last night pep talk
in a handful (well, two, just barely) of hours we’re getting on a train to then get on a shinkansen (super high speed train) to osaka. after a day there, via shinkansen again, off to the tokyo area for two days. then fly directly (yay) into l.a. where we’ll be for way too few days doing a ton of stuff (and hopefully squeezing in visits to my three favorite l.a. restaurants) and then back to la paz. whew. and we gotta hit the ground running there too. so much, so much!
but tonight, i’m enjoying this house. it’s a beautiful old wooden house, built almost a hundred years ago. the roof looks like dragon scales (!). the shoji are beautiful and surprisingly very insulating. the garden is lush, still bringing in new blooms even this late in the year. neighborhood cats pounce and play in the newly-cleared yard. getting dinner together with beautiful dishes that show the mark of a proud housewife not so long ago. and as for our little girl.. the tatami mats have made for soft(-ish) landings while she has been learning how to crawl. she played on the indoor porch, sitting in the sunlight, with zabutons surrounding her in case she tipped over, right where her grandfather and great-aunts played when they were little. she sleeps every night in the room where her father and uncle did as boys. she regularly tosses big grins to the portraits of ancestors above her head as she babbles away. i love love that kind of history.
there’s so much potential in my life. i am so so! lucky to have all these options, all this potential in front of me. i’m looking forward to being back in bolivia very much but i need to remember to see beyond the day-to-day and look at the big picture. i think now that we’re beyond the fog of those newborn days (seven months old today!), i can get and more importantly ~ keep ~ a little perspective.
i want a garden. a community. a house. a linen closet. a workshop. and even more importantly, something(s) (<—ha, already getting ambitious. that means i’m definitely past my bedtime..) i can point to one day and tell my little one, see? your mama did that, she made a difference right there. and then i want double that, in bolivia and in japan. i’m thirty-four and why the heck would i settle now of all times if i waited this long to start so much?
the more i write, not right this moment in this blog post ;) though i know it’s getting a bit wordy this pep talk of mine, but generally speaking, the more i write on a regular basis, the more that perspective stays. also, i think i should write a list of things i want to do this month, this year, and then this lifetime. not a novel idea, but for the first time, it’s appealing to me. i think it could help too, in keeping my spirits high when the grind of life is wearing me down.
anyhow, thinking thinking, and all in such a beautiful sweet cozy setting. i’m a lucky girl.
hope your monday is good. ~~
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{ posted 82 days ago, under familia! & more me }
firefox love
i’ve gone back and forth between google’s chrome and firefox for years now. (haven’t had internet explorer installed on my computer since the old gateway laptop died in 2000. before firefox, i used netscape navigator. ha, what a name.)
chrome is fast, especially compared to firefox’s memory-hogging ways, so i’m regulary tempted to stick with chrome. however, i already have so much of my online life connected to google (search engine, rss/blog reader, email, and bookmarks. theoretically google plus as well, but i’m barely using it so far.), that i really want something different than just another google product.
happily, it’s much easier to stick with firefox now, due to their tab groups feature. i use it constantly, re-arranging groups, labeling them, bookmarking and combining them. it’s such a great feature, give it a try.
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{ posted 85 days ago, under web-talk }
ofuro
after almost three months in japan, i’ve really gotten spoiled by the bathtubs. called ofuro, they are heaven in bath form. an ofuro is basically a super-deep bath tub with no spillover valve and with very hot water. also, (at least with our ofuro), the faucet swings out of the way once the tub is full. and since the ofuro is in a bath room that’s tiled with drains in the floor, you can splash away or duck your head under, spilling water over the edge of the ofuro, without worries. thanks to the incredibly powerful little electric hot water heater located just outside, with a handy little electronic pad located on the wall to lower or raise the temperature, one can have a steaming bath ready in minutes. so, yeah, it’s amazing.
now, bolivia has many excellent attributes, but easy availability of a vast quantity of hot water is not one of them. or at least, it’s pretty difficult to find. for example, our current apartment in la paz was largely chosen because of it’s impressively large hot water tank. i’m looking forward to going back to that apartment, that shower, sure, it’s better than so many showers i’ve known.
but oh ofuro, you will be missed. ha, i don’t think i’ve ever been cleaner as i can’t resist the call of the bath. happily, there are plans, of course, to have our own ofuro in bolivia, very determined plans. soon, soon. in the meantime, we have one week left in shimonoseki and i intend to take full advantage of our little slice of heaven.
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{ posted 86 days ago }
lucky
these fabrics make me want to sew clothing for my baby girl. the matryoshka pattern merits a closer look, btw. ;)
so, yeah, going back for more fabric soon. unfortunately for you, you can’t feel how the fabric feels – i wish i knew what to call it, but it’s texture and sturdiness is almost like oilcloth but no, it’s clearly cotton, just a very sturdy and soft cotton. perfect for toddler clothing.
and with the way our baby is trying to stand and loves taking steps while holding our hands, we’ll be there sooner than later, i’m thinking.
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{ posted 87 days ago, under more craftsy please }
fruit goodness
i never really understood why someone would send fruit in the mail as a gift. those harry and david christmas boxes full of fruit? or fruit of the month gifts? you can buy fruit at the supermarket so very easily. and why get a box of all the same fruit? knowing me, i thought, they’d all be rotting away by the time i ate even half the box. i’m generally pretty bad at eating fruit once i buy it.
but no, turns out i didn’t know myself after all – i love love getting fruit in a box by mail. we’ve been lucky enough to get five boxes during the past three months in japan. eating a little every day. putting some in a bowl to snack on along with some cookies. cutting up big chunks of pear and apple for the baby. (after cutting up a pear, put it in the fridge for a half hour and then eat it cold. so delicious.) hearing her slurp away on a mikan. it’s one of my favorite discoveries lately.
[post #7!]
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{ posted 88 days ago, under hungry }