Love and Dentist in the Same Sentence

After a five year hiatus, I went to the dentist today. Seeing as Koji is well past four and hasn't ever been, I took him along for his first appointment. I really didn't know what it would be like as there are always horror stories about little kids at the dentist's office. Not to worry, Koji had a grand time and even asked me tonight before he went to bed if he can go back again tomorrow...
I don't normally publish photos of myself in unflattering positions, but I think this one (and the myriad of others that look nearly like it) are pretty funny. The story is, Koji had to wait while I was getting my teeth checked, and fool that I am, I didn't bring anything along to entertain him. So I let him root through my bag and play with whatever. Well, it didn't take long for him to unearth the camera, and then of course he wanted to take a picture or two or ten...the one above and this one are the "best" two...speaking of two, I have two cavities, but I actually think that's pretty good considering I haven't been to the dentist in five years!

Eeww, 35?!

So I've been on a major hiatus from posting here, perhaps because I'm paralyzed by an event that took place over a month ago. Note to self, and anyone (Mom?) who still opens this blog looking for the increasingly unlikely new post: I'm putting this up on Sept. 17th though the post date says otherwise.

Said event was my Thirty-Fifth Birthday. God's blessed me with a lot of friends who seem convinced that getting older is better, but I guess I missed that boat. I'm just not excited about it.

However, I am excited about the fun that I had at my birthday parties. It must sound oxymoronic of me to say I'm not thrilled about something, oh, but I had two parties to commemorate it anyway. I'm paradoxical like that. Or maybe I just wanted to say "paradoxical".

The first party was a bocce/food/bowling party at Pin stripes in Northbrook. I'm too lazy to link to it here, but I have to say, if you live in the area and are intrigued by the idea of "chic bowling (speaking of oxymoronic...)" then you should google it and go there. It was really fun! Thanks very much to the friends who joined me for the evening--especially Jenny, who organized, and Aogu, who financed all the delicious food--I hope we can do that again soon. Not the getting older part, the part where we went out together and made some fun memories.

So since I'm a little down about turning 35, I'll just admit it here and open myself to criticism or encouragement. Deal it to me as you see fit, I think I can take it. If you are reading this, then I also thank you for not giving up on my blog!!

One Busy Day Last Month

As you all know well, I love chronology. But I also drive you crazy with it, because you know that I may post something down there somewhere in the nether regions of the blog in an attempt to stay chronological. Worse yet, you never see what I've painstakingly put up. So for today at least, in a concession to this issue, I am putting up some pictures from last month, with a note to myself and all of you that these things actually happened on July 11th.


Koji turned our slide upside down and both kids climbed up and had as much fun as they would have with it right side up.


Megan and Joshua (and a day or so later, Jim) came to visit. It was great to have them back here after more than a year since they moved to Charlottesville.


Audrey came by with Shanel, and one main source of entertainment was a session of bed-jumping with Koji and Izumi. Come again, Audrey!



This may be one of my best ever photos of smiling Izumi? A gratifying point for me is that she's wearing a little shirt that I made for her...


That evening, Will was in town and invited us out for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe downtown. It was fun to be out as a family and to see Will again so soon after just being with him last month. Thanks for dinner, Will!

Giving You Another Chance

The other day when I tried to start a discussion about work-life balance and gender, three out of four commentors refused to stay on topic (thanks for your input, Emily, what you said was very thought-provoking).

My response is to be stubborn--or kind?--and give you another opportunity to respond. There was another article in the NY Times today about this topic, but this time, it's the Japanese version of the problem, which I have to say, make things here in the U.S. look positively progressive (this article is only one page long, not so intimidating as the last).

What do you think?

Recommendations for the Jaded

So summer TV, or lack thereof, is exceedingly boring and I thought I should pick up some new shows (when actually what I should probably do is stop watching TV altogether...I used to hate to watch TV, what has happened to me?). The Tribune TV critic recommended Damages and Saving Grace. I programmed them into my DVR and then waited.

The other night I finally got around to watching "Damages". I assumed I would like it because the Tribune TV critic seems to like some of the same SciFi channel shows that I do. But when it was over, I went back into my DVR and clicked on "cancel series". The high-powered lawyer (played by Glenn Close) was much too manipulative and calculating and willing to spare no expense--including human life--to get the results she was after. Some may argue that's just how one has to be to make it in the world of litigation and more so if you're a woman, blah blah. I disagree, and so I won't be watching "Damages" any more.

"Saving Grace": well, I was feeling a little wary after the experience described above, and more so as I took in the first scene of the pilot which depicted Grace enthusiastically have sex with a married man. The premise seems to be that Grace, who is a flawed woman but better than competent police officer/detective type, will be saved from herself by an old guy who has wings on his back that can only be seen reflected in the windows of any cars he may happen to be standing next to. OK. Well, I'm all for redemption, I am. In fact, maybe I'm the judgmental one because I don't want to like Grace for her cussin', hard-drinkin', sleepin' around ways. In this case, it just feels like too much information. Sure, I want Grace to have a happy ending, but maybe I just don't really need to know how she's going to get there. CANCEL SERIES.

I'm back to re-runs of What Not to Wear, and I think I like it that way.

Note to Self: When Parking Downtown

Dear Self,

You know how you are not very detail-oriented and not so organized, so please stop telling me that you can keep track of little pieces of paper, such as, just for a hypothetical--actually not so--example, let's say, one of those parking ticket card thingys you get when you drive into a parking garage. Self, you cannot do it, and in fact, tonight, you didn't do it and now you are FORTY-SIX DOLLARS poorer. That's right, two times the maximum fee for parking in that Millennium Park parking garage that Mayor Daley is and will be trying to pay for with my money (he's a lot closer as of tonight) for years to come.

So self, please take to heart the advice of the attendant who charged my card and let me out of the garage: leave that stub in the car! Never mind the ubiquitous signs directing you to "Take your ticket so you can pay when you exit". B%^$&#*@!! It's a siren call, they are trying to convince me that I will still have that little scrap of paper when I get back to my car, but as I know now, I actually probably won't, so from now on, hands off the ticket! What does "from now on" really mean though, self, because I'm thinking that the next two and a half trips downtown, kids or no kids, I am not allowed to drive. Only then will I begin to come up sort of even, right?

Love, Me

Note to Self: When Going to the Beach

Dear Self,

When I go to the beach with small children, which I guess I am likely to be doing for the next several years, I must remember to always gather the things I need to take with me, put them in a pile at home, and then remove half of them. After that culling, I will be free to put the remaining, much lighter load in a backpack, and only a backpack. With any other type of bag, how in the world do I think I can get the goods down to the water from the car if I have to schlep at least one child at the same time, self? Am I cuckoo?!

Furthermore, self, tuck a couple of beach balls and/or other water apropos inflatables into a corner of that backpack, would you?

Finally, please take along an extra pair of shoes, even if they're just some random flip-flops. Because, self, I never know just when I might be walking along in those cutesy plastic Birkenstock sandals and the next step I take, suddenly my foot meets sand because the entire top portion of that trusty foot gear that has served me faithfully for over 10 years has suddenly decided to separate itself from its sole. Take it from me, self, if that should happen and I don't have an extra pair of something for my feet, things could get ugly. Like say, I might even have to go into the restroom barefoot. Nasty!

Family Values: What Do You Think?

Just after I was chatting with a female friend on-line about being "traditionally minded" vs. "career minded," I read this NY Times article. It's on the long side, so you may not have the time or patience to read it all, but whether you read it or not, tell me: what do you think about work/life balance and gender roles in the USA? Is everything fine? What's wrong or right with this part of our system (or lack of system)?

I don't often try to start discussions here, so I don't know if anyone is up for it, but I'm very interested in your opinion, so if you have a minute, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

In other blog news, I don't know what happened to my picture.

タイヨウのうた

昨夜シカゴのダウンタウンに行ってきました。夏の間シカゴ文化センターで国際映画があり、毎週の水曜日いろんな国の映画を無料でみれます。昨日の映画は日本のタイヨウのうたという映画でした。仰は出張で一緒に行けなかったので沢山の友達を誘いました。一度見てから誘えたらもっと説得力はあったんだろうけど詳しいことわからなくて「日本の映画一緒に見ないか」としか言えなくて断られてばっかりでした。結局友達と二人で見ることになったけど行かなかった人は失敗したと思います。最高に最高なとっても良い映画でした。　私は一回映画を見てしまえば、もう一回見たがらない人なんだけど、この映画なら是非もう一回、二三回でもまた見たいと思っています。　　　

Walker with a Side of Rice

There's no easy answer to the question of when Izumi started walking. It could have been yesterday or last week or two weeks ago. All I know is that suddenly--how can something be sudden when it's been happening in front of my eyes for months?--when she falls, she gets back up on her feet and tries to walk again. And I shouldn't call it trying, because her legs-wide-apart-knees-up-high gait gets her places! While she's at it, somehow her stumping makes a sound on the floor that would lead one to think she's heavier than Koji though she actually weighs just half as much. At the rate she's been eating rice lately, maybe she'll catch up soon (or not; I guess she doesn't actually get that much of it in her mouth!).

Harry Potter has Left the Building

For the last few weeks, I couldn't decide if I should order my copy of Book 7, pictured here, from Amazon for delivery to my home on Saturday, July 21st. Or maybe I should go to one of these book-release parties at midnight? But who would go with me, who would watch my kids, was I really that into it? I didn't know and therefore I just couldn't decide how to put my hands on the book, or even if I really needed to have it right out of the gate at all. (Note for anyone who is familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test: yes, I am a strong "P").

How fortunate and timely that Jenny and I just happened to be at Super WalMart in Galena at 11:10 pm Friday night when someone announced, "Those here for the Harry Potter book, please come and put your name on this list". Well. For the price of a mere 50 minute wait, there was no way I was going home without that book!

So I got the book at midnight (but we didn't get any hard iced tea, as we tried to pay for our purchases at 12:02 am and that was two minutes past the deadline for buying alcohol in Jo Daviess County. huh?) and felt just a little bit cutting-edge. I'm not sure what was so cool about buying the same book that lots of other people around the world were buying at the same moment...

In any case, though I was tempted to immediately crack it open, I actually held off until Sunday morning. Jenny and I had a moment of calm when the kids and dads were at the pool and babies were napping, so I dug in. Good start! Then, Aogu was willing to "chauff" (pronounced "showf") us home from Galena, so I had a three hour window to make progress.

This morning at 1:30 am, I finished. And it was sad, not the book's ending so much as the ending of the book. Are you following? This is the same feeling I have when I finish any book series (and that's been a fair number of times as I'm a sucker for a good series, why would I want one book when I can have three or five or seven even?), like I'm saying good-bye to a pack of great friends.

I can certainly go back and re-visit him at any time, so Harry's not dead, but he's definitely left the building. And as for me, I need a nap.

Improving Sushi

Do you like sushi? I'd like to think that I do but after reading this article from the NY Times, I'm not so sure that I've actually had a chance to experience it properly. Trying what the author suggests sounds like a lot of fun, so if anyone wants to join me, let's go! Give me a week or two of lead time so I can get a babysitter, though...

Groupie AND Mama?

If I thought it were possible to be a groupie and continue to mother my children with any level of competency, I would consider following U2 Zoo around. Of course, the actual U2 would be better, but I don't have the time or money to jet around the world (for that matter, I don't have the patience to wait for them to get out on tour!) after them. Meanwhile, U2 Zoo is "the Midwest experience," and I ought to know because I saw them live at the Brookfield Zoo Tunes series today.

You may scoff, "a tribute band? That's dumb!" but I tell you, they were really good! The lead singer not only resembled Bono in looks but in vocals, too. I felt like I was at a U2 concert for free, and not only that, I got to hear a lot of songs from The Joshua Tree instead of all that new stuff (you know, whatever new stuff they would be trying to promote, that is, if they were on tour. Which they're not). Cheryl Lynn was the more ardent-looking fan, so she got a free shirt, but I don't begrudge her. Honest, kelly green isn't my color, or something.

I took pictures, but you know how it takes awhile for those to travel from the camera to the computer to the blog? Yeah. Someday I'm going to do something about that. Meanwhile, I don't know, Milwaukee Irish Fest, anyone?!

My New Favorite Show...

is The Singing Bee. It's 100% corny, but I have to like it because it's karaoke at its finest, where as the host says, "You don't have to sing it well, you only have to sing it right". Should I try out?!

WILL You LEEve Us Alone?

Just kidding, Will! It was our great privelege and pleasure to see Will for the second time in less than a month. He was in town this week on business, so we met him for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Of course I can't put up the pictures we took there since they're still in the camera, but I can show you the interesting mailbox we spotted on Michigan Ave as we were driving to RFC (picture lifted from Kathleen's blog, and I feel OK about it since we just got to see her and Brad the other weekend...if you want to see a picture, of course you'll have to go to Jenny's blog, July 8th post to be exact).

This post doesn't make much sense, but it's 1 am. Remind me, why did I drink coffee at 9 pm?

Scammer

We don't get to see Rich & Jenny every day, but if you check the last few posts on Jenny's blog, you'll know what we've been up to recently and see pictures of us much sooner than if you just wait for me to put it up here (remember that I'm still back on Day 1 of our trip to LA...).

Thanks for doing my work, Jen! I owe you!

LA LA LA Day 3, 4, 5

On Wednesday we stopped by at Jim & Cindi's new house to say hello and wash our clothes (thanks very much, Cindi, that was a lifesaver). There are many, many wonderful things about their new house, but this may be the one I like the best: it's a tatami room with a built-in kotatsu over a recessed floor. Maybe someday, if we don't ever move to Japan, and we have a lot of money that we don't know what to do with, we can build a room like this too?!


Izumi and I next to the fish tank built into the wall between the living room and Jim's office. It's a very cool tank with interesting, exotic fish in it, but you can't really see it here so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm mostly inserting this picture so you'll know that I really was on this trip!


After our laundry was done, we went to spend a little time with Alex, Kristen Joy and Olivia. We had some take-out from El Pollo Loco (yum!) at their house, and then went for a walk to a park. Here's Izumi in mid-crawl in the foreground, with the rest of the gang behind.


There was no question "if" the kids would all end up climbing on Alex, it was a matter of "when"...


Next stop, Alex & KJ's favorite frozen yogurt shop; a necessity on a hot summer day!


Next up was dinner with Cat & Darren but they weren't quite ready to meet us so I took the kids on a quick trip to M & L Fabrics in Anaheim. I was transported back to the day Clehrence (Clarice) and I went there and ended up with some green fur that she made into a stunning jacket. On the other hand, I bought some quilted silver fabric and turned it into a hideous jacket; you can't win 'em all. Anyway, it was just as stuffed with fabric as I remembered, though it was a bit limiting to try and navigate the place with two little kids in tow (I say, as if there are many other places that aren't that way). In fact, I didn't even approach the flat fold stacks, which were much taller than me. I was afraid that I would find some fabric to love at knee-level and never get it out, or worse yet, start a fabric avalanche and crush my children. Fortunately, I discovered the bargain basement back room. Watch this space to see what that fabric will become! Getting to the subject of this photo, we met Cat & Darren at Niko Niko Sushi, which certainly wasn't super authentic but did give us an enormous bowl of edamame for three bucks, and had a really delicious carrot-miso dressing for the salad (note to self: try to make that dressing).


Then Cat & Darren took Koji swimming, and even invited Darren's nephew Dyson along for the fun. Izumi and I played poolside; it was a little chilly for her since she had a runny nose.


Here's Koji and Dyson, and the end of Day Three!


Day Four, we met Cat & Darren again; we went to a park in Brea to play with Dyson and then back to their place for lunch but I didn't take any pictures. Cat did, so maybe someday I'll backpost something, maybe. Then they had to get to a beach party, so we went back to Jim & Cindi's for a swim and dinner.


Jim, Cindi and Chibi, our great friends and wonderful hosts, too!


This was Koji's gang while we were at Jim & Cindi's: Jamee, who's five, Koji, who's four, and Joy, who's three. It worked out very nicely.


Day Five, we just couldn't get enough of Jim & Cindi so we went back to their house again! For hours, Koji and his posse, as introduced above, jumped in the pool and then climbed back out to jump in again.

Back in the day when I used to work for Cindi, Ali was still in high school but now she's a tennis coach AND good with babies, too. Thanks for giving me a break, Ali!

LA LA LA Day 2

We drove down to Irvine to visit Nara, Miye and Emmi and meet Joshua today. Here's Emmi ready for some breakfast.

Izumi didn't waste any time locking onto this baby doll stroller for some walking practice in their back yard.

Miye, Koji and Emmi making good use of the hose.

Izumi made good use of the puddles the bigger kids left behind.

Joshua was born in April, on the 21st. If only he had come a few hours earlier, he and Koji would have the same birthday!

Miye and Koji started a little band.

The only way for Nara and I to have our picture taken together was to let Koji do it. He did a pretty good job, although I don't think this is the most flattering angle...where's that little tripod I used to always carry around?!

We left there to give them some nap time and to head off to our next friend's house. First, on the way to Whittier, we stopped at Cream Pan, a Japanese style bakery in Tustin. Everyone who worked there was Japanese, as was the atmosphere of the place (how can I say that when there wasn't anything to it but a glass bakery case, a refridgerator case of drinks and a bunch of baking equipment...but it's true). Somehow I bought 20 bucks worth of sandwiches, pastries and cookies, telling myself that they were a gift for Riva and Will. Well, they were, except for the ones that I ate! As the reviewers on Yelp said, the strawberry croissant is delicious, though I actually liked the chocolate cream horn better. I didn't love the croquette sandwich, but then again, I didn't get around to eating it until the next day and by then it wasn't very appetizing. Better not to buy more than you and your friends can gobble in a day...and better to call first, since they're closed on Mondays and every other Tuesday.

Riva improvised this "pool slide" for Koji and Mikayla out of their various backyard equipment. Nice work, the kids really liked it!

But all Izumi needed was a bucket!

Post-swim, the lovely and mermaid-ish (I mean nice, cute mermaids, not the nasty ones in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) Mikayla.

Here's a picture of Izumi, or is it Mikayla? That's right, it's Mikayla when she was just a few months older than Izumi is now. I thought the resemblance, at least in profile, was striking, so I had to take a picture of this picture!

Tyler spent some good portion of our time together trying to make a move on Izumi. At first, she was put off and even moved to tears.

But it didn't take long for his charm to win her over!

Here's all the kids in a row and actually sort of looking at the camera even.

When Will came home, he got out some of the temporary tattoos he's collected at the trade shows and stuck them on the kids.

Will and Tyler; what you can't tell from this picture is that their bellies are full of chicken, rice and broccoli casserole, which was so good that we nearly polished off an entire 9 x 13 pan full. Thanks for a fun and delicious day, Riva & co., and so sorry that you aren't pictured, Riva...you know how it is when you get carried away with trying to capture the kids on film!

LA LA LA

On our first day in LA, we went to visit Sahara-san, a friend from Koji's school who had just moved back in March. Seeing them in person and getting caught up on their new life was fun, although it reminded us that we miss them.


Being with Kai-kun must have been a relief for Koji; it's been more than two weeks now that he's been out of school and away from the friends who understand the ways of Power Ranger style posing. For several days after, Koji asked, "Are we going to Kai-kun's house today?". I'm sorry I had to say no. Maybe next time we won't have such a tight schedule (HA~!).


Next we were off for visit with Erika, who was gracious and accomodating to grant my request that we search for Sarah Jessica Parker's new line of clothes at Steve & Barry's. Not only did she go, she patiently looked at nearly every item in the store with me, helped keep the kids entertained, found an excellent "karate" shirt for Koji, bought some non-plumber style jeans, AND posed for this picture taken by Koji. Wow.

The fun didn't stop there though! Next we were off to Famima, the American version of my favoritest Japanese convenience store, Family Mart, now "conveniently" located in Culver City...?! We procured some onigiri (rice balls), some cracker & frosting sandwich thingies and some Calpis drinks, which we spirited back to Erika's place to share with Thomas. Poor kids, I didn't get them back to the hotel and to bed until 10 (Pacific Time...that means they felt like it was midnight, which it was back in Skokie!).

But it was a dandy first day in LA!

Excuses, Excuses...

For many reasons, lately, I haven't been able to keep up my blog the way I'd like. Then again, that's been the case ever since we came back from "The Room," which was 18ish months ago. So you'd think I would just accept my inability to keep up, but I don't! I can't!

Moving on to my latest excuses, um, reasons for not taking time to blog, no, make that REASON because there's only one:

Koji's out of school. Somehow, this long expected event known as summer vacation has taken me completely off guard, and I can't get used to it. He's been out for two weeks and I'm just now starting to think that maybe perhaps it's not a tragedy. It's possible that we might even have fun and enjoy our extra time together. For example, we've been in the backyard a lot over the last several days, playing on the swingset and picking sour cherries. We even made a cherry pie!

But, anticipating meeting our little friend Olivia during our upcoming trip to LA, there were also a few hours that I stuck Koji in front of Wii and had a date with my sewing machine. I was pleasantly surprised to find that though I had to dust my machine off, I hadn't totally lost my touch for putting clothes together. Phew! It was great fun to be sewing again, and I have a feeling I'll be doing it again soon, considering Aogu's reaction when I showed him this finished product: "Maybe next time you can make something for Izumi?"

P.S. Happy Happy Birthday to a friend of my youth (ha! shows how old I am, that uni friends are now "friends of my youth," as if my youth is over, which I don't want it to be but it probably is since she's 35 now and I'm hot on her heels) who has many distinguishing and exceptional qualities, and is 1/3 of Lawn Club. I am so pleased that I will be able to celebrate in person with her soon!