New old treasures

Found these cute cups...10 of them actually...at the flea market yesterday too. They are too round to really drink out of, but fun with something little inside.
Can't wait to open up a shop someday!
It WILL happen!

Is this hot?

I am addicted now! I can now understand why my husband always has his camera with him. Its so fun! But, when I take 5 photos of the same thing on different settings, they all look SORTA good to me, but which is really best?

Or is this HOTTER?

Which is the better photo? Beats me!
It's a vending machine, by the way. Here in Japan, you can get hot drinks from the vending machine...hot canned coffee, hot chocolate, tea, hot lemon drink, corn soup, and a funky hot sweet bean drink!

Aloha Lizards!

Love and hugs to my parents who are a few time zones closer to us now in there new home in Kona, Hawaii! I hope a future job will take me somewhere warm with a seaside view for six months someday. While I am needing to bundle up in a blanket these past few days, my mother was complaining of the heat and humidity that greeted her in their new home. But, what also greeted her was a few geckos crawling around. To hear my regularly squeamish mom talking so calmly about "getting used to them" was a shock. Welcome to my world! I am constantly wiping up gecko poo, and occasionally smacking a cockroach or centipede that has peeked its nasty head into my vicinity. I normally think geckos are pretty cute, when their webbed feet are pressed against the windows. But only when they are OUTSIDE the window. If I find one inside and can't manage to sweep it out the door or window, I imagine them crawling across my face in the middle of the night and get spooked! Like lizards, geckos also have that magical ability to lose their tail and go on with their bug-eating business as usual. I have proof. I accidentally slid our screen door over a gecko's tail this summer, only to have it revisit me almost every evening on the window above my kitchen sink while I washed dishes. Seeing its stubbed tail, which makes its crawl look more like a wobble, I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor thing. The cool weather has sent them into hybernation or whatever they do during the cold...so I wonder if I will see it again next year. What might the life span of geckos be anyway? I hope I can go and visit the Hawaiian geckos, apparently a cuter green species compared to our dusty gray ones here!

OYA BAKA

How do you NOT be a doting parent? I can't help it! Not in the moments when she is talking back to me (using words that she undoubtedly heard her own parents say), but definitely in moments when she is trying so hard. The one good thing my daughter has inherited from me is creativity, and she is allowed to cut, paste, paint, or draw any time she wants in our house. I have a huge case of colored paper and craft materials that I have stocked for making teaching materials, and she regularly digs into this and creates whatever her imagination conjures up. Today I caught her in a lip-clenching moment of concentration while she was painting. A child trying really hard and using her imagination...how can you not adore that!

EN GA ARU

" We have the same socks," said my student. Well, almost the same, and close enough to deserve a photo! In Japanese there is a phrase EN GA ARU, which basically means that WE HAVE A CONNECTION. Finding that connection is so fun! Reminds me of the bestseller book I read ages ago, The Celestine Prophecy. Don't remember the bulk of the story, but do remember fancying the idea that meetings with people, no matter how brief or seemingly insignificant, are not coincidental. This also reminds me of the last day of my first stay in Japan, when a person I had never met hosted me for a formal tea ceremony, and presented me with the caligraphied rice paper that was thoughtfully hung in the tea room for the occasion. On it was written the saying, ICHI GO ICHI E, which reiterates the same message that one meeting connects you forever. So, when my student finds something that we have in common, even our socks, I am happy to have made another connection.

The ground I tread

I am where I've been. The places I've been tell a lot about who I am. I am 37 now. What is the first place you think of, for example, when you were 13? Let me give it a try:


1 - Fairbanks, Alaska... where I was born
2 - A pink house on Pine Street...I remember just from photos
(from age 1-6, I have no memories...my first memory is the day my younger brother was born, when I was 6!)
6 - Anaconda, Montana...my young stomping grounds
7 - The Benny Goodman "Green Grass" Park
8 - Georgetown Lake
9 - Yellowstone Park
10- City League Softball field
11- Mr. Everhard's sixth grade class
12 - Mr. Gallagher's English class
13- My junior high school locker, between J and D
14 - Legendary Lodge
15 - My Grandfather's House
16 -Anaconda High stadium and gym
17 - East Coast ... family trips to Boston and D.C.
18 - Rockford Illinois...where I spent the summer with G&G
19 - Carroll College campus
20 - Copenhagen, Denmark...and Eurorail trains
21 - Dance floors in Helena
22 - Uto City Elementary Schools
23 - Beijing and Quillin China
24 - Classrooms in Anaconda where I substituted
25 - Kumamoto Prefecture's International Affairs Office
26 - Handball court...practicing with our Yoka International Team
27 - My KIA car, driving from Montana to New Mexico and back
28 - Arvin, California and Australia
29 - English Conversation school
30 - Tettori Church...on my wedding day
31 - Private English classrooms
32 - At home with my newborn daughter
33 - University classroom
34 - Ito's Yatai Restaurant
35 - Antique stores and Flea Markets
36 - Chicago at Christmas
37 - My daughter's school events

Where will my shoes lead me next? Cheers to the possiblities!