Today I resumed my Thursday Lunch with Girlfriends. There were 7 of us: Angela, Nghi, Alexandra, Izumi, Yuki, and Becky. We met at Monsoon Cafe which promised to be a fusion of Vietnamese and Thai food. I think at one time this restaurant was probably a very cool place. Today, it felt a little 1980′s, but I was there for the company. I’m not a believer in restaurants that promise to do a lot of different cuisines well. I prefer places with simple names like “Ramen” or “Udon” or “Veggieland”, you get the picture.

Guess what you get here.

Anyhow, it was so great catching up and seeing everyone again. I really need to get a photograph of everyone together so you all can see my beautiful lady friends. I marvel as I reflect on an old me, which was actually young me, and remember a girl who used to say “most of my friends are guys” and think, “Man, was I dumb.”. As I get older, I appreciate my female friends so much. Some of the girls are familiar with my blog, so they were polite with their comments/inquiries and we ended up discussing and analyzing and doing that thing that girlfriends do best: Pick it apart and shed some light.

After describing the events that preceded my “Winter” blog, I was unanimously told to “Get over it”. Then, they told me about their own husbands and their own perspectives and I realized it was time to get over it before IT got re-classified into “Mountain out of a molehill” category. Those of you who know me may disagree, but I truly am a pretty easy-going person and it takes a lot to rile me. Hanging on to a “bitter root” in my chest is really difficult for me. By the end of lunch, I realized I wanted to ”let it go” and I just needed to hear the tribe speak.  I felt lighter and happier than I had in the last few days. Thank you Girlfriends! I swear, it takes a village to keep a marriage together.

Moving on literally:

Last week was Chase’s baseball team group photo. Before the photograph, one of the coaches lined the boys up for uniform inspection and made sure everyone looked… uniform. Down to the number of strips that needed to be seen on their socks. Everything had to check out:

Pull up those pant legs higher!

In the end the photo turned out nicely. I snuck a shot from behind the photographer. Chase got upset with me because I was trying to make him laugh and evidently, smiling is not allowed in these types of pictures:

Some of the other boys seem to enjoy my antics

After practice, I decided to take this picture of the boys “thanking” the field. It feels like 60% of the conversations I hear and am a part of involve “please” and “thank you”. I can’t tell if the Japanese are super polite or super grateful. Maybe both. Some of the rules and protocol in Japan seem silly and trivial, and then there are times when it seems harmonious:

Thank you, Readers!

Until next time…