, especially if Ryan Murphy really does end up attached.  Lea Michele has the pipes, the acting ability, and the quirky look that the role calls for.  But what about Glinda?  I honestly can't think of a single person who could play her sympathetically and pull off the operatic segments, and I absolutely hate the thought of dubbing.  I think this part calls for an unknown, much like Emmy Rossum in Phantom of the Opera (but NOT Emmy!).  As for Fiyero, this may be controversial, but I really like the idea of Corbin Bleu.  He's grown up into a handsome, talented young man who would bring with him a huge fan base from High School Musical.

Any other Wicked fans out there?  Who would you cast as Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero?

30 Before 30

Age is a funny thing.  I've finally reached that place in my life that I absolutely could not fathom when I was a child.  You know, the one where birthdays are just another day.  Sure, I get excited about presents--WHO DOESN'T?!?--but I just don't get that worked up over parties and adding yet another year to the roster.  That said, I'm also not quite at the place where I'm terribly anxious about getting older.  I think it's safe to say that I'm mostly just apathetic about the whole thing.

There does, however, something seems a bit magical about the year that you turn 30.  I expect everyone goes through some sort of secret initiation into adulthood where they are handed the manual to life and finally understand what they're meant to do with their time here on earth.  If that doesn't happen, just don't make me know it.  But then, I got awfully excited about turning 13, 16, 18 and 21, and to be perfectly honest, nothing very magical happened then, and probably nothing very out of the ordinary is going to happen when I turn 30.

Still, I know an awful lot of people who have stared down the barrel of the big 3-0 over the past couple of years, and as okay as they seem about it on the surface, every now and then I detect a glimmer of sorts in their eye or pick up on a certain tone as they discuss the big day.  I don't know what they're thinking when they look back on their 30 years on this planet and take stock of where they are in their life, but I know that when I get there, I want to look back over the years and think "yeah, that's just about right."

In that spirit, I've done some soul searching and come up with a list.  A list of things that I think in 2 years and 5 months, 30-year-old Angela will be able to look back upon and say, "yeah, that's just about right."  Not because my life is ending, or even because any particular "new phase" is beginning, just because for once in my life, I want to reach a completely personal individual milestone and have it really mean something.

Some of these are long-term goals, some can be taken care of in a weekend.  Some are entirely frivolous, and others have very deep, spiritual meaning.  But all are things that in my heart of hearts, I really want to happen.  Over the next few years, I'll go into more detail on each item of the list, and cross things off as I accomplish them, but for now, here is my list of 30 life events that I will attempt to complete by December 20th, 2012.

1)   Learn to speak French--at least enough for basic conversation.

2)   Climb to the top of the Eiffel tower, eat macarons at the Laduree on Rue Royale, stroll through the Louvre, see the water lilies at Giverny. (In short—go to France.)

3)   Travel to at least five new countries. (Top choices of the moment include Spain, France, Greece, Egypt, and Germany, but these are negotiable.)

4)   Ride in a hot air balloon.

5)   Run a 10K.

6)   Complete my Masters degree.

7)   Have another story or article published.

8)   Read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

9)   Finish writing a novel.

10) Suck the head. No, not like THAT! Like this.

11) Place a bet in Sin City.

12) Go to the Kentucky Derby.

13) Geaux to an LSU football game.

14) Volunteer.

15) Organize all of our digital photos in scrapbooks or albums.

16) Learn how to sew and make a piece of clothing that I’m proud to wear in public.

17) Toast with a glass of Dom Perignon.

18) Read the entire Bible, cover to cover, without skipping the boring bits.

19) Go to the Guggenheim.

20) Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

21) Get a second piercing on my ears.

22) Finish all of the books in the top 100 of the Greatest Books List that I haven’t already read. (Will do an additional list tracking these.)

23) Go to a Starbucks drive through and pay for the order for the car behind me.

24) Learn to make my mom’s spaghetti sauce so that it actually tastes like my mom’s spaghetti sauce.

25) Attempt surfing. Not the net—the waves!

26) Do a cleanse, maybe this one?

27) Take a cooking class.

28) Buy a bike and relearn how to ride it.

29) Take a spinning class 3 times a week for at least one month.

30) Have a baby.

I actually find myself shaking a bit and trying to quell the butterflies in my stomach as I prepare to share this list with the world.  But I look forward to seeing where the next few years take me, and sharing my experiences with you all.

Have you ever set a list of goals for yourself to accomplish by a certain age or time in your life?

Kyoto: Owari

Owari is Japanese for "the end".  Yeah, I speak Japanese now.  It was super easy to learn.  You just have to wave your hands around and point a lot.  And we're almost through with this epic trip recap!!

Fushimi Inari Shrine (I hate how Typepad washes photos out--this was actually a beautiful vibrant orange.)

After our late night of geisha-hunting, it was a struggle to drag ourselves out of bed the next day, and even more trying when we realized that it was a grey, misty morning.  We'd actually been incredibly lucky with the weather.  June is a time of year called, tsuyu, which means the rainy season.  Typically, it's incredibly hot and rainy every day, so we were fortunate that we had quite sunny skies almost every day.  Of course, the weather waited for the site-seeing adventure I was most excited about to rain on my parade.

We met Stephanie at the ryokan, then met our walking tour buddy, Michael, at the Starbucks across from Kyoto Station, then mutually decided to go ahead and brave the rain and head to the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  This is a beautiful and striking site that is most famous for the thousands of bright orange torii gates that wind up the mountain side with multiple temples and shrines along the way.  It is also famous for being the orange tunnel through which Chiyo runs as a little girl in Memoirs of a Geisha.  When we were there, it could more closely be likened to waterboarding.

It was a misting rain while we made our way to Inari, but by the time we got off the train, water was dumping from the heavens at an alarming capacity, and there was a rumble of thunder in the distance.  I made it about 100 yards into the tunnel, just enough to get the gist of things, then wussed out and headed to the shops to buy an umbrella and souvenirs.  I may or may not have had another little cry also.

Once we'd decided we'd had enough torment for the morning, we hauled our soggy butts back to the train and hunkered down at Kyoto Station to wait out the storm.  Don't feel too sorry for us though, because Kyoto Station is AMAZING!!  It is essentially a train station, restaurant central, and a massive mall all rolled into one strikingly futuristic 11-story building.  After lunch, Nicole and I found an incredible stationery shop where we were able to invest a good sum of money into paper products, and then, of course, we had to hit up the Cafe Du Monde on Bourbon Street (sure, why not), for some beignets.  I don't think I'll ever NOT think that Cafe Du Monde in Japan is the height of hilarity.

When the rain seemed to have let up a bit, we took a surprisingly successful cab ride over to Nijojo Castle, home to the Shogun when they were in power, to tour something aside from a religious structure.  It was a fairly interesting castle, definitely miles different from the massive European structures I'm used to, but the beautiful gardens were my favorite part.  Of course, the skies opened up while we were walking outside, so our enthusiasm was... dampened.  Yeah, I said it.

 

Despite the rain, we checked the map and decided that we were close enough to our hotel that we didn't need to waste money on a cab... an hour later, we made it there.  Sigh.  Oh, Japan.  We met Stephanie for dinner for the last time, then waved a sad goodbye to our travel buddy before catching the speedy train back to Tokyo for the night.  We had big plans to head to Harajuku for our final day in Tokyo, but of course, Japan and a lack of coin lockers in the train station conspired against us, and we ended up spending the day shopping at the airport instead.  Whatever, we saw enough crazy-ass fashion statements all over the rest of Japan, so I guess it wasn't a huge sartorial loss.

And y'all, that's it.  That was Japan.  I've tried to be as honest as possible in describing how I felt about the country, but I hope that doesn't stop you from traveling there yourself someday.  As much as I would never put it in my top five places to visit, I have absolutely no regrets about going.  I saw some truly beautiful sites that simply cannot compare to anything I've ever seen before, and even more meaningful to me, I met some awesome people.  Travel really isn't about what castles you tour and what temples you see, it's about the experiences you have from day to day.  And I can say, with no reservations, that Japan held some of the most fascinating and exotic experiences of my life and for that I say, arigatou gozaimasu.

Housekeeping and a Design Challenge

Oh my gosh, you guys!  I have made it so much easier for you to stalk me!  The other night, I was sitting in my pajamas, drinking a glass of wine, and trying desperately to get into a kind of boring book.  As generally happens, I somehow found myself on the internet.  But then!  A terrible thing happened!

I had no unread email.

No one had updated Facebook for almost an HOUR.

GoogleReader was completely empty.

What is a girl to do in a situation as dreadful as all that!?  Well, start a Twitter account.  Obviously.

I had a Twitter account that I broke up with about a year and a half ago, so it's not like I'm totally new to this ballgame.  But I am starting from scratch as far as followers and people to follow, and I hope to I never find myself in as nightmarish a situation as I was on the Night of the Dead Social Networking Websites.  So far I have Tweeted about wine, Gandhi, Jodi Picoult, and my dog taking a poo in the herb garden.  You can find me tweeting my heart out here.

Also, I have caved to the future of social networking and got myself a Facebook page--not for me, for the website.  If you find that you can't get enough of me here, we can now be linked eternally through the magic of Facebook!  You can click "like" over there on that little box in the sidebar, or go here and "like" me directly through Facebook.  I'm not sure what you get out of this, or even what I get out of this, but it makes me do a little happy dance whenever I see a new face over there.  And DON'T YOU WANT ME TO BE HAPPY?!?  Tangentially related, I really want to see that Facebook movie.  It seems like a surprising amount of drug, sex, and alcohol have gone into its creation.  Facebook, not the movie.

Though, I'm sure the movie too.

And FINALLY.  I'm in the market for someone to overhaul my site design, and in exchange for this service, I will pay them US dollars.  Does anyone have recommendations for someone who does work that is reasonably priced, simple, elegant, and doesn't involve any cartoon characters or pin-up girls?  Nothing wrong with cartoon characters and pin-up girls, I just want something different, and that seems to be the design trend lately, so it's in all of the portfolios.  I found this seller on Etsy who seems to have a pretty good deal running, but I'm open to suggestions as well.

I hope y'all are having an amazing weekend.  I am actually planning to leave the house this afternoon and interact with live humans, so I'm pretty excited about that.  Here's hoping your day is equally as thrilling!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

If there's one thing I love, it's answering internet surveys.  If there's another thing, it's stumbling upon a bustling hive of like-minded, intelligent individuals with whom I share a common bond.  Over the past few days, I have discovered an absolute treasure trove of blogs written by fellow military spouses.  Obviously, I didn't think I was the only one out here spewing my nonsense into the ether, but I really had no idea how many other ladies are out there writing about their lives as dependents of our great, and often times infuriating, United States military.

In an effort to connect with these bloggers, I'm participating for the first time in the MilSpouse Friday Fill-in hosted by Wifey over at Wife of a Sailor.  I haven't been reading her for long, but it appears that she is not only a spouse, but also a member of the military herself.  A girl after my own heart!  So, without further ado, here are five things you didn't even realize you were dying to know about me.

1) What food reminds you of your spouse?
Bizarrely enough, both to you and probably to him, duck.  Not because he eats it often or even regularly, but because on our very first super-swanky dinner date to Maison Lacour approximately 5000 years ago, he ordered duck with a raspberry glaze, and I was starry-eyed at the thought of how positively cosmopolitan such an entree choice was.  Since then, every time I see duck on a menu, I think of Colby.  And AFLAC.

2) Who would you rather sit next to in a cross-country plane ride: an irritating non-stop talker, or a quiet stare-er?
Well, assuming the stare-er is staring out the window, that one.  I'm not much of one for chatting to strangers on airplanes.  I'm pretty easily creeped out by people, and I don't like the thought of being trapped beside someone for hours on end one way or another, particularly if they have already creeped me out.  I generally read on airplanes.  And politely ignore everyone around me.

3) What are your best tips on how to save money?
HA!  Hahahaha... HA!  Um, my best tip would be to cancel your internet service and throw away your mobile devices, thereby eliminating the potential for late-night, early-morning and/or mid-day online shopping sprees.  Also, don't buy a house.  Trust me on that one in particular.

4) What is your favorite summer memory?
Generally speaking, summer vacations with my family.  We always road-tripped it everywhere we went, and we visited some really amazing places from coast to coast.  A more specific memory, my summer abroad in Ireland when I was 18, where I met two of my closest friends and fell madly in love with Dublin.

5) Do you believe in ghosts?
I do, and I've even written about it before in a series of Thriller Thursday posts (oh my God, I just reread them and now I've totally gone and freaked myself out).  I truly believe that I have experienced visits from spirits or ghosts or whatever you want to call them, and I believe there is far too much evidence to the contrary to think that they don't exist.  I try to live my life by one tenet, and that is: If Fox Mulder says it can happen, it can happen.

The Pied Pipers of Kyoto

So, have I mentioned the part about how Japan is, like, really effing impossible to navigate?  I'm not sure I've driven that point home yet, so here, let me really emphasize the fact that JAPAN IS IMPOSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE.  And Japan will make you cry at at least one point.  And Japan will make you extremely grateful for the fact that your friend still puts up with you even after an epic hour-long pouting episode.

Still riding high on the rush of meeting a Real Live Geisha, Nicole and I recruited our new-found pal Stephanie to help us move from the peaceful relaxation of the ryokan to the always charming Super Hotel.  (Sarcasm.)  Our initial plan was to take a cab, but armed with some rather vague directions from our hostess and an even vaguer map drawing we set forth into the night to make the "easy seven minute walk" to the hotel.  I'm sure you see where this is going.  A set of directions from a non-English speaking restaurant host, directions gleaned from a group of business-suit-wearing iPad-toting Japanese men, directions from a shop girl, directions from another restaurant hostess, a failed cab ride, and over an hour later, we finally made it to the Super Hotel.  We slept really well that night.

L: Higashi Hoganji Temple, R: Surprisingly modern interior of the temple office

L: Artisans creating fans at the Kyosendo fan shop, R: The finished product

The next morning we got up bright and early for Johnnie Hillwalkers Walking Tour of Kyoto.  We spent about six hours walking at the pace of a lame tortoise, visiting temples including the Higashi-Hoganji Temple, an Inari shrine, a load of Kyoto craft shops including fan makers, prayer bead stringers, altar builders, and candy makers, and learned a lot of facts about Kyoto that were eventually debunked.  But Johnnie was adorable, so all misinformation has been forgiven.

We also got to sample some of the candy--a version of a rice cake with a bean paste filling--and vegetarian sushi that was surprisingly delicious.  We were instructed to be very careful not to drop our rice on the ground as we were in front of a Japanese public bath.  So of course, right before my final bite, rice exploded all over the ground.  Leave it to me to cause the most mundane international scandal imaginable.  See me next week on Locked Up Abroad: The Boring Edition.  We walked past the main geisha headquarters and a charmingly checkered tea house, fueling my geisha obsession further, and got to visit a charming cemetery.  Yes, really, it was charming!  See above:  Charming cemetery and adorable tour guide.  (I should also point out that it was approximately 4000 degrees with 200% humidity, and everyone in Japan dressed as though they were prepared for a Siberian winter.  Mystifying.)

While we were on the tour, we met another travel buddy whom we added to our ever growing collection, as well as a lovely lady from Amsterdam who joined us for lunch.  We invited our travel buddy to join us and Stephanie the next morning for a day trip to Fushimi Inari, and he accepted, so our threesome became a foursome.  After the walking tour, I was completely worn down, and we began making our way back to the hotel for a rest before meeting Stephanie for dinner.  But then I was distracted by a sight which had not passed before my eyes for almost an entire week.  An alarmingly good looking Japanese man!  And it just so happened that he was a calligrapher.  And it just so happened that I was in the market for calligraphy.  It was a match made in heaven, and Colby should be thanking his lucky stars that I didn't ditch him for a life of artistic abandon.  If you are single and considering a move to Japan, I recommend contacting this man and marrying him.  I'll send a lovely gift.

Yasaka Shrine

My day steadily improved from that point onward.  After dinner Nicole, Stephanie and I decided to stroll around Gion for a bit in search of dessert.  We ended up in a wine bar, where we added four friendly Russians to our posse, and then headed back out into the night.  As we were walking down Hanamichi, we passed a shiny black car with its motor running.  It was parked in front of a dark nondescript house, with just a red lantern and a curtain to distinguish it from any of the other buildings on the street.  Just as I began to look away, the curtain fluttered ever so slightly and I caught a flash of white.  Then the musical sound of laughter floated out into the night air.  I froze in my tracks and grabbed Nicole's arm, stabbing the air with a finger in the direction of the curtain and hissed one word:  "GEISHA!!!"  Yes, my friends, in search of chocolate and sake, we stumbled into the heart of the geisha district, and there was great hunting to be had.  Heartbreakingly, my camera battery had died when we stopped by the Yasaka Shrine (Oh, did I mention that?  Yeah, we saw another shrine.), but I've requested that Stephanie email me her photos when she downloads them, so you'd better believe I will share them with you as soon as I get them.  We scoured the streets, running up and down alleys, lurking outside doors, peeking behind curtains, and saw about 20 geisha or maiko over the course of the evening.  Next to actually meeting a geisha, that night was by far the highlight of the trip for me.

If we had known what was good for us, we would have quit while we were ahead, but there were still two more days to go, and we had such high hopes for our Japan finale.  But you know what they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans--that pithy little phrase works equally as well for Japan.  Stay tuned for the final installment!

An Unexpected Twist

It's a strange feeling to take a pregnancy test knowing that you're going to cry regardless of the outcome.  There's some reassurance in the knowledge that at least one result will allow you to drink an entire bottle of wine by yourself, on the sofa, while watching the final episode of The Hills (which you stopped watched years ago, but were relentlessly sucked back into during an epic weekend marathon on MTV).

Colby and I decided a few months ago that when he gets home from his deployment in November, we're going to start trying for our own tiny human.  I mean, someone's going to have to foot the bill for the nursing home in 50 years.  At first, it was supposed to be this big secret, but I've heard him tell about nine hundred people, so whatever, I'm telling the internet now.  It was a decision at which we both arrived with a surprising amount of ease and accord as we agreed, when we got married, that we would wait until Colby's next (as in after the current) assignment to even start thinking about kids.

Then all of our fertile myrtle friends started having the cutest damn babies, and when I saw him making goo goo eyes at one of the toddlers in our circle of friends (yes, some of my closest friends are toddlers), I knew it was all over.  Then my biological clock exploded in a mass of cogs and springs.  Still, I had absolutely no desire to be pregnant for my first time while Colby spent 4 months deployed to the mouth of Hell, and we had already made big plans for a Mediterranean cruise this winter, so we decided to wait until post-deployment to start trying.

It makes sense for a lot of reasons.  Use your imagination.

Fast-forward to late June: Colby deploys, I go to Japan, and suddenly my lady cycle goes batshit insane.  Then for the past few days I've experienced a near constant state of nausea, splitting headaches, utter exhaustion, and most of my nights are spent waking up every couple of hours to pee.  If that doesn't sound like textbook pregnant lady, I don't know what does.  Except I know it's not possible.  Except, seriously, what the hell?

Enter EPT.

I really didn't want a positive result.  That's what I kept telling myself--keep telling myself.  The timing would be beyond awful.  I'm still not completely resigned to this whole pregnancy experience.  How on earth would I find an obnoxiously cute way to tell Colby I'm knocked up when he's thousands of miles away?  Oh God, I don't want to get fat.

And yet...

Still, it was negative.  I have a couple more tests I could take, but I feel pretty confident in the result.  And I feel sad.  Which is stupid, because I really honestly don't want to be pregnant right now.

And yet...

Guess I'll go find that corkscrew now.

Kyoto: Part Ichi

Since I began my Tokyo recaps with a pretty scathing review of Japan, I feel like it's only fair to begin my Kyoto recaps with a little more love for the country.  As much as I really never, ever want to return to Tokyo, I can envision myself going back to Kyoto during cherry blossom season and staying in a charming ryokan and really quite enjoying myself.  I think most of our frustration with Kyoto stemmed from the latent frustration we still felt from Tokyo, because it really was quite a lovely place.

I've already mentioned how kind the Japanese people were to us, but we were also so impressed by the care they took in every action they undertook.  We frequently felt like giant ogres smashing through their delicate country--shops were beautifully designed and laid out, flowers blossomed as though they were cultivated by magical gardening fairies, tea was prepared and served with such graciousness, almost all of our purchases were lovingly wrapped in lovely paper and tied with ribbons then placed in a bag and presented with a thankful bow.  It really is a beautiful country that has managed to retain so much of its unique and historic culture, even as they embrace modernization.

We left Tokyo early in the morning of June 30th and began the 3 hour journey toward Kyoto.  As tiny as everything else in Japan was, the trains were pretty universally spacious and incredibly clean.  When we got to Kyoto, we decided that based on our track record of getting where we wanted to go in Tokyo, we'd just get a cab to our ryokan.  Well... as much as tourists and locals don't know their way around cities, apparently, neither do the cab drivers.  Every time we attempted to get a cab to our ryokan, the cab drivers became dramatically flustered, stabbed at their GPS systems in desperation, and one time we just got out of the cab in the middle of the street and walked the rest of they way.  It was... ridiculous.

I'm going to pretty much photobomb you with pictures of our ryokan because it was by far, my most treasured experience of the trip.  For the most part, we planned all of our hotel stays on a pretty strict budget, but we decided to splurge for one night because we had heard that staying in a ryokan is such an essential experience.  It is basically a Japanese bed and breakfast, but if you stay at the right one, your hostess's mission for your entire stay is to make you feel like a queen or king.

Left: Our room set up for day time, Right: Our futons laid out for the night.

At the Shiraume Ryokan, we were greeted with cold green tea and cookies, our hostess sat with us and a map for about 30 minutes pointing out places we should visit and how to get there, we had tea and sweets again when we returned from our touring for the day, we had our own private garden, our room magically transitioned from night to day while we were out to dinner, and we just generally felt like the most important people in Kyoto.  Our hostess was stunningly beautiful and perfectly serene, and it seems as though her dinner room is one of the most premier places to be in the evenings as one evening a geisha was upstairs entertaining guests, and another evening the mayor and his aide were there for dinner.  It was a fantastic experience, and I'd highly recommend it if you are ever in Kyoto.

L: Nazen-ji Temple Sanmon Gate, R: Nazen-ji Temple

L: Interior of Nazen-ji Temple, R: Hojo (Abbot's Quarters) "Leaping Tigers" zen rock garden

We began our tourist experience in Kyoto with a walk out to the Nazen-ji Temple.  As we were staying in the Gion prefecture, we were pretty centrally located for most of the temples and some great shopping.  We were also in the geisha district, so we were constantly on high alert for that elusive white-painted face.  With a stop for lunch and plenty of window shopping along the way, it took a little over an hour to get to the temple, and then we spent an leisurely afternoon there, sitting in shady locations, strolling through a peaceful rock garden, sitting in more shady locations, and just enjoying the quiet that had been so hard to find in Tokyo.

We found plenty of shops along the way back to the ryokan where we were able to stock up on souvenirs for ourselves and others, then we took some time to relax and cool off in our room with air conditioning and tea before we headed out to Pontocho Alley for a wander and then dinner.

We began the next morning with a rare experience--A WESTERN BREAKFAST!!!  After inhaling several days worth of calories in fruit, eggs, sausage, bread and English tea, we set off for a day in Nara.  We met a great girl at breakfast that morning who was traveling alone, so we invited her along for the ride, and our twosome became a threesome... but not like that.  Nara was fabulous, but oh my heck, there was a ton of walking that day.  We were sadly uninformed about the fact that there was a shuttle bus from the station out to the Nara Park area, so instead we walked the nine million miles there and back. First we hit up the Kofukuji Temple and Five-Story Pagoda.

 

Two of the most entertaining experiences of the day involved ice cream and Japanese school children.  While we were taking our last photos of the Kofukuji Temple, we were approached by a hoard of Japanese children holding yellow notebooks.  As they giggled and shoved one another forward, two of the girls took the lead in asking if they could practice their English on us.  They mostly talked to our friend Stephanie, as Nicole and I chatted haltingly with a couple of the kids who were hanging back.  They had a list of questions about where we were from, what we had done in Japan, etc and they transcribed our answers very carefully before moving onto the next one.  We hung out with them for about 15 minutes and then we kept seeing them all over Nara for the rest of the day, and each time we'd all squeal and wave.  Now I not only want an Asian baby, I want an Asian teenager.  The other big excitement was trying out some green tea ice cream.  Less adorable than the 7th graders, but interesting nonetheless.

We wrapped up our time in Nara by hauling ourselves out to the Kasuga Shrine and the Todaiji Temple to see the great Buddha.  It was around this point that I began experiencing extreme temple exhaustion.  The same thing tends to happen when I'm in Europe with the cathedrals, but I honestly felt like if I saw another temple, I was going to scream.

Fortunately, we did have some distraction in the shape of the hallowed Nara Park deer.  There are about 1200-1300 of these deer scattered all around Nara Park, and they are carefully protected as it is believed in the Shinto faith that they are messengers of the gods.  Those were the most fearless deer I have ever seen.  They would brazenly walk up to any person who happened to be holding food--or not in some cases--and we even saw a couple of them going after clothing.  It was pretty funny, but I still opted to keep my distance.

Then, the absolute highlight of the day... when we returned to the ryokan to retrieve our luggage and move on to our next hotel, we had the absolute joy and pleasure of meeting a geisha.  It's not uncommon to see them on the streets in the evening as they make their way from one appointment to the next, but the geisha try to keep their distance from us mere mortals, so this was quite an honor.  As I mentioned earlier, she was entertaining at a dinner upstairs in our ryokan, and our hostess knew how interested we were in the geisha culture, so she brought her down for an introduction.  And once again, we got to feel like enormous ogres as she carefully arranged her kimono and we hulked over her for the photo op.  But it was so worth it, and from that point on, I was completely smitten with the geisha.

That wraps up the first half of our time in Kyoto, but please do return for the next installment, or deal with the wrath of...

GAIJIN SMASH!!!!

Who Should I Be Reading?

I'm going to wrap up my time in Japan early next week, but I wanted to spend the weekend asking y'all for a little help.  You see, I've recently updated my blog roll and noticed that a majority of the blogs I've been reading for years either no longer exist or are only updated every few weeks or even months.  I think I only read about fifteen blogs that update on a regular basis, which I guess is to be expected as I've been doing this blogging thing for almost six years now and there are sure to be blog casualties in that amount of time!

I've gone through some of your blog rolls to find new reads, and am running into a similar problem there, finding mostly dead links, defunct blogs, or the most recent update from some time in May or June.  The 20 Something Bloggers group has just gotten overwhelmingly huge, and I can't even begin to filter through all of the blogs there.  And yet, I know that there are some great blogs out there that I just don't know about--and I want to find them!

So, this is where you come in--please, please cheddar cheese with a cherry on top, recommend a couple of your favorite blogs to me!  I'm not too interested in the super-bloggers, but I have a weakness for funny, intelligent bloggers with a focus on travel, writing, work, raising a family or just day-to-day life.  I'm not totally writing them off, but college students do tend to make me feel older than dirt...

I'm looking forward to checking out your suggestions, and if you're a lurker (I know you're out there!), by all means, show yourself--I'd love to check out your blog too if you have one!

Shoes and Other Things

I'm going to take a little break from the trip report today and talk about some things that are either only tangentially related or--gasp!--unrelated at all to Japan!

First up, I have a couple of shoe recommendations for you.  Recommendations as in, if you are going on a vacation that involves great amounts of walking and still desire to wear somewhat attractive shoes, listen up, ya hear!  I've worn and reviewed some moderately comfortable, yet definitely cute, shoes in the past, but I think I have finally hit the jackpot on vacation shoes.

Lands' End Classic Ballet Shoe

I have never worn such a comfortable ballet flat.  I don't know why these are so ridiculously comfortable--is it the soft leather, the cushy insole (yes, I added a Dr. Scholl's insole for extra shock absorption), the rubbery traction on the sole that prevented me from slipping and sliding all over Japan?  I don't know, but I walked miles in these shoes and suffered no more than the expected slight discomfort that comes from pounding the pavement for hours in any pair of shoes.  Incredible.

Skechers Active Bikers Straightaway

If you're in the market for something a little more sporty, yet sleeker than the typical tennis shoe, you can't go wrong with this offering from Skechers.  I don't love the look of traditional tennis shoes with shorts because I'm already a little sensitive about the size of my feet.  I felt like these actually made my feet look smaller, and they were like walking on a cloud.  I do recommend breaking them in for a couple of days as I got a small blister on the inside of my arches just from wearing them without socks, but it was nothing a band-aid couldn't handle.  I was so happy with my shoe choices, and between the ballet flat and the sportier Skechers, I felt like I had a shoe to wear with pretty much anything.

In other news, I've been having a tough time adjusting back to life on Eastern Standard Time.  I've never really experienced more than the most minor of jet lag on the first day arriving in a new country, and part of that has always just been travel exhaustion.  But I'm going on day four of being back home, and I'm still not on a normal schedule.  On Tuesday, I passed out doing homework at 3 pm and woke up from a dead sleep at 9 pm.  Yesterday, I fell asleep watching tv around 7:30 pm, woke up at 10:00 to feed the dogs, and then couldn't sleep past 6:00 this morning.  My big exciting goal for today is to stay awake until at least 10 pm and hopefully sleep through the night.

Of course, it might be helpful if I could actually sleep upstairs in my bed, but our upstairs air conditioning decided to die on us the night before I left for Japan and it hasn't been repaired yet.  With our weather lately, this means that upstairs is generally around 85-90 degrees even in the middle of the night.  So, I've been sleeping downstairs on the sofa where the air conditioning is in perfect working order and the sun is streaming viciously through the window by about 6:30 in the morning.

Finally, I am two weeks into my LAST MASTERS CLASS!!!  This means that unless I have some other surprise awaiting me from Grand Canyon University, I should be masters complete in exactly 6 weeks.  I cannot tell you what an amazing feeling that is, compounded by the fact that this class seems like it'll be a breeze.  Senioritis has set in in a major way.

Thanks so much to everyone who's been kind enough to welcome me back, and I hope you've been enjoying my Japan recollections.  I know reading epic trip journals isn't everyone's cup of tea, so please don't give up on me, just a few more to go and it'll be back to my usual blathering!

Tokyo Part Ni

When we last left our brave heroine, she had just gone to bed after her first full day in Tokyo.  We set our alarm for 7:30 the next morning, and things began poorly when the alarm didn't actually go off and we woke up around 8:30.  No biggie since we didn't have anything scheduled for the day, but we were starting off later than expected which was not such good news for all of our plans.

In front of the Tokyo SkyTree that is still in the process of being built.  It's gonna be freaking tall.

We decided to shuffle things around in an attempt to still fit everything in, and headed to Asakusa to go to the Hotel Okura for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.  Except that the Hotel Okura isn't in Asakusa.  First mistake.  We'll take the blame for that one.  At this point it was already around 11, so we decided to reshuffle our plans and start the day with the Sumida River boat cruise from Asakusa to the Hama Rikyu Gardens.  That's all well and good except that our tour books only explained how to get to the boat tour going from the gardens to Asakusa.  We found a street map that seemed to indicate where the cruise began, so we just made our way down to the river and hunted for any signs of a cruise.

We did eventually find it, and boarded for the 40 minute ride through downtown Tokyo.  It was a nice way to see the city, and even nicer to have 40 whole minutes of not trying to figure out where we were going.  By the time we made it to the gardens, it was close to one o'clock, and we were starving, having only been able to find some pretty bad coffee shop pastries that morning, but we were still trying to make the tea ceremony before they closed for the day, so we strolled through the garden and then began our hunt.

And we hunted, hunted, and hunted.  We still don't know how it happened, and would love to place the blame on the map, but we later discovered that all of that walking and searching we did was in the wrong direction.

Tip #1:  BRING A COMPASS!!!  There are tons of maps of the city at train stations and in hotels, but the vast majority of them give you no indication of which way is north.  It's possible to orient yourself using landmarks or street names if you can find a damn street sign, but it's a rare day in Tokyo when you can figure out what street you're on.  Our little compass saved us much heartache when we actually remembered to bring it with us.

A lovely girl in traditional garb who was kind enough to be strolling through the Hama Rikyu garden at the same time as us.

Finally, virtually ready to pass out from starvation and exhaustion, we cried uncle around 3:30 and ducked into yet another coffee shop just to put something into our stomachs.  While we were there, we had our first experience with the friendliness of the Japanese.  While Nicole was in the bathroom, I was consulting my guidebook in the hopes that it would suddenly and magically provide some sort of helpful directions, and an adorable older Japanese gentleman struck up a conversation with me.  We ended up chatting with him and his wife for over 30 minutes, and when they found out that we were heading to Roppongi for the evening, they insisted on walking us to the train station. 

View of the Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills.  You can see that tower from everywhere!

And then, once we got to the station, they realized they had brought us to the wrong one!!  Even lifelong residents of the city can't get around!  They consulted the station map and we checked our metro book and we discovered that we could still make a connection and get where we needed to go.  They went to our first stop with us, got us on the correct train and then we parted ways.  It was a really lovely moment in a pretty crap day!

Roppongi Hills is a giant shopping, office, restaurant, museum complex in Roppongi that we were interested in checking out for its shopping.  It ended up being a pretty swanky joint, so we mostly window shopped, but I was able to find a few little souvenir items.  Once we had wandered for a while, we went to Paddy Foley's for dinner.  It was one of the most recommended restaurants between our friends and guide books, and it was pretty tasty, though much quieter than we'd expected.  In what became the trend for the trip, we were utterly exhausted after dinner around 9, and just decided to make our way back to the hotel to crash.

The next morning, we called the Hotel Okura and got very specific walking directions from the subway stop we were planning to use.  Once we exited into the sunshine from the depths of Tokyo, we began the hunt.  And once more hunted, and hunted and hunted.  We really, really wanted to do that stupid tea ceremony, or we would have given up much earlier.  Instead, we pulled over to the side of the walkway, pulled out our compass, all of our maps and began searching for street names.  When that didn't work, we attempted to match up the street shapes on our map that had the Hotel Okura marked with a map that we recognized where we were on it.  At this point, we realized that they had told us to turn right at the big building (you know, the ONE big building in Tokyo), when we should have turned left.

  So, we packed up our navigation tools, and began to trudge in the opposite direction.  And we hunted and hunted and hunted.  We pulled over once more once we hit the end of the next street, and I think sensing our utter confusion and desperation, and nice policeman approached us, and at last pointed us in the correct direction.

 

Once we got there, it all ended up being so worth it.  The tea ceremony room was cool and quiet.  Our hostess was gentle and serene.  The sound of trickling water and the view of the Japanese rooftop garden, soothed the angry beast that had taken up residence in my body.  The ceremony was a beautiful and soothing experience, each action and subtle movement loaded with meaning.  We experienced two ceremonies, the first a very old and traditional one including Japanese sweets and matcha--a thick, whisked powdered green tea drunk from a bowl--and the second a more relaxed experience on a tatami mat floored tea room with a steeped green tea.

Tokyo National Museum

Torii gates leading to a shrine in Ueno Park.

Once the ceremony was over, we made our way to Ueno Park to spend the afternoon in the Tokyo National Museum.  I highly recommend this museum--there was a fair amount of explanation in English and it gave a very good overview of Japanese history, religion, art, culture and more.  It was a really beautiful museum in a lovely park setting.

After the museum, we strolled through the garden, checking out a few of the shrines along the way.  When dusk started to fall, we noticed a number of homeless people were setting up a tent city amongst the trees of the park.  Up until this point, we had actually noted the lack of homeless people and beggars on the street.  It seems as though a lot of them take up residence in Ueno Park at night though.  It makes me curious about what the city does with these folks as you rarely see them during the day, and it didn't seem like there were all that many of them in the park.

For dinner we headed to Ebisu, to the really lovely Yebisu Place Garden.  This was another complex similar to Roppongi Hills, except instead of tall skyscrapers, there were a number of charming buildings spread out around various squares and gardens.  We ate at a surprisingly delicious Italian restaurant and then went back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our very early morning departure to Kyoto the next day.

Oh, Tokyo...

Here is my number one travel tip for Tokyo: Don't go to Tokyo.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Not really.

I don't know, I just didn't fall in love with Tokyo.  In fact, I have never fallen so not in love with a city.  Probably the closest experience I've had to this was Rome, but I was so in love with all of the history and sights to see that I was able to get past my initial dislike.  I never really got over it with Tokyo, and was so glad to see it whooshing into the distance from the train.

I can't even really put my finger on what it was that I didn't like.  Yes, it was a loud, bustling city.  But so is New York, and I love it there.  It was incredibly clean, though the lack of garbage cans was mystifying.  The metro was overwhelmingly extensive with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 different lines that all got you where you needed to go with plenty of English language signs--unfortunately, it was rare that you had a clue as to where you needed to go.

There were plenty of sights to see, and yet I didn't feel that we saw very much that made the city special.  There was no awe-inducing moment like standing in the library of Trinity College in Dublin, seeing the Colosseum for the first time in Rome, standing on Tower Green at The Tower of London.  It felt like I could have been in Any City.

One thing that was surprising in a good way was the sheer amount of English spoken and written on signs.  The times when we got miserably and horribly lost had nothing to do with the language and everything to do with the absolutely abysmal address system and horrifically bad maps.  Even lifelong residents of Tokyo have trouble getting around, and asking for directions is an exercise in futility.  There was one day where it felt like we spent the entire day just trying and failing to get somewhere--ANYWHERE.  That was probably the source of most of our frustration and disillusionment with the city.

But as I said in my post yesterday, the people of Japan are just SO NICE.  They may be cursing you behind your back as you walk away, but to your face they are gracious, kind, and frequently amused.  They love any chance to practice their English, which led to a number of Lost in Translation moments based on my very limited knowledge of Japanese and their attempts at English combined with lots of Pointy-Talky.

Anyway, this is all just a preface to my trip report because I don't want to spend the next few posts harping on how much this or that sucked.  As the days pass between then and now, my memories are taking on a much more rosy glow and hopefully I'll grow to remember Tokyo with some sense of fondness.  I did have a wonderful time traveling with my super fantastic friend, Nicole, and if nothing else, I'll always treasure the fact that we got to share in this insane adventure together!

I arrived at Narita airport after a two hour delay in San Francisco that pushed my total travel time to nearly 20 hours.  That is a lot of freaking travel time, so I guess Tokyo and I kind of started off on the wrong foot.  The airport was very easy to navigate and I picked up my train pass and made it to my airport shuttle with no problems.

Tip #1: If you are traveling outside of Tokyo, I highly recommend that you get a JR Pass, if for no other reason than the ease of travel.  Similarly, if you will be in Tokyo for more than a day, get a SUICA card for the metro.  Once we had our train pass, all we had to do was reserve seats on the train we wanted to take and then walk through a manned gate showing our pass.  It was no hassle, and we didn't have to worry about figuring out train fares or buying tickets.  The SUICA is a reloadable card that you can use to ride the metro and even to buy food and drinks from certain vending machines and shops at the metro station.  It requires a 500 yen refundable deposit, and you just add as much money to it as you need.  At the end of your time in Tokyo, you just take it to a travel desk and they give you back any money that is still on your card.  Again, so much easier than figuring out fares and transfers.

I got to the Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel around 8 pm Tokyo time on June 26 after having left my house at 3:30 am Charleston time on June 25.  Once there, I met Nicole and one of her work friends, and we went out to dinner in the Ikebukuro metro station.  The place we picked had vending machines with pictures of all of your different food options.  You inserted your money, pushed the button next to the item you wanted, the machine spit out a ticket and you handed it to a cook.  Is that not just the most Japanese thing ever?  I really had no idea what I was ordering, but it turned out to be some sort of noodle, breaded chicken, and egg concoction. 

On our way back to the hotel, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a Cafe Du Monde?!?  Of course, we had to stop in for beignets, and I was amazed at how big their menu was as compared to the one in New Orleans.  I will say though, New Orleans still wins the prize for most delicious beignets.  The ones in Tokyo were smaller--almost bite sized--and a little tough.  Still, it was a sight for travel weary eyes.

The next day, we woke up early in the morning to pack up and check out of the hotel, then meet our bus for our introductory tour of the city.

Tip #2: Plan as many organized bus and walking tours as possible.  in retrospect, our first day was by far our most successful and enjoyable day in Tokyo.  Because we didn't have to stress about where we were going, and we had a constant narrative as to what we were seeing, we were able to focus on the city and see something other than the inside of a subway car.  It may seem "inauthentic" to some people, but I really felt like that tour was the time when we saw the best side of the city.

After purifying my hands and mouth outside of the Meiji Jingu Shrine.  Yes, I put that water in my mouth.  Yes, I'm still a little afraid of dying from a Japanese parasite.

Wedding procession outside of the shrine.

Our tour took us first to the beautiful Meiji Jingu Shrine where we were lucky enough to see a traditional Japanese wedding procession.  Next was the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, which honestly, I wouldn't waste my time on if they weren't already part of an organized tour.  We did find ice cream there, which made for a delicious though certainly not terribly filling breakfast as we couldn't find a single eating establishment open prior to the tour.

Tip #3: Pack granola bars, or some sort of moderately healthful snack.  And LOTS OF THEM.  For a city filled with restaurants, there were a shocking number of times when we could not find a single thing to eat other than ice cream or candy.  There were plenty of moments where I seriously considered just eating a small child, I was so hungry.

\

Next up we hit Sensoji Temple to see the Thunder Gate and have our fortunes described to us inside the shrine.  Mine was... not good.  At least from what I can tell.  The English translation was loose at best.  Unfortunately, the main temple was completely covered in scaffolding, which was kind of a bummer, but at least the gate and nearby pagoda were impressive on their own.

We also drove through Harajuku and Roppongi, had some time to walk around Asakusa, and finished up the tour in Ginza.  We were meeting some of Nicole's international students for the afternoon in Ikebukuro, so we made our way back to that side of town and met them near the Sunshine City mall.  We hit the ground running with some major shopping and eating (welcome after our bodies had entered starvation mode for the morning) and then went for shabu-shabu at dinner.  Shabu-shabu, is similar to fondue cooking in that you have a large pot of boiling water at your table and you dip very thinly sliced beef and pork into the water to cook it.  There are also large plates of vegetables to add to the water for flavoring, and dipping sauces for the meat.  This was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip, so definitely try it if you get a chance!

Tip #4: Cash is the main method of payment in Japan, and it can make for some frustrating moments as the only place to withdraw money if you have a MasterCard, is the post office.  I believe if you have a Visa, you can use the ATM at 7-11, but there is currently some sort of dispute going on between them and MasterCard, so the post office is it.  Another note on money:  Tipping is not customary, and can actually be a bit embarrassing if pressed.  If your really feel that someone deserves a tip, have a stash of small gifts from home that you can give instead.

East Garden of the Imperial Palace

After dinner, we headed back to our first hotel to get our belongings from storage, and then transferred to the much less swank, yet still perfectly adequate Monterey Sanno.  That was the only night I felt any sort of jet lag as I was barely able to keep my eyes open after dinner.  The next day was when things started to go pear-shaped, so I'm glad I was at least able to get a good night's sleep...

Konnichiwa!

Well, here I am again!  That wasn't too bad, was it?

So, Japan was absolutely incredible.  There were so many moments of intense frustration, and I can honestly say I feel like I got my fill of the country, but there were also so many moments of absolute awe and breathtaking beauty.  The people of Japan are some of the kindest and most thoughtful I have ever met, and I'm going to miss that graciousness.  I have close to 800 photos to go through and so many stories to tell, but for now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my adventures in the land of the rising sun.

Thanks for being so picturesque, swan.

But who needs a swan when you've got a face this gorgeous?

I'm not sure what the story is behind these houseboats on the Sumida River, but I want one.

I did a pretty good job of buying everything in Japan, but I just couldn't fit these lanterns in my suitcase.

Complete this comparison--Shrines:Japan what _____:England

a) Bad Teeth
b) Castles
c) Inbred monarchs
d) All of the above

How cute is he when he makes his scary face?

I've never been a big fan of orange, but it really works here.  I'm thinking of having the house painted like this to surprise Colby!

I don't know what these say, but they look pretty.

So, to recap, some moments like this:

But many more like this: