Gummy Bears

So I walk through my sleep
And everything feels different.
Like a practice run on this ice
Going once, going twice
And you're gone with the melting
Of first and last things.

Rewriting,
Retracing,
Not to restart
But to remember.

Disconnect the atoms
And swim aound inside...
So I walk through my sleep
And everything feels different.

Happy Birthday.
(Ayaiyai like Havana.)

Wheeeeeeeee

I don't know how to start this.
I went to Noda on my freeday to see my brother, and the highlight of the visit was seeing Gene for five minutes, and eating Winnie's yummy food. And then we came home and had Isaac's birthday party, which was enough funness for the day and made up for the dull hours. (Between Gene and Winnie's food, there were just a few)
And then I talked to Laura who bid me blog about my visit.
How? What? I'm trying. I'm trying.
OKAY I KNOW. One thing that really struck me was the cool little prayer pocket-y things that are in the toilet. That's a wicked idea. I'm going to do that here. I must, I must.
I WANT TO GO BUSKING.
I don't know how to end this.

the young ones

I miss my family.

I went to a gathering a few days ago. Everyone ran off to play soccer and I stayed back with the kids. I had a really relaxing time, actually.

Weird.

(There are about five kids looking over my shoulder at the last picture of Mikey screaming "GROSS" in my ear.)

Stuff

I am in Tateyama.
Where are YOU?

I have a bad cough.
What have YOU got?

I'm singing at the Aqualine tomorrow.
Where are YOU singing tomorrow?

Time flies like an arrow
Fruit flies like a banana.

Where in Japan is Florence Yaizu?

(Get it? Carmen Sandiego? Florence Yaizu? Aaaaaahahaha...ha...ha)

I'm taking a little time out in this hot hot room in order to praise the Lord for all the wonderful things he's done for me.

He moved me to a new home, without too much incident, just enough incident to make me happy. That in itself is the hugest miracle I have ever witnessed. Oh Lord our Lord, how excellent.
He's shown me a lot of awesome things since coming here.
I'm working a lot and actually liking it!!!
I'm waking up earlier and going to sleep later and NOT GETTING SICK. (yet)
I'm seeing Masa, and Cherish, and Neen, and Uncle Michael, and Auntie Keiko, and Oli, and Auntie Teresa, and everybody!!!
I got to eat a yummy dinner Marie made at Bayside last night. Mattaku oishikatta. Maaaaan cheese is a good thing to have.
And I got to see Masa and fight over the piano for a whole 2 hours.
I got to go swimming and play badminton at the gym and go jogging and do Claudia Schiffer and play takin' the bacon!!!
I've been having nice good healthy word times every day--and I can tune in to united word time!!! (I was totally wondering how I was going to do at united word time since I usually read by myself and can't concentrate when people are reading out loud. But it's doing good, TYJ!)
I'm closer to Mark and Elaina (!!!!!!!!!!) and Gabe and Windy, and we may see them all soon. WOW what a wonder that Jesus loves me.

Hallelujah.

It's so cool how, even though the Lord might not give you the IDEAL situation, if you try to be positive and keep praising, you find that you don't actually mind your situation...and it eventually becomes just as good as the ideal situation.

Come visit me in my room because I have about an inch of floor space that I'm trying to figure out how to occupy. I figure if I circulate visitors it won't feel so empty.

Just things

Elaina, you don't want to know what blogger looks like in Japanese. Somehow all the inspiration for anything interesting has gone out of this happy compose window.

No, actually, the only reason why I'm not going to write much is because I'm in another home, and I intend to go find helpful and happy things to do with my life to make me into a useful person. I cut carrots and oranges this morning, and I played guitar for everyone this afternoon, and I frolicked around and talked to the OCs, and I talked to Auntie about school for a long time, I gave everybody hugs, I exercised with the girls, and said some perverse things about a buff man on the work out video who moved sensuously, and now I am going to go see if there's anything else I can do.

AT ATTENTION. Reporting for duty.

Sniff. Just trying to make a difference. Just...just trying.

ALSO! I got my tamarindo from Al!!! The package smelled strange, like an exotic country. I guess Mexico is full of weird smells. Or was that India?
Anyway, I ate my first package, and I intend to ration the remaining five. You have no idea how much comfort it has given me. THANKS!!!

For Merry

Shoulda coulda woulda done this a long time ago. Sorry!
Here're some semi-recent pics. Love you!




















Shella and Uncle Masa




















Michelle and cousin Erika




















River trip.




















Your lovely granddaughter Michelle and your...son. You know the guy.

WOW. Two posts in one day to make up for the future famine.

They say you can tell a lot about a person by their e-mail address.
For example, Elaina's used to be something with "sixth eyelash" in it. Now that implies to me sorta emo, but artistic with a corny, random sense of humor.
HA! Am I right or what? It's like the sort of randomness I wish I'd had all my life, but have only just begun to acquire from Elaina, total copycat and loser that I am, because I think it's really cool.
My first e-mail address was parasite101@hotmail.com
Much as that suggests that I was emo, goth, and embittered toward a gutter-like society, the story really is like so: I was sitting down at the computer totally blank as to what to make my e-mail address. I was going to make it "Jesus_loves_florie@yadayada" or "florie777@yadayada", and I thought those were very original and personalized depictions of character. When Abe came in and found something like a thorn in his arm, yelled "PARASITE" as an alternative to cursing at the top of his lungs. Wow, I thought, that would make me sound emo and goth, and that's pretty groovy! Parasite by itself was already taken, so I added 101 as the first thing at the top of my head, a clever homage to my favorite movie about dalmations.
Second e-mail address I made on new years 2003, chilling with my friend in another city. I was thinking, "wow, I'm such a happy-go-lucky, embrace life, living, throbbing human life form!" and I gave myself the lucky identity of aliveness2003. Wow, aren't we burning up!
More recently, though, I was invited to the exclusive underground society of gmail, and my sister happened to be present to witness my inaugeration. Among her suggestions were names like: "jupiter_child" and "petals_of_moonlit_violet" and "daughter_of_the_white_wind" (I think she's secretly an American Indian)
To her, these represented a cool character. A sort of trippy, hippy sort of...cool...something. Like, if one was related to a plant or planet, they were extra "in touch". I remember totally ignoring her and laughing to myself whilst I threw out ideas like "i_suck_super_bad@gmail.com" and "naked_people_everywhere@gmail.com" or "ready_and_waiting@gmail.com", "my_tongue_faileth@gmail.com"
When Sunny expressed disdain for my ideas, I decided to bravely tease her with ideas like "jupiter's_illegitimate_baby" and "petals_of_metal_inferiority_complexes"
(She still secretly hates me. She'll never admit it, but it's true.)
When it came down to it, the only one I seriously thought of using was "swallow_me_whole." I toned it down to "swallow.this@gmail.com" and that is the e-mail address that you can contact me at to tell me how much this post sucks.
Okay, so maybe my sister doesn't hate me. But to her I remain, affectionately, the_biggest_loser_of_the_rhodendron_moon_children

I give in and post about soccer

Since everybody is talking about soccer, let me just slip into a bitter moment and modify my murdered predictions. Scratch out Japan beating, oh, let's say, Brazil for the big win...
My predictions, as of a few days ago, were Germany versus France. And if anyone tries to steal that from me and say "That was my prediction!", you can stick it where the sun don't shine cause I have proof that I was airing that prediction long before you realized Germany and France weren't the same country. (What? Everyone knows? You mean to say I was the only one? Drat.)
Basically. I'm not big on soccer. But I am big on competition. Soccer really really sucks because I get heart-attacks when I'm watching it. Like seriously. "WHAT? THEY GOT A GOAL? Hold on, I can't breathe."
The suckiest thing about watching soccer matches on television is when the REAL soccer fans try to shut me up because I'm making comments that make me look like a complete "douchebag". Touche.
How can you NOT watch a soccer game without screaming words of love and passion to the goalie when he saves your team, time and time again? How can you not see that the other team is totally cheating every time they get the ball? "MAGNETISM!!!"
Since their real names are so hard to remember, especially when they come from someplace like Croatia (I ask you, how do you pronounce Tzudtzd?), it just goes without saying that the smarter people among us would give them their own names. Okay, I will be the first to admit that it got a little out of hand when I named this long-haired Croatian guy Jesus, and then changed his name to Judas when he started playing well. Damn those backstabbing traitors.
Ha, check it out, I'm like, missing my own point.
Funny thing, lots of people ask me "Since you've been in Japan your entire life, how do you know who to vote for in the Olympics or World Cup?" Well let's look at my options, Canada and the States? Give me a break. Even if they were good teams (hahaha!) Japan is where it's at. Always. For longer than forever. Where the moth doth line.
Eksutoreeeemu Nippon!!! Tappuri Kawaguchi!!!
This is the stupidest thing I've blogged about in a looooong time.

In other news, I'm moving tomorrow.