catch up

so much has happened in the last couple days:

thursday i went to see Blue Man Group in roppongi with Ty. the show was absolutely amazing and everyone who has a chance to see it should go see it. i think it's showing until september. maybe october? funny, unbelievable, interactive, artistic, musical, creative, energetic and worth every yen.
the three blue men came out after the show for photos and "signatures" (they touch their face and then use their fingerprint, or they've been known to kiss programs or papers people hand them)
we went out for dinner afterward and split a bottle of wine, which led to an awkward goodbye at the train station (though it would have been even more awkward withOUT the wine!) and a hinting around that i kind of like him. yikes.

friday was presentation day. aka the culmination of the last 2 weeks of the english program at school with the 9th graders. things went well and the kids did a great job in the end. i left work around 6pm, stopped home and then headed out to shimbashi for july's dinner with The Group. it was an okinawan restaurant (hardly big enough to call a restaurant) and it was really good. we managed to start into a second (2 liter?) bottle of awamori sake. there was drunkness. it was Style's (belated) birthday celebration too, so there was cake and candles and singing. and we even tried the sake with the snake in it! it wasn't bad actually. tasted a bit like chai.

i made it home and changed into pajamas and remembered to take my contacts out, but seemingly forgot everything else. i woke up saturday morning, hair still done the way it was friday, in a mild panic: what time is it?! i have work!! luckily it was 6:08am, a mere 3 minutes after i usually get up on school days. i have no idea how my body managed to wake up after having too much to drink and being generally overtired, but it did. i was impressed with myself. i made it to work for the farewell ceremony for the program teachers, and wrapped up loose ends at school. didn't get out until 5pm.

i came home and was a zombie. i think i fell asleep on my couch for a bit, then i think i ran an errand or two, but i really don't even remember. i do know that i went to bed at 10pm and subsequently sent out the same mass email i sent earlier that day to all the same people again. i really need to stop trying to respond to text messages that wake me up in the middle of the night.

sunday was the matsuri party at my house!
in the end, we (about 15 or so people) made it to the festival, enjoyed food (i ate 2 awesome snowcones), bought good luck charms at the shrine, took tons of photos, and then came back to my place. after sitting around drinking for a bit, and some people leaving, we made our way outside onto the street and played with sparklers.

it was so much fun. the weather was nice, my friends were great, the atmosphere was fun and i'm glad i organized it. i had hoped Ty would stay til the end and that sleepover would happen, but he left pretty early in the night (turns out he had plans to wake up at 3am the next day to go surfing...) and we didn't really talk much. too bad.

but Cheer stayed until the very end and we ended up talking about boys and she really threw me for a loop when she just started bawling and talking about her recent breakup (?) with her boyfriend. she's heartbroken, and i hugged her and let her just cry. we talked about boys, and the future, and work, and friendship, and...yeah, it was emotional. she's such a good friend. i'm glad we work together and can be friends too.

today i woke up early to call the cab company to arrange for the english program teachers (the college kids) rides to the station from their apartment. then 2 hours after that, i rode my bike to the station near my house and met up with them to send them off to the airport. then i made the same run later in the afternoon for another bunch of them on a later flight. meanwhile, i multi-tasked 2 loads of laundry at the laundromat and bought a new duffle bag because i realized the zipper on mine was broken when i used it to carry my laundry. and since i'm leaving for bali tomorrow (!!!) i need a working travel bag.

and i just love the colorful sunglasses pattern!!
after all that (talk about exercise: 50 minutes total on my bike!) i made my way to shibuya to the Loft. i went with a mission to buy a couple of my favorite notebooks but i got side-tracked and bought a lot of other stuff too:

@Loft: a beach football, pens, notebooks and red plastic heart-shaped sunglasses

@Gap: a hooded t-shirt-like top and a skirt

@Zara: a t-shirt and a dressy dress


all but the dressy dress will be coming with me to bali. (the dress is for a wedding at the beginning of august that i got invited to.) it was a serious spending day. retail therapy at it's finest. and now i'm off to pack for bali! i'm SO ready for a vacation. i won't be posting while i'm gone, but i'll be writing lots (hopefully!) and taking even more pictures. stay tuned!