G'Bye, Polly Pie; we will miss you.

My visa is entirely the cutest thing ever. Besides my standard passport photo's transformation into a nice black and white vignette portrait, it is also decorated with light pink cherry blossoms and Mt. Fuji, as well as a watermark in the shape of a fan with the letters 'V-I-S-A' across it. Truly adorable.

In honor of LoKate's blog post dedicated to her sister's food, I have to say that I made a dish taught to me by the one and only LKS; the Spanish Tortilla. It was quite delicious, especially for being gluten free (terrible, terrible, terrible diet--I truly think the doctor that I visited is straight up bananas if he thinks this business will continue past the two week mark). It's been so long since I've had a proper dessert (not since Saturday at least)--I'm starting to hallucinate (and by hallucinate I of course mean that I am very, very grumpy. I'm also displeased with everything. Except my very cute visa [But I do hate new Google--where is the Image option???]. I have also become forgetful. See P.S.).

P.S. Suzy informed me that I missed the Glee season finale tonight, which is completely ridiculous of me. Thank goodness for DVR!

Lobstervations.

LoKate left that word in her comment on my last entry, and after I read it, I just sat giggling to myself for awhile while I repeated it.

I always know that it's the start of a good week when I come home and am greeted by a brand new dog. For some reason, these dogs are usually black (at least 4), and they usually are brought home by my siblings (Roar-dawg being the biggest repeat offender here). The latest, however, was brought home by my sister to dogwatch for her co-worker. This fine, noble creature goes by the name of Polly, and can launch herself sideways off of couches. Isn't she wonderful?? Taco went nuts at first, but now he more or less tolerates her. When we play with the tug-o-war chew toy, Taco will chase after it, and Polly will chase after Taco. Goldie has no idea what is going on ever.

Also, I have bought my plane ticket and submitted my Visa application. I'm going to Japan for realsies now. The last things to do are pack and g00d-bye party!!

One last lobstervation (even though the rest of the blog was actually more statements than lobstervations): when looking up "Why" with Google, the top suggestion is "Why can't I own a Canadian". Fortunately, I found out the reason for this in Yahoo! Answers: the Teen edition.

Shout Out Loud!

I bought my plane ticket today! Isn't that funky fresh? It was bloody expensive, but money is replaceable, isn't it? Unlike people. Speaking of...Emily Winter comes home this week! And Laurel leaves Monday. Holy Smokes! Like the Smoke Monster. Which was one of those questions on LOST that did get answered, even if a long time ago. Speaking of, I loved the LOST finale. I cried for about 15 minutes after it ended, but only in private. In fact, I can't think of Juliet and Sawyer without bursting into tears. Oh dear...

But anyways, a lot of people complained that LOST didn't answer questions, but so far, all I've seen people do is complain about these ambiguous questions without actually saying what any of their questions were that didn't get answered--

(P.S. EDIT: there are some spoilers here--somehow this become a LOST rant). The only thing I've seen so far with actual questions (some of which did actually get answered--someone wasn't paying attention) (P.P.S. How crazy was it when we first saw the Smoke Monster? And we were like 'What IS that thing???' Though it was answered awhile ago, I still feel like it was a good twist).

was this-->http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936291 --and I'm betting people will be borrowing from this to form their complaints. But here's the deal--many of the questions that people want to know the answer to are either a) unimportant, b) ideas purposefully left open-ended, or c) stuff that can't be answered because the question arose during a time when the writers didn't really have a solid grasp on what they were doing, and so discrepancies came about (example: the smoke monster, revealed to be the Man in Black whose purpose was to get rid of Jacob/Jacob's candidates so that he could get off the island, killed a bit haphazardly when it first came about probably because they didn't really hadn't decided what they would do with the character--also, a similar question also arises when Jack sees his dead dad off-island--when Jack sees his D.D. on-island, it's the Man in Black; but for the story to be accurate, Jack has to be hallucinating when he sees him off-island, because the MiB can't get off the island--I don't think that connection was made until later by the writers).

But anyways, the point isn't to get all the answers, because that's not realistic, and it's not very enjoyable. The creators' desire was to create an intelligent show that didn't necessarily cater to the lowest common denominator, which requires that viewers may sometimes need to think for themselves, and come up with their own theories. In my opinion, this makes the show much more enjoyable, because we form a connection to the characters (especially those who have watched it for many years), and if we are told exactly what happens to them and what their situation is, it is easy to become frustrated if the outcome is not what we hoped for. I think the ending was a perfect way to close because it made a full circle--it focused on these flawed people and the redemption they found.

Ok, I'm done riding this train for now. So recap: ticketed, hello, good-bye, LOST.

And now a little extra random bonus:

Song of the Day: Shout Out Louds, "Impossible" (Alternative: "A Hard Rain in Tokyo", SOL) --Such a good band live!

Push it...push it real good.

Hi Kids!

Today I received a very nice lovely delicacy in the mail today. I knew right away from the envelope and the style of writing that it had come from Japan; I just didn't know where in Japan it had journeyed from. When I opened it, I was greeted with this lovely surprise:

My sad and pathetic computer skills present you with a wrongly directed, poor quality version of this wondrous little letter that came from my future co-workers. I was wondering if some such letter might be headed my way, since Hera had shown me a similar written welcome from her future/now current workmates. Getting the letter helped cheer me up from the frustrating run-around I've been getting from the online airfare booking agencies (those foo's think they can offer me bait and switch for a $800 flight originally promised at $577? No sirree. Momma don't raise no foo').

Anyways, everyone remember that my g'by' party is on June 19th, and LoKate's Surprise goodbye party is this Saturday (details to follow any questions asked).

Quotes of the day:

Carrie: I sat by the weirdest couple on the plane today. One of them looked just like Abraham Lincoln.

Jillian: I hope it was the man.

I'm making Mac 'n' Cheese Tomorrow! Mm Mm Mm!

Today, after she convinced Katrina to reschedule the picnic because she was unavailable, Laurel dragged me to Border's on the premise that I could read comics and keep her company while she worked (ok, more like I wanted to get ice cream and photos from Costco and then go read comics, and she needed to work, so I tricked her into getting into my car--but at least this time I didn't force her to listen to Tegan and Sara on repeat), but the silly bookstore was out of THE ONLY COMIC I WANTED (the same one the library was out of!), and so I had to read travel books about Japan (also, I bet the majority of the 3 people who read this forgot what the sentence was about after the first pair of parentheses, so recap: sneak attack, ice cream, T&S, comics, no comics, tour book).

Anyways, after looking at every travel guide covering Japan, I realized that the prefecture I am going to is insanely unpopular. Comparison: if we compare prefectures to SoCal counties, Saitama is Imperial County. To which all of you will reply, "Not a real place." But apparently, it is! I was originally going to say San Bernardino County because as we all know, that place is gHeTtO, but I looked at a map outlining counties just for fun and saw that Imperial is not just a highway that will take you from LAX to Anaheim Hills (and that nice international market with all the lovely desserts!), but the name of a living, breathing county (well...maybe. But I am fairly certain that, similar to the above paragraph, 1 of the 2 determined readers that has continued this far will not remember what this section is supposed to be about). But despite not having any info on my soon to be residence (not that it matters; I've been to Saitama), one of the books did have a good deal of very entertaining material.

One of these topics mentioned a particular area of Tokyo that will be rather close to me, so I felt it was appropriate to read into. The specific topic of the section concerned Otaku; the nerdy Japanese population that is overly into comics and video games and maid cafes. The usual culprit is a Japanese male with worn out, bland clothes and an awkward shyness that is more off-putting than endearing, especially when they cling to their anime character body pillows. However!, this article mentioned that while men are the usual characters indulging themselves as Otaku, there is a small portion of the population that is female, and are usually seen frequenting Ikebukuro (the place in Tokyo that will be by me)--and this portion of Otaku ladies are usually interested in what they call "boys' love", which is apparently very attractive boys who are in love with each other. There are even cafes that feature women who dress up as they very attractive men for the women visitors (so follow: girls who like pretty boys visit places where pretty girls dress as pretty boys to draw them in). I find this very hilarious, but I tend to think it is probably one of those small facets of of Japan that foreigners find and blow out of proportion as a way to describe what Japan is like.

Did someone step on a cat??

So. Right now my room smells like flowers. Fresh flowers. Which is really freaking me out, because I definitely don't have any flowers that I can see, so who knows what that smell really is.

Something I'm really excited about is my awesome awesome awesome MP3 speaker/radio/candy factory apparatus that I got for my birthday and only today figured out how to set the alarm. It was amazing, I was pleasantly stirred awake by the lovely flow of the Gonzalez piano cover of Feist's "One Evening", which is a much more soothing way to wake up then my phone's current blasting of the first notes of "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire (while you would think the name would imply an awesome idea for an alarm, it is actually extremely terrifying to suddenly be jolted out of the sleeping world by it).

I recently finished the book "90-Day Geisha", a memoir of one girl's time spent in Tokyo as a hostess. It's the second autobio I've read recently of whities going to Japan (the other being "Wrong About Japan"), and I find it incredibly fascinating that people feel such a need to try and explain Japanese from a foreign perspective, because I feel like it often comes out slightly correct, but very biased. I thought this book was pretty interesting, but the lead character kind of struck me as a brat--she liked to make it very clear that she was way above the bizarre world and was really only participating as an observer with the sheer motivation of writing a book. Also, she liked to point out how much of a model she was, but when I saw the pictures of her, I couldn't help but think, "Really?" Not because she wasn't pretty, but just because she was so average looking (but like...average pretty). Is everyone a model these days? Kind of like how everyone's a photographer? Yeah, well, whatever; the book was still interesting and got me pumped for Japan.

I'd love to continue to ramble on in an incoherent fashion, but it is bum-thirty in the morning and I should be sleeping for some reason because that is a practical thing to do at this time of night. So goodnighty nights.

Hello Young Lovers

I'm getting so excited to go to Japan because I got to talk to Hera Yoon this morning, and in her honor, I will post a bunch of pictures of her on the post today. Hera left for Tachikawa in February with the same company I am joining, so she is acting as the test sample for me.

But let me tell you, right now I am not very happy. This is very specifically due to my having swimmer's ear, which doesn't make sense because I haven't gone swimming since the fall. In high school, I used to get swimmer's ear all the time (mainly in swimming [some people read just that part and say 'Obviously you would get

swimmer's ear from swimming; what else would you get it from, running?', so to continue-->]; for some reason I hardly ever got it from water polo [smart asses]); the pain would sometimes cause me to miss school, and when I came back, I would have to use the kickboard all of practice (for some people this probably seems jolly and good fun, but I was a sprinter--and my main source of power came from my arms. My legs were like useless pieces of flotsam behind me). Anyways, that long story is mainly just a lead-up to say that my earache basically feels like someone is stabbing me in my ear while also causing my jaw to ache in a numb sort of way. And that makes me grumpy :( It was also embarrassing because the height of the pain came during a jaunt to Wal-Mart; the pain was so sudden and intense that I would grasp at my ear in a jerk-reaction while cowering ever so slightly--it probably looked to observers like I was getting some sort of secret haywire transmission in my ear, or like I was trying to block the voices in my head.

But the point is, I went to Wal-Mart to get boxes so that I can start moving out of my room, since I don't plan on living with my parents when I come home. And what I've come to learn is that I have a lot of crap--a ridiculous amount of useless crap, piles and piles of clothing that I'm fairly certain I don't go through regularly. And yet, as I try to organize everything and try to figure out what I can get rid of, I think to myself, "No, I need this--this is vital. This is very important and I'm sure that I will definitely want to keep it forever." I imagine this is going to be problematic if I want to continue down the path of effectiveness. Does anyone feel like cleaning for me? I can't pay you, but I will make you a 2 months supply of baked goods. Types of baked goods I will make you for cleaning my room:

-Shortbread

-Choco-chip cookies

-Marzipan (the candy, not fondant, but I can cover it in chocolate)

-Pound cake

-Sugar cookies with homemade frosting

-Pudding/pudding pies

-Mudpie

-Monkey bread

-Cinnamon rolls

-Cake cookies (they are pretty awesome)

-Brownies: plain, peanut butter, or marshmallow flavored

-Or any other type that you prefer, just let me know

All this can be yours! Now that I have sufficiently gone down multiple different paths in this post so as to make the original point unidentifiable, I will say Sayonara.

Song of the day: Know Better Learn Faster --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjqSxrsL5M