I've had writer's block the last couple weeks. So I'll try to make the posts interesting by putting pictures up. Someone asked to see my pictures of Normandy so since they get to see them, I might as well share them with everyone. These are from my trip to France in winter of 2003. It was really cold (below freezing!) Right this way...

Happy Birthday To Me

Today I turn 30. Ha ha Mom, you have a 30 year old son! Just kidding.

Anyways, you're probably wondering if I feel any older. Well, I've noticed a few things since I've crossed over into my thirties.

1) Your hair falls out.



2) You gain a little weight.



3) Your mind kinda goes and you start getting all paranoid. Your anxiety makes you feel like the walls are closing in on you.



4) Animals no longer respect you.



5) But on the flip side, since you're older, you make more money than the younger guys and to the ladies, that's all that matters.

Car Rally

On Saturday I had my first car rally with people at church which I guess is a kind of scavenger hunt. (Ha ha, I can't say scavenger hunt without thinking "shrimp human game".) So the rules were we had to take pictures of our entire team doing whatever was on the list of things to do. There were different point values depending on the difficulty or level of humiliation of the item. There were things like:

Get a picture with the oldest person
Get a picture on a pony
Get a picture with plungers on your head
Get a picture with a pirate
Get a picture at hole 9 of a miniature golf course
Get a picture doing a human pyramid with at least one stranger

There were also items to bring back, but the trick was you couldn't buy or steal or bribe for anything:

Bring back the oldest penny
Bring back the oldest newspaper
Bring back the biggest rock
Bring back the largest variety of ketchup packets

That was kind of funny because the teams really didn't have time to focus on these things. So the biggest rock brought back was a small rock since only one team did it. The largest variety of ketchup packets was one ketchup packet since only one team did it. The oldest newspaper was that day's newspaper since no one else brought back a newspaper. Ah, but the oldest penny was my team's victory. We found one from 1961. Anyways, we only had two hours to do as many of the things on the list as we could and then we lost points if we were late so you had to be really strategic about it. I don't think we were too strategic, but we got a whole lot of points at Toys R Us thanks to loose interpretation of the things on the list. So at the end our team won, woohoo! And I got a $5 gift certificate to In N Out.

The Dentist

How are any of my posts going to top Japan??? I struggle with making my normal life sound as interesting as the week I just had. Oh well, I press on. Anyways, today was the first time I had been to the dentist in seven years. Why seven years? Well, I had the family dentist until the family moved away then it was tough to make a trip that far to see the dentist. Then I didn't really know of a good dentist in my area. The main reason though was after the most brutal jaw surgery and orthadontics seven years ago, I just didn't want anyone in my mouth for awhile. I just didn't plan for it to be this long of a hiatus. Anyways, after all that, no cavities. So ha ha on all the people that say you must have check ups every six months! Well, now that I have a dentist, I guess I'll see him every six months especially since his office is only down the street from my apartment. I could even walk there if I wanted to. Yay, no cavities!

Back at work today. I ended up never going to the doctor. I felt like I was getting better. So jet lag and being sick are two things you don't want at the same time. They are two opposing forces. Cuz being sick requires sleep but jet lag requires you to get back on your normal schedule by trying to stay awake. So do you sleep when your body needs it or do you try to get back on your normal schedule? I tried sleeping the first sick day and tried staying awake on the second. It seemed to work out ok.

It's weird when you've been away for a little bit. It's like things don't change drastically unless you leave. Like I was only gone a week, but I doubt if I was here the whole week things would have been all that different. I get to work today and half the parking lot is empty. I wonder where everyone is cuz usually I have trouble finding a spot when I get to work. Also it seems like I've been here an hour and no one knows I'm here yet. Hello, I'm here, give me some work to do!

Pics of Japan are up. Just click on the My Pictures link on the right or just click here.

Friday Night

I went over to Hamadera Park which is right near the church. I have to say that Japan owns the U.S. on playground slides. They are really cool. So cool that we went back later that night to ride them, ha ha.

Saturday

On Saturday a couple from the church took us to Himeji Castle which is the best example of a Japanese castle. This is because most of the other castles were destroyed or partially destroyed by war. Many were bombed in WWII. I heard that U.S. took care not to bomb this one though. Some of the other castles have been rebuilt, but then they put elevators in them or something like that so it takes away the authenticity. This castle is also really cool because it stands on a hill so it really does have a commanding presence. The stairways were really steep and must have been made for the shortest people on earth! One staircase I was trying to go down and I had to make sure I didn't bang my chin on the floor there was so little room. It was like I had to limbo just to get down the stairs. I also had to wear these slippers. It didn't take me long to kick those off. It was hard enough trying to keep those on and going down the steep small staircase with a horde of people in front of me and behind.

This was the day of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival in Himeji City. Too bad the cherry blossoms came late this year. We did find one tree that had bloomed, but it would have been really cool to have seen hundreds of trees do that. So that was one thing I was hoping to see in Japan that I didn't get to see. But I guess it's some consolation that a whole city's viewing festival got screwed up so I wasn't the only one.

Sunday

On Sunday I woke up with my fever raging worse than any other day. So I wasn't able to go to church. Aaron told me later that the pastor called me out again when they were welcoming the new visitors and he asked Aaron in front of the whole church where I was. Glad I had a good reason, ha ha. By afternoon I was feeling better but still totally freaking out about a long plane ride home in the sickest condition I've ever been in.

Sunday Again

Which brings me to today. Crossing the international dateline lets me live this day all over again. I felt a lot better on the plane so maybe I'm finally on the road to recovery. I'm still going to the doctor tomorrow. I'm definitely not going to work tomorrow. So I don't think I sounded too bad, but the two people next to me on the plane got other seats elsewhere so I had my own row! I still didn't sleep on the flight though. I grabbed like 50 tissues from the church before I left. I used almost all of them on the flight. And talk about sinus pressure when we landed. I'm still waiting for my ears to pop. So I arrived 5 hours before I left Japan. I was only gone 9 days but it feels like I've been gone a month. It's weird how when you're immersed in a foreign culture like that how quickly you forget your normal life is like. I'll put the pictures up soon.