01/05/2006: "More.. than the simple words I try to say."

My birthday actually did wind up occuring, and I've now officially made it through two decades of being alive on this planet. I got a lot of belated birthday cards, which were birthday cards all the same, and for that I'm grateful. Always nice to not be forgotten. Before I prattle on, I have some pictures of my birthday. Nothing impressive, just a few shots of the festivities.

Holding the presents
My grandfather
The cake! (pound cake, by the way)

And there's a birthday in 30 seconds or less (depending on your internet connection speed. Your experience may have taken longer). Cool, isn't it? I got a nice kimono for my birthday. Black, nice, comes with obi and instructions for tying it. There's also a fairly long story behind it, too, which makes it nice and meaningful.

Since I last wrote, I haven't really done much. Just been on vacation, going around Washington and living a relatively calm day to day life. It's a bit depressing being here, with it raining nearly every day since I arrived, but still nice. I watched "Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire", played alot of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" [PSP] and "Tokobot" [PSP], and generally kept myself occupied with television and newspapers. I also picked up a calligraphy brush/pen to practice my calligraphy at a Japanese store (Uwajimaya/Kinokuniya in Seattle) along with a manga compilation (Shounen Jump, I think) and a Japanese book for kids to hopefully help my studying and practice. It always winds up being discouraging when I try to read something in Japanese, as I just don't know enough yet.. but you can advance by pushing yourself. It's also a really good way to learn more kanji, by constantly reading.

I've also managed to probably screw up my relationship with someone whom, at least I thought, I was fairly close to. Unless I'm massively over-reacting, but I rather don't think so. Don't get me wrong, it was I that pushed the issues too hard, and decided to be open and express (at least partially) how I really felt about these things. If given the chance to do it all over again.. I'd probably do exactly what I did before. There are just some things that are important to me and, if necessary, I will throw things on the line. When you thow it all on the line, sometimes you lose. This isn't to say that it's a given that it's all gone between us now, but it just doesn't seem like they're interested in listening to what I have to say.

Tomorrow is my last day in Washington. Fly back to Arizona on Saturday, get back home by Sunday afternoon. Once I get home, I'll have some extra time off of school, so I should be able to get some of my stuff in order (such as, get my books from the greatly-cheaper internet) and hopefully meet up with some people and practice more conversational Japanese. Yes, it seems that's all I do nowadays.. which is kinda true.

That's about it from me. Just going to go run around tomorrow, get my things in order tomorrow night, and back on airplanes (I don't think I have any connections, so that should be nicer). I'll probably write again after I get back, though it may be a few days.

Right now, I think I'll probably play a game or write some e-mails, then maybe go to bed extremely late, which I'm really good at doing.

Oh, and I told Hitomi. If you don't know what I'm talking about.. don't worry about it. If you do, really, it wasn't anything impressive. But I thought it worth mentioning.

Later, then!


Jason