Easily Mystified

My mind is still all Japan, all the time, so I haven't really had much to say over here that would sound much different from what I've been saying about being crazy jazzed about going, making lots of plans/arrangements and sorting lots of thoughts/details and attempting to re-learn Japanese vocab/grammar that didn't come easy to me at 18 years old and sure as hell isn't coming any easier a few *cough* years later (though watching cheesy Japanese dramas online makes it way more fun than listening to tapes or whatever before the joy of the Interwebz - have a look, they have English subtitles!).

So that's what I've been up to.

While doing all of the above, some nights I get really into whatever I'm reading/studying/watching/considering to a point that I'm up late, well past Tom's bedtime. Last night was one of those nights. While I sat here minding my own business, all of the sudden, I heard the sound of water running through some pipes somewhere.

My first thought was that it was a neighbor in the building running water until I remembered that we live in a house now because our apartment neighbor was an asshat. I smiled, loving living in this house.

My next thought was that it was the ice maker, but then I remembered that we don't have one. Well, we do, but it isn't hooked up or doesn't work or something. In any case, water running in the freezer would mean something Very Bad and would require me mopping after midnight, which would have annoyed me. Glad it wasn't that.

The only other possibility was the hose outside, but that would mean that someone would have to be out there for some reason, and that would be really odd/scary somewhere in the 3:00AM hour.

I started getting kind of scared, wanting to wake Tom but not wanting to wake Tom.

As I walked into the kitchen I realized that the sound was from our new dishwasher, and I was even more perplexed. If Tom was asleep, then who in the hell had decided to run it (and would they consider helping out with some other chores while they were at it?)? Then I remembered seeing that button that allows you to set the dishwasher to run in 2 or 4 or 6 hours. At some point, exactly 2 or 4 or 6 hours prior, not sure which, someone had to have somehow bumped into this button. If they'd also accidentally added soap, it would have been genius. Instead, it just freaked me the hell out.

Perhaps it's actually a good thing that it's very unlikely that I'll have a dishwasher in Japan (I didn't last time 1995-1998 when 78% of folks didn't have one, and even now 71% still don't). While on the topic of reasons for water to flow in the home, I'd still love a sit down potty in Japan, though, instead of a squat toilet like last time, if it's in the cards. Just sayin'.

Haiku Friday 4/24/09

俳句の金曜日

Standing on tiptoes
reaching into the blue sky
fresh air stretching lungs.

One track mind, I have;
kinda silly I s'ppose, but
my smile train rolls on.

Time can be too short
so I'll stand tall looking up
to snatch down my star.

Life's what we make it
with the pieces that we have
building custom dreams.

Laying on the grass
cool dampness invigorates
breathing in my life.

Haiku Friday 4/17/09

俳句の金曜日

Lost touch with old friends
hoping to find them anew
then hug them closer

More than a decade
my mind becomes forgetful
let's make new mem'ries

Language barriers
bar so much less face to face,
better smilies, too :)

See y'all in July
hot nights, cold beers, warm friendships
natsukashii...

Thursday Thirteen 4/16/2009

(thanks to Samulli for the header)

Thirteen More Things About My Move to Japan in July
(there will be more, probably much more than you care to see)

1. Yes, I'll definitely be blogging from Japan (not caught up? I'm moving to Japan. In July. For a year.).
2. Oddly, it could take awhile (2 weeks? 2 months?) to have internet set up at home.
3. Or it could already be on when I get there - ESID (every situation is different).
   
4. Most likely my workplace (school, board of ed, other) will have internet.
5. I'm already over the initial panic.
6. My laptop and coffeeshops with WiFi will help, too, if I'm not too remote.
7. My iPhone just ain't gonna be an option in Japan.
   
8. But I'll have the iPod Touch I got for Christmas before I got the iPhone that is not only wireless for email and stuff but also has a few decent apps for Japanese dictionaries.
9. There is a weight limit on luggage, and postage is a whole lot more than it used to be when there was a slow boat to China Japan option that seems no longer to exist, so most dictionaries will be staying home (M-bag bookrate has gotten too stupid to consider, too - I looked).
10. I'm convinced I can pack a whole year's worth of needs into 2 suitcases.
11. I don't need a lot of stuff.
12. As long as one of those things is my laptop.
13. And the other is my camera.

Color Me Happy

the world is vibrant
reds and yellows, greens and blues
color me happy

Maddie

(thanks to It's a Schmitty Life for the image)

If you want to do something meaningful in honor of sweet Maddie, see Lotus for many bits of info from all over the place all handily compiled in one place. Maybe sponsor Lotus' walk team while you are there. All the money goes to March of Dimes, Maddie's favorite charity.

Or help Maddie's parents:

Answers and a Question

Looking at my closet, I'm thinking that the clothes I still wear from the last time I lived in Japan over *cough* 10 years ago should probably go, as in go away, not go with me to Japan. Lots of pictures get taken while doing the JET thing, and having pictures of me now wearing the same clothes as in pictures then just doesn't seem right, even if my notoriously wrong sense of Maggie Fashion is convinced that at least a few items are still timeless enough to be OK.

But none of you asked about what clothes I will or will not bring to Japan. Here's answers to what you did ask:

Jac asked:

• Is Tom going? (For the entire time?) Nope, just to visit. Hopefully twice, if we can find cheaper tickets. Someone has to stay home with all of those catties.
• How long will you be gone? One year. End of July until end of July.
• What exactly will you be doing? I'll be teaching English through The JET Program (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program). Last time, I taught in a high school for 2 years and then various junior highs for another year, plus weekly elementary school visits and night classes for prefecture employees. This time, I won't know until late May/early June about my placement.
  

Christie O asked:

How long is Tom going? Is he going going? Or just for visits? Tom was kind enough to agree to hang back with the meow faces so that I could go. Otherwise, it would have been nearly impossible since it would be too hard to bring the cats (quarantine rules, difficulty finding apartments accepting pets, etc.), and there's no way I could have parted with them. Instead, Tom will hand deliver a care package with goodies I miss from home, like toothpaste with fluoride and good deodorant come visit. He's always really wanted to see Japan, and this is the perfect opportunity.

Question for you all: What is the oldest item of clothing that you still wear today?

And now I'm off to the doc in a box at the Urgent Care place with fingers crossed that they will be able to complete all the information I need on the Certificate of Health and for not a lot of money since I'm among the not insured. I called, and it sounds doable and cheap-ish, but we shall see. The hoop jumping and paperwork for this Japan thing continues, but I'm getting closer to done with it, and it's worth it. Now I just wonder what I should wear...

Drowning More Gracefully

Thanks so much to all for the kind words on my acceptance into the JET Program for 2009. I'm beyond ecstatic! I'm also taking questions, anything you wonder about all this whole Japan thing. Ask away! I'll answer in a post soon-ish. I'll also be around to visit your blogs soon.

If you missed some of the rationale behind me going, I touched on it in a post awhile ago. The short answer is that while my life hasn't gone at all according to plan with 2.5 much wanted cute kiddos and a sexy minivan, I am blessed enough to have a wonderful man who supports my desire to do something kinda crazy that I wouldn't have gotten to do if I had gotten to do the mommy thing. Plus, Tom would love to see Japan [when he comes to visit me].

While yesterday afternoon was all about jumping up and down while yelling good news into the phone of the unsuspecting on the other end of my too good to contain myself news, today has been all about mountains of paperwork and forms and phone calls. I've been fingerprinted (all the way downtown for FBI background check), photographed (for my renewal passport photos, twice because the first lady was a sleepy dimwit did it incorrectly) and frustrated (by Google Groups issues and lots of phone calls trying to do things like set up a physical at a doc in a box that will do one for employment, not kids sports stuff), but I'm feeling near the summit. There will be more along the way, but this is the bulk of the bullshit for awhile. Until I get there.

Meanwhile, just for chuckles, I share with you the second version of the attempt at passport renewal photos along with the one that was taken 14 years ago, almost to the date, the first time I did the JET Program. I may be drowning in the sea of paperwork created by the runoff from the mountain of paperwork above, but I'd say I'm doing it far more gracefully, or at least more timelessly.

Then:


Now:


When I went a few weeks ago to get my driver's license and first had to go to some other office to prove citizenship, I used my old passport above with all of that big bang theory hair, and the woman kind of giggled at my 1980's hair.

Except that the picture of my 1980's hair was actually taken in 1995.

I've told y'all about Maggie Fashion and my inability to know any better.

Bonus: Since I'm in an official document photo sharing kind of mood, one of the worst photos of my adult life was the very one mentioned above, taken a few weeks ago for my Oklahoma driver's license. I wore less make up that day than in the photo above from today, but they managed to add 20 pounds in both body weight and make up and to make me look like Tammy Faye Bakker gazing stonedly toward the heavens. Bitches.

If you remind me, maybe I'll share the picture when I do my Alien Registration Card in Japan. Last time it looked about like the passport photo but without the smile since you aren't supposed to show your teeth in formal pictures in Japan. Even formal wedding pictures. No kidding.

Gotta go work on climbing some more of that paperwork mountain before I start digging out photo albums of my embarrassing childhood.

Shoot me those questions in comments. I'm more likely to post sooner if I have something to say.

JET Results

There will be more. I promise. Likely much more. For now, though, the suspense is over. The results of my JET Hopefulness are in, and...











..... I'm..............




















...accepted!

I assume I'll accept the offer and do Japan for a year starting at the end of July (flying out of Chicago the same weekend as BlogHer, so maybe I can somehow squeeze in a way to meet some I've always wanted to meet), but I will make the final decision soon, meanwhile assuming I'll say yes and starting all the million things to do like renewing my passport, doing the FBI background thingy that I didn't have to do the last time and making all those other little decisions about the small stuff.

After days of hardcore stressful wondering and hoping to the point of almost splitting into pieces, tonight I'll just bask in the joy of what likely lies ahead of me.

I'll be back, soon.

Random Acts of Maggieness

I'd gotten my latte and was looking at the latest of the always eye-catching Starbucks mugs on display when my nephew came up beside me, and I said "you do know that my birthday is coming up, don't you?," in a cheeky kind of hint-hint sort of way. When there was no response, I looked at him and saw that it was some random guy who was definitely not a family member, nor a member of the group I call "people I've ever met in my life." About the time that I should have just said "oops, sorry," I was instead trying to backpedal and explain in that really awkward way how I thought he was my nephew and that my birthday really is coming up here at some point and some other babble that was making it all worse, my real nephew actually did, mercifully, appear.

We started to leave as quickly as possible, one of us with a face redder than a poor soul who gets caught farting loudly in a silent church, and shortly before we got to the door, the guy I'd only just barely met ever in my life about 45 seconds prior to this moment was standing there. He offered me a $5 Starbucks gift card. At first I refused, wondering why someone would give such a glorious (angels sing when I drink lattes) gift to such a completely strange kind of stranger like little ol' me, and then he explained that it wasn't exactly his own gift card but more kind of like one from his church that he was giving away as a random act of kindness, no strings attached. That made bucket loads more sense. As jaded as I've been on some of my "bad Tulsa days" about the over abundance of in your face religion here in the new state of Oklahoma that I, loosely, call home, I also thought this was pretty cool. Maybe my religion (or lack thereof) doesn't match with some around me, especially when it intersects with my politics, but being nice, randomly or otherwise, is still a good thing.

There are certainly others far more deserving of this gift, but I'm probably one who appreciates it as much as many and more than some since, um, hello, coffee is involved, and we all know how I feel about coffee. While I am in no danger of joining their church, I'll find a way to randomly pass on the kindness to a stranger because I already apparently enjoy talking to complete strangers as if they were family anyway.

Bonus quote, in the words of a famous gentleman from what will always sort of be my home state of Illinois:

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

JET Program update: Looks like results are in for candidates of Trinidad, Tobago, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. That list doesn't include the US, which is where I am, and so the waiting continues. At least I'll be caffeinated. If accepted, my Japanometer is still leaning towards "yes, I'd likely go." If accepted.