it's not life that matters but the journey...

before I forget, I want to say thanks to serialbathera and dawnie1970 for the virtual footlongs on my user info page! yummy! makes me think of my days in Chicago!
I don't eat a lot of hot dogs anymore, but it's one of those foods that stir up memories of my childhood and long summers!

speaking of long summers, I can't wait for my actual summer to begin. I've got only 7 more days of teaching and then I'm free until September. Well I do have a commitment on July 29th - reading and editing junior high school students' speeches and recording them. fun stuff! and then on August 4th, I have a full day of teacher training- which means that I have to do team teaching demonstrations with a Japanese teacher in front of elementary school teachers! in a hot stuffy room! fun stuff! But then August 5th, in the afternoon, I will board a plane for Seattle, WA and spend three weeks with my family! now that's really the fun stuff! I can't wait!

anyway - this was supposed to be a really busy weekend, but today's plans were canceled - I was supposed to go with my friend Miki to an onsen today (a natural hot spring bath), but she called this morning and canceled! I was a little pissed at first - I was really looking forward to soaking in some healing water - but it couldn't be helped I guess - she had to accompany her sister to some ceremony at a temple because her sister's husband died about a month ago. and I guess she must have forgotten about that when she made plans with me a couple weeks ago. Since I didn't want to sit around all day, I went for a walk this morning, thinking that it wouldn't be as hot (since it's been a bit cooler recently) - however, after about 30 minutes, I was miserable, so I came back home a sweaty mess! So with my energy thoroughly tapped, I just sat around all day watching Supernatural shows and studying Japanese. then this afternoon, when he returned from his weekend music gig, my husband took me shopping and I bought some new clothes, some stuff for my cat, and some pizza for dinner!

Luckily I do have fun plans tomorrow - I'm meeting two girls who I met at the company orientation in March, and we haven't seen each other since April. We're gonna hang out in Shizuoka (a big city nearby) and shop and then eat a big Thai food dinner!

oh before I go, I'll share with you another fun part of my day. we've been having an ant infestation in our little tv room downstairs - I'm not sure where they're coming from, but I seriously must have killed about 30 of the suckers today while I was sitting watching DVD's and attempting to study! and then, when I went into the bathroom this afternoon, I felt something crawling on me and looked down to see a huge black spider on the floor (that had been on me!)... so ever since then I've felt as if I have bugs crawling on me! yuck!

well I'll leave you with that lovely image - happy weekend everyone!
stay cool, have fun and stay away from ants and spiders!

this has been a pretty uneventful weekend, as usual. Yesterday I went to the optometrist for my biannual exam and to get some new glasses. every time I go I realize my eyes are getting worse - and since I have full vision only in one eye, it's kind of imperative I take good care of it. I have a discount on exam and glasses, but still spent more than $300 for everything. but it is a necessity. Unfortunately, after the appointment, I had such a major headache (probably from all the drops and the dilation) I spent the afternoon resting my eyes. My husband had a gig last night in a suburb really far south, about 45 miles away, so I just decided to stay home and rest - I had absolutely no energy to go out - it's amazing how debilitating a headache can be. So I ended up watching three movies!!

In the late afternoon I turned on the television and started watching a movie on the Encore mystery channel called Fear X . ( more )

After this movie ended, I was cooking dinner and another movie started on the same channel, a movie called The Messengers with Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller. ( more on this movie )

The best movie I watched was the one I rented from Netflix. Yay I finally rented a good movie! It is called Death at a Funeral and it was one of the most clever and hilarious films I've seen in awhile. ( more )

I never did write reviews of the other films I watched a couple weeks ago which were Cassandra's Dream , the Woody Allen film with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, and Pineapple Express . ( cut for more reviews )

Well that's my movie reviews. Wow I'm tired. and I never did read my textbook this weekend and I have about 90 pages to read - but at least I have until Thursday. It's time for bed now - if the stupid kid downstairs would just turn down his music!!

hope everyone had a great weekend!

My cold is finally on it's way out!! On my way home from work on Friday I stopped at the drug store and bought more decongestants and a neti pot. I even used the neti pot once on Friday night - kind of a weird experience, but it felt good and it cleared me out! And thankfully now I don't even need it - I can breathe! And the best thing about feeling better? I have actually been able to get out and about this weekend - I wasn't totally housebound! Yesterday of course I was a bit delayed by the torrential rain, which started on Friday and continued until late afternoon on Saturday. It slowed down enough around 3 p.m. that I could get out for a bit of shopping. But I found that my local Family Dollar store has closed - I'm so disappointed because they had the best deals! and when I went to Dollar Tree, they were out of everything I needed. What a waste of time!

Last night we went out to see a Beatles tribute band called American English at the blues bar near where we live. They were awesome! The last time I saw a Beatles tribute band was when the band Rain played at my university in Sacramento many eons ago (eep - about 20!!) As far as know American English is a Chicago-based band, and they are unbelievably accurate in their depiction of the Beatles, musically and visually. I can't share their sounds with you, but check out their website
and ( click here to see pics that I took last night )
we left before the band did their final "Abbey Road" costume change, because we were both tired (and the band was taking 40 minute breaks between sets) but I hope to see them again! and isn't the guy doing George Harrison absolutely adorable??

hope everyone had a great weekend and a great holiday:)

we had another crazy, busy weekend.
saw some horse racing, gambled, won some money, saw some cool bugs, bought some clothes, went to the beach, watched some surfers...

( details, details... )

We both start classes this week - I have no idea why this stupid school starts classes before Labor Day - but oh well! Tomorrow I'm meeting some girls that I used to work with at my old job - one of them just got out of basic training (she's in the Army), so it should be fun to see her!

Next weekend is the Jazz Festival downtown - for some reason we've never gone in the many years we've been in Chicago, so it's about time we check it out. Plus Kenny Burrell will be there - the man's a guitar genius!

wow - September is almost upon us - it will soon no longer be summer. and I'm already starting to feel autumn in the mornings and evenings. I'm happy for fall - but not looking forward to the cold winter that is being predicted. not at all.