now that I've got a moment

Well here I am at work again. I have been keeping myself busy and out of trouble. Maybe too busy. This was my first full week back to work as last week we had a couple of days we could go home early because of the typhoon. Most days I have been quite busy getting back into it but today the kids have tests that have nothing to do with us, so I have had to do nothing all day. (or is that nothing to do?) Coming here full time again has been particularly hard on the little guy. Wednesdays I work especially late, leaving in the morning a little after 7 and coming back a little after 8 at night. He is not happy with me on Thursday mornings and especially this last one. He was crying and saying he didn’t want me to go to work. Granted he was tired from going to bed late and getting up early, but I felt soooo bad. Like I wanted to cry myself. Really. Luckily this weekend and the next are long weekends, so I will have some more time to spend with him, so I told him that and it seemed like he got better but I still felt like sh*t all day.
Anyway, more about what’s going on here. I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done. And I don’t, but it’s my fault. I have decided that I am going to try and get into better shape, which means going out for a walk earrrrly in the morning. (Like 5ish). There is a little path that I can take and I don’t have to worry about traffic. I enjoy it because it gives me some time to myself, to listen to music and just do something physical. There are always other people on the path at the same time, pretty much regulars I guess. I always feel better after having gone.
Another reason I’m busier lately is because I have decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. There are 4 different levels of this test and I got the 2 easiest ones years ago. But the gap between the one I have and the next one I want is huuuuge. I’m quite sure that I’m not going to pass but I guess I want to try a little. I have thought for years that I wanted to take this test so I decided to take it this year to try and light a fire under my butt to get myself to study?! Of course it’s only offered once a year, in December, and I decided at the beginning of September to take it, so I’m quite sure that I won’t be passing it.
So one of the things I did this summer was to make myself a bag. Actually I managed quite well, I thought, despite the fact that the last time I made something I was in junior high school. When I was in the Vancouver airport I saw a bag that I thought was really cool and almost bought it but didn’t because I decided that I didn’t have the money. Of course, after I came back I regretted not buying it. So I looked on the internet for shoulder bags and across this tutorial for making them. I really thought I couldn’t do it but a lot of the comments people left on the tutorial were from people who couldn’t sew and they all said how easy it was. My mother-in-law also encouraged me-she thought I would be able to do it. She also recommended trying it once with scrap material, and I’m so glad she did because I wouldn’t have otherwise. After I figured out how to do it and did the cutting and everything, she asked me if I knew how to use a sewing machine with a foot pedal. I thought that was pretty strange-are there sewing machines without pedals? Until I saw what she meant. It’s a sewing machine that you have to continuously pedal because it’s not an electric sewing machine. It took me a while to get used to it but I did. (Not that I can sew really straight or anything.)


After making a practice one, I finally started on my bag. The tutorial mentioned using recycled materials and because I am um, frugal, I thought that would be cool. I had a pair of pants that a friend gave me when she left Japan that were too big for me but I liked the material so I kept them. I decided to use them and found some scrap material to use for the inside that I thought would look good. In the end, I was pretty pleased with the result.

The only other thing that was going on around here is the typhoon that happened last week. The river in front of my house overflowed into the street in front of my house and came up into the front yard, almost to the door. It totally freaked me out. This is a picture of the river the next morning, after it had gone down. I usually can't see the river from this vantage point.

Enough for now, I guess I should do some work. Actually Tuesday is another day that I don’t have to do anything because the students have physical fitness tests, and all but the first period

(when I don’t have a class) is cancelled. Yay!