Sleepless Nights and Other Things.....

Today's crane is brown - chocolate brown!

So the other night I got a late night text from Lauren/Chiyoko  - she was not feeling well. As a matter of fact, it looks like she's downright sick. Did not go to school. The feeling is punky. May have a fever - not sure. I told her if she thought her stomach could take it, pop some advil, drink lots of fluid and just rest - and don't forget to call the school and let them know she wasn't gonna be around. Yes, YES, she said - like she already KNEW that stuff! I told her I had read in the Japanese news that pollution from China was VERY bad and a big chunk of pollution was on the loose and in the general vicinity of Northern Kyushuu - right where she was. She assured me her asthma wasn't bad, but was going to rest up for the day in bed. I texted her my <3 (luv), brushed my teeth and went to bed. Well, sort of....

Except I couldn't sleep. Rationally, I know she had it under control, was with adults also raising a kid roughly the same age as Lauren - but I couldn't get to sleep. At first it was just a bit bothersome. Then I did what any good wife would do - squirmed and tossed and turned so much I woke John up. Finally, somewhere after 3am and before 5am I got to sleep. Consciously I don't think I was thinking about Lauren/Chiyoko, but somehow I just couldn't get myself to settle down. My Mom said it's just being a Mom. All you want when you are a Mom is for your kids to be okay and when they aren't even when it is a cold or just the "creeping crud" that is going around, it somehow makes you lose sleep. Especially from 5,000+ miles away. I wish my rational self would realize that from 5,000 miles away, there is not much I can do anyway, so please body, fall asleep - but I guess Mom's were just not made like that!

Yay! Feeling better!

Since then she's gotten better, thank goodness! Much better, I've gotten approximately five calls for $$, one for just money, another because California rain boots apparently are no match for Kyushu rain - water/ice is going right through to socks - and, oh, might as well get some sport shoes too since old ones are, well, old. Then PSP (a hand held game console) broke and OMG can't LIVE without one - so could you plz buy one in US and ship since it is cheaper than here?  I finally broke down and sent some $$, but I realize I should have made baby-girl balance her checkbook first - Finance 101 from far away, but it is absolutely essential to know where you are in terms of $$ and more important that you agree with the bank. Hopefully she'll do it before it gets too far out of control. Or maybe it is too far out of control....

So what do we text about?
Apparently Dad is HOT!

*****

We got a bit of very good news this weekend! This Saturday, Lauren/Chiyoko and her friend went on a 2 hour bus ride north to KitaKyushu (literally means "North Kyushu", which is located on the north side of the island of Kyushu) to a newly opened (about 6 months) Manga (Japanese comic book) museum. In Japan, comic books are a little more "graphic novel" than traditional comic book. Whereas American comic books are maybe 30-40 pages with one chapter of an ongoing story, a manga will have 100-120 pages with chapters and go on forrrreeeevvvver. Anyway, so the museum had a reading room, a couple of exhibitions and lots of hands on things to do such as painting plastic/vinyl figurines and (you guessed it) "How to Draw Manga" seminars (the kind that Lauren/Chiyoko puts on at our local library once a month here in Corte Madera!) So she participated in the seminar and before you know it, she was surrounded by six of the teaching artists who started admiring her work and before you know it, they invited her to show her work at an exhibition at the manga museum in early March! OMG! Isn't that exciting and wonderful?! They also are in negotiations with her to do some other things with them in the future! WOW! Our little Asian-American is taking Japan by storm! At present she is a happy girl! 

I pulled this off of Facebook - I told her to take some snappies,
but so far all I've gotten is what I've slummed off FB! She's on the
far right in the bunny jacket.

The Japanese is coming along as well. She went to the manga museum with a Japanese student learning English and the gal (and the people at the manga museum) complimented her on her Japanese, so it must be sticking! (Double yay!) 

Otherwise we gather she's spending her time at the arcade (her current pastime is the "claw" game where a giant claw comes down from a box and "grabs" a stuffed animal.) We're either opening a stuffed animal store when she gets home, or having a torch party! Doing "pika-pika" (Giant photo booths where you can cram, like 10 people in a booth and add little graphic images on the pic.) I can't find where she was most recently in a booth, but if I come across them again I'll post 'em. She's also buying clothes like they're going out of style. Hopefully she'll settle down and get to a good budget before we go broke! Unfortunately Japan seems to be tailor make for Lauren/Chiyoko's tastes!

Meanwhile stateside, John & I are fine. We've been catching up on lots of movies and I've been in "Financial Aid" hell - getting all the Financial Aid/tax information ready for Lauren/Chiyoko's prospective college next year. What a PAIN! I finally have MOST of it completed...all I have to do is upload our 2012 tax information (a whole 2 months EARLIER than they are actually due) - and then my life will open up. I feel like I've been doing taxes for the past year. On top of that - our accountant is my hubby, so the way it works around here, is I gather up all the numbers, add them up and put the numbers in the appropriate box(es), then hubby (the accountant) looks at them for 10 minutes and says - "Isn't this box missing a number?" or "This number here looks wrong." I have duly informed him that this arrangement is not good for our marriage - hopefully next year we can do this another way, although I have heard from friends that the first year of college is the worst for applying for financial aid. I just hope all this effort is worth it and some college will offer Lauren some $$. 

Okay, I'm running long so until next time!
PS - I just realized Lauren/Chiyoko has been gone a full month! Only four more months to go! :)