Damn... Its Payday Already?

Another payday is on the deck and I am hit with a brick on how well paced this summer has really been--at least for us. Now why do I say pay day? We get paid every two weeks, therefore life bits like; bills, commissary, clothing, allowances (at least Sailorman's... the Unfortunates know their mother is as faithfully fickeled as the sea when it comes to doling out fundage), trips, eating out... you get the gist; and because so much of that part of life depends on payday, it has become a way of keeping track of the days when dug deep into the trenches of monotony. Well, with life being as it is, I haven't been as faithful to the blog as I would have preferred. My choices for bringing you up to speed on our life would be to just BLAM!--post a whole host of separate posts like a spammer to a hotmail account, or just do it all in one "swift" stroke... kind of like my favorite way of pulling off a band-aid. Hopefully this won't be as painful

Fourth of July came and went dragging along with it (kicking and screaming...or was that me?) the anniversary of the union of two minority MASTERMINDS!!! Sailor-Studman and Me of course--who else were you thinking of? Don't go doin' that guy thing and tell me, "Ooo, he gives you fireworks every year!" It is older than old by now, yet I thank you for your envy. Studman and I were talking of whose going to do what for the other and I said I was going to let him take the car with him to work the day before and when he gets off, he'll find a note on the car saying, 'its been a great 9 baby, see ya around.' he comes home and my stuff's gone along with the Good set of pans I got from him this past Christmas. Studman was thinking more along the lines of conning good friends to take the Unfortunates for a day and letting us get away to a nice restaurant--Latin, Jazz or Blues club in Yokohama or Tokyo. That would be the Latin Lover coming out of the dirty Sailor, and I found I was game for it... then life happened and we never got around to it. My advice, try hard not to have a very important private day occur on a national family holiday. We feel guilty anytime we want to actually contemplate celebrating our anniversary by ourselves on the actual day since we have kids.

We did celebrate the day of our nation's birth with family and had a great time! 07:30, Studman and Eldest were out the door to run the 4th July 5K run. The fastest Eldest ran, Studman retells, is when she spotted the refreshment stand at the halfway point. After being dragged away by her big papa, cramps ensued as she shuffled to the finish--MY BABY DID IT, she ran her first race, finished and has the t-shirt to prove it. After that we went to the MWR (moral, welfare and recreation) pool party and were fed for free, then we walked home and prepared to be fed extra well at the Vandy (USS Vandegrift our very first ship here in Japan in 2001) gathering that occurs so far every 4th. That was much different than before... very different. Sailorman is now a sober man... and the song, "What do you do with a drunken sailor," happily isn't sung by me anymore; but we do have to contend with the most vexing aspect of this new path for Sailorman, the male need to badger and cajole another who is improving his life while the others are not. It was only one guy, yet it did leave a sour taste in the mouth while watching others quickly get hammered. Thankfully 8pm came and we crossed the street from the party to view the Navy's fireworks out on the bay. Studman felt the whole family should be together for this and since we are in Japan, fireworks last FOREVER, and he had time to run home and bring Suicide-girl. She was not exactly cool, but she sure was calm despite being obviously nervous with the cannon-fire. We all walked home using the dog as the excuse for getting home. We were all tired too.

The next day, after leisurely waking up, we made our way to the docks--where you can rent boats and kayaks--and met-up with Suzi-Q, the great friend of Stuman who got him running and slim again. She has a motorboat license and took us out on the water. It was a great hazy day, so the day was not as hot the week had been. Oh, we had a blast! all of us got to drive and now Suzi-Q is on the totally cool list for the Unfortunates.






It was great getting out on water again in a small boat. I really miss that from my childhood and always wanted the girls to have a few moments on a small motorboat too. Of course the bay around the shore is disgusting and the girls loved commenting on all the crap along with the jelly fish that were in the water. We headed between Mikasa Park and Sarushima (Monkey) Island, then swung around the back side between the sea lane and land. I throughly recommend getting out on the bay for some recreation.








Besides a few more pictures of us on the water, I'll wrap this up and give a preview of the three or so post that are coming up; Family Day Cruise aboard Sailorman's USS Goodship Lollipop. That was terrific! Then some musings of the imaginary friends in our lives... or at least the discovery of them; and finally, confessions of this Aikidoka. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and see ya around soon!

California Dreamin...

... On such a winter's day... I know, I know, we are not on that other side of the world; but we really are missin' Cali. It is in the little things we do and see; the feel of a breeze, the look of the day, the smell of place, the laugh of another, a situation you find yourself in, ... you know those things, the bits-n-pieces of what makes a memory really a memory. I keep it to myself so not to upset the Posse and we have another round of "I wish we...," Cheaah, I tell ya, this move has been the hardest.

Could it be the Unfortunates are old enough this time to really put up a stink? Or is it that I have not out-sourced them enough through the friends we did make over here, as you can see in the pictures... (child labor... isn't it cute when they are working for a cause? This was to help their friend earn some extra dough for a Nintendo DS game Animal Crossing) Perhaps I didn't put my kids in enough activities... or have I put them in too much? Or is it that we know that they are staying and we have left? Or... is it that we have made good friends and are distraught to have them out of our lives for now?






Yes, I miss it. I learned a lot about myself, the Unfortunates, Sailorman, neighbors... Ms Puerto Rico, Senorita and their Men folk. The Jetsetter's down the cul'd'sac. Miz Mary and her Fur Babies. Getting stuffed at the Jones' and their SWEET car. That Frenchguy and the lovely Ms. Dean and their short squatter who have made a place in our hearts. Yet, if it wasn't for a big nudge from Sailorman, I would not have walked into the Dojo and found far more than just a work out for this body and mind... I found some friends. Julie-san (she's aaaah-sum), Lady Ky and her Entourage (yeah, it's that obvious, you got game girl! Wish we could have hung out more), The Entourage... ye-yah, if you have to think about it, then you are apart of the crew--I miss you all too. Musicman--don't rent him out the way I did... then again if I hadn't, there is much I would not of learned of the human inside the guy I train with on the mat. The Proud Owners (cool souls who are also apart of my serious mentors on/off the mat) of the frame shop down the street (they can even frame and hang children too... okay that sounds just awesome... eah, it's all in the friends I make),


Sensei-cake (Crazyone still can't articulate as to why she calls Sensei that.. could've been an Akimite class I missed... or one of the many times we were at the Dojo along with Sensei), Sensei Mr. Manstache (Sailorman is quite envious of the mighty mustache. Each morning he shaves, he sends up a prayer to the gods of Testosterone to bless his face with such a testostronian feat), Sensei Jedi (one day your mind trick will not phase me... whatever, but I am up for the challenge!), Sensei Singing-Jo (really kicking myself for not fitting in some of those classes, it would give me something to do Aikido-wise). Then there are all the souls I met on the mat in brief and at length. I miss The Nooners, Stuff Your Centers and the mat.





I miss my walks in the morning with our grey babies along the coast with sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions... the fog, market days, selling at the market--meeting the people of the town, getting to be apart of a non transient town--that was hard, but it was a way of life that am happy to have had the chance to live in. All in all--we have our moments here, some days are harder pressed than others, but we are better for it and we have a right to once in a while sing of our California Dreamin'

Prima Ballerina?

Possibly...
The same day Sailorman came home was the first day of Crazy-one's ballet class. Since she had been asking for this for over a year, I took it as she was really serious about this; therefore, armed with the Eldest Unfortunate's old ballet outfit, I threw her but into the 4-6yr class. She gets to go once a week and she got to be in the same class that her little friend from swim lessons... she's the cutie who is giving pointers on where the foot is to be placed.





I really enjoyed taking pictures of this class, due to the mirror, you can see what is going on in the class and on the faces children.




This was really fun to watch, and I so felt the teacher's plight in keeping all those little feet on the same page. I got to experience that with assisting in the Aikimites class for AOM, it is more like herding cats and she did a great job! Crazy Unfortunate loved the class and can't wait to go again. We are going to look at the Thursday class to see if it is just as good, if so then we might put her in that so she can go twice a week and stop driving me insane with questions and fits of when ballet class will be.

















The pictures are in the order of the day; eating a little snack while walking to the class here on base, then the class itself, and last--our walk home. What better way to top of a fantastic class? Have your newly-in-port Daddy, on his run, coming down the street after catching some Zzz's!