on being sick and the cursed lure of karaoke
man, now my throat REALLY hurts.

had a good time last night, though.... ate some good food, drank grape soju, rapped, gave germs, received germs, germs all around! good times, good times.

on being sick and the rain
man i feel crappy. i guess i can be thankful that i feel so miserable when the weather is miserable too. i like to think that the world is empathetic, which i appreciate. it's torturous to feel sick when the beach is calling your name...

in terms of all this rain lately, i had a little discovery of the differences of pre-japan/post-japan britt. in the days o' pre-japan, i hated rain, i wanted nothing to do with it. i would avoid touching it, panic if i had to drive in it, and be overall disgusted with its mere existence. but after living in the land of sideways WET snow, frozen rain, and typhoons, i have come to have a different understanding of the levels of a storm, the timing of how long to stay in the rain, and what is and isn't considered "waterproof". i accept it now, and am much more tolerable of walking around sans umbrella.

but as i muse on this little nugget of self-development, i realize: hey smarty, maybe if you hadn't been walking around in the rain, you wouldn't be sick.

carpe noctem, carpe diem
it's 6:30 in the morning. it's cold. it's raining. and your boss just text-messaged you to tell you that she's off to epcot down in 80degree orlando, florida.

it's difficult to want to get out of bed on days like these.

however, my fabulous weekend makes up for it. after the hot burrito boy incident (below), i met up with chris and steph to watch jturtle at lestat's. he went on last instead of first, so chris and steph and i hung about talking and practicing our umbrella flipping skills. i dragged myself out of bed bright and early on saturday for some serious karate time (um, 3 hours anyone?) and that night nat and i went dancing with some her friends downtown. with all that work, even i rested on sunday.

incredulity
doc and i had an impromptu california burrito run last night, and as we were leaving santana's, 2 guys were walking in.
b: ((thinking)) "well, heLLO..."
d: "hey, i know that guy."
b: "which one, the first guy, or the really hot second guy?"
d: "uh, the second guy. he's in my class."
b: "he's a hot doctor?"
d: "he's an orthopedic surgeon. well, is going to be an orhopedic surgeon."
b: "and you didn't introduce me?!"
d: "well, you should go back in there and pretend you know him and say, "hey, tyler... ((insert ridiculous, convoluted plot involving lying to the guy here))
b: "uhh, i'm not going to do that."
d: "aww, come on, it will be hilarious! the old britt would do it."
b: "yeah, and a real friend would hook it up!"

i love doc-a-roo. ... but, dude, help a sista out!

itsumo nihon ni tsuite shabeteiru
'tis the season of the JET Programme's interviews for the next infantry of eigo no senseis to spread their native-english-ness across the unsuspecting japanese masses.

being retired from that brigade, i've suddenly become a person of popularity as all the hopefuls seek my experience and wisdom about the flouride-free land of japan. not even kidding, since the beginning of the year, i've been solicited by 7 different people to talk about it... which is fine, because hey, i like to talk. but at this rate, if i ever get my book published, no one will need to read it!

hmmm... rethinking my strategies here...

on a personal note of japanese progress, i actually initiated a conversation in japanese to a native speaker... which is HUGE considering the shade of red my face becomes when i speak, mostly due to lack of confidence in my skills. but she was delighted, and didn't mind my deer-in-the-headlights-look and exclamations of "whoa! way too fast!". plus she's queen-mama of a j-restaurant, so this daring could come in handy. satomi-san, yoroshiku!

well that doesn't make sense a'tall.
i was in traffic this morning for 3 hours. three. hours. which i don't mind... but man i was hungry. i'll have to remember to pack provisions for my morning commute from now on. and more disco music. definitely more disco.

my friend told me yesterday that her mother used to tell her not to laugh because it would cause wrinkles. i think that's ridiculous. in 10, 20, 30 years from now, if i'm just a bundle of furrowed skin, at least it tells the world that i had a good time in the process.

who you callin' ho?
i've come to be known as pretty fashion-forward at work, or at least fashion-unique. today i'm wearing black stockings with little red hearts (happy v-day and all), and it's a nice change to have peoples' attention drawn downwards, if you know what i mean ; ). the other day i wore some argyle-print stockings, and spent most of the day in conversations about my legs:
m (a vp @ work): wow, look at those harlequin hose!
*b*: uhh, i think they're argyle.
m: isn't that pattern called harlequin-something? you have on harlequin hose!
*b*: huh, that would be a funny name for a band... ((everytime she said "hose", i was thinking of plural "ho"))
m: umm, right.... i guess...
*b*: ... or a gang.
m: well, that would be some pretty stupid gang members to name themselves that.
*b*: how many gang members do you know in mensa?
m: uh, good point.

boo to all that. and then some.
i haven't been in the best of moods lately for reasons that i'm not really sure of. to make it easy, we'll blame it on pms. that's probably not the whole of it, but at least explains why i was temporarily gratified with a packet of mini-powdered-donuts lovingly flung upon my desk by the fly-by shama-lama. she understands the way to my heart on those yucky days, and for that i feel loved.

so i do apologize if i've been grumpy. i will admit that i'm not trying to hide it, either. the way i see it, every once in a while i'm allowed to wallow, and i can be chipper for those other 51 weeks for the year.

blessed are the flexible
for they shall never be bent out of shape.

to all the hotties i have loved, this one's for you... Kind of.
upon the revelation of a current/former love interest to a third party, it never fails to amuse me when that person reacts by saying (surprised? approving?) "oh! he's... cute!". like today: i was talking to a friend of mine who happens to know my ex, but didn't know we were together. when she found out, her face lit up and she enthusiastically mouthed the words "he's HOT!" (uh, yeah, he is) and said "good for you!" (uhhh...?) my initial reaction is usually along the solid lines of maturity sounding something like "well, duh!" but i have learned to restrain myself from doing that anymore. from there, i continue to cycle through some resentment (like, "what, you're saying that i'm not or something? like i couldn't get him if i wanted? like you're surprised?") and usually end up somewhere in the neighborhood of pride. My actual reaction is usually "i know!" but i have to admit, an occassional "thank you" slips in.

i like to think i have good taste.

aww geez
at karate last night i told this 16 year old that the kick she was trying to do made her look like michael jackson. she looked horrified. i, of course, was picturing mister-sparkly-gloved, moonwalking, eee-hee!ing man i used to want to marry... but in her lack of existence around that time, all she could picture was the ghostly freakshow on many a court tv program these days. for a moment, i understood her horror... that is until she said "that's before my time."

eww and ugh.

on a different kind of 'ugh', i have decided to once again take japanese this semester. the problem is that there are technically no classes for me to take at mesa, so i tried to audit the conversation class on tuesday. hamanaka-sensei (who will probably still call me dorothy-san) was insistent that i already knew what she would cover (i beg to differ), but suddenly got excited that i could help her teach!
(!!!)
uhh... right.

bestest email ever.
to: b_hoshi
from: hideko704
subject: Wow ! Thank you.

Hi,Britt. Thank you so much for my camera! I'm crying!! How come you
can found? I'm happy!