the Univited

No mr. wasp. you will NEVER get in here . . .

getting bigger . . .

they're walking, babbling, and on the move (super fast too!)



they ARE super cute though. i'm enjoying playing auntie. it's great exercise.

the concept of time has me completely fucked for the past few weeks. i could blame it on the parental units being here or some kind of delayed jet lag or dare i say . . . age? either way, today marks the second time in weeks that i have had to literally RUN home in time to teach a lesson. and it always happens to be after lunch somewhere.

to give you a sense of geography, i live about a brisk 10 minute walk from the station. when i'm in shibuya (like today) it takes me 16 minutes on the train plus the 10 to walk back (assuming that i happen to catch a train right when i get there). but as it happens, i found myself running again so i don't get mistaken for the lazy, half assed english teacher that i probably am. i dive into my apartment, throw on the kettle, peel off my coat, and grab my books. seconds later, ding dong! and the students are wondering why i'm panting like a badwater drop out.

the run isn't half bad if i get enough sleep.

time problem #2 is going to bed at a decent hour. these evenings, i find myself in the company of diminutive british men: time roth (lie to me), simon pegg (hot fuzz/ shaun of the dead), ian mcshane (deadwood) and i can't for the life of me, seem to get a decent night's sleep. i finally drugged myself at 2:30 last night only to finally slip into my drug induced coma an hour later. i woke up groggy and dehydrated, not a good combo.

things are a bit helter skelter at the moment. i wonder if the circadian rhythm will be able to reassert itself . . . .

in case it is age, i'm not holding my breath.

starting off twenty ten . . .

i'm glad the 2000s have ended. it's much more compact to say "twenny ten" than "two thousand nine." fewer syllables make me a happy camper.

the holiday insanity seems to be calming down and business seems to be good for the time being. i worry about getting too comfortable with this as the economic tides seem to change on a whim (especially these days). but i celebrated by purchasing the december 2009 copy of esquire at 253% of the cover price (foreign magazines cost a fortune out here) but it has robert downey jr. on it (wearing a 3 piece suit no less -- rowr, mama likes!), and i tend to like men's magazines a lot more than women's. cosmo and glamour make me nuts. the content of those magazines bother me like nothing else. the occasional flip through is fine when you're bored out of your skull at the airport, but for a good magazine read, i prefer esquire, vanity fair, GQ, details, shape, and time (not necessarily in that order). i am loathed to purchase them at import prices but if rdj is on the cover, i'm kind of a sucker.

its been good spending time with the folks while they were here. mom's food always tastes the best and dad is chronically good fun. gramp's mental cheese is slowly siding off his burger but we are trying to adjust accordingly.

there are occasional dinners with the boys, dates with the gay boyfriend, catching up with overseas friends on the skype, and i get my almost weekly baby fix helping out my friend with twins. i'm trepidacious, but so far, it's been pretty good.

last year was about survival. this year needs to be a bit more about living. stay tuned to see how long the run lasts . . .