Hey! C'mon, Get Awkward!

So I am slowly getting used to this expat blogging business. Kind of awesome. Not paying-my-student-loans awesome, but still a lot of fun and at least a little helpful in procuring entertainment for the toddler.
I've written 6 pieces in about 10 days plus a handful of reviews for the next campaign-- in which the blogger with the most reviews within the time period wins super fancy grapes. The next three most active reviewers win (less fancy but still) nice Japanese grapes. The next three get a small crate of apples each. Given Julia's love for fruit that is both red and crunchy, it seems I'm aiming for winning on the low end here. Honestly, it would be awesome to win fruit of any kind. That's just a really fun way to encourage me to keep writing, and the reviews I share might help other foreigners when they come to my area. I think other foreign wives of Japanese people probably have their own methods of sending money home, but knowing that the people at Travelex in the shopping arcade will not accept your partner's name, even if it is on your passport, might save someone else some time, embarrassment, and rage.

I'm also reviewing things I like! I am mostly reviewing things I would want a friend who came to the area to see or know about. That's how I am engaging with this most of the time.
In addition, I am slowly figuring out how I am supposed to engage with city-cost and the other bloggers there. I asked them about the presence of statues on their ceremonial mailboxes in their towns and the responses were not what I had expected. Apparently our fish in Shiogama is even more special than I thought.

The point is that I am engaging with the people on the website and not hiding away all of my weirdness, and not getting actively shunned for it either. The Owl Cafe post now has over 600 views. More people are following me on twitter, and some of them are even famous, which freaks me out in the best possible way but also makes me constantly rethink all of my tweets until I turn into that geeky chick at the cool kids party who makes a joke no one gets and tries to lean next to the punch bowl all cool-like but instead tips the whole table over and winds up looking like a the soaked skeletal dog body hidden beneath the layers of every fluff breed. She would laugh then of course, at it would be punctuated with a loud snort. Poor awkward girl.

Yeah, I should probably get back into novel writing again soon, too. I plan to spend the next two months editing last year's Nano novel to get me ready for this November. We'll see how that goes in combination with the non-fiction writing I am doing so much of these days.



Julia's actually told me twice today that she had to potty. Verbally. In words. It was amazing.

We've had a rough couple of days and I haven't been getting a lot of sleep, but this morning she slept in while I got to play (and really enjoy) Minecraft with some friends, and it was awesome. No one died this time!

I've come to the conclusion that I have acquired too much fabric and need to quilt the living hell out of it, which means buying a bunch of 100 yen store batting and just having at it, but when?

In other news, typhoons seem to be wanting to come hang out over here. It was windy with small amounts of slap-you-in-the-face droplets last night, but this morning was clear and sunny, until I tried to leave the house. Then it was overcast completely, the clouds overhead so dark and dense that the only sign that daylight hours were still upon us was the rim of whiter clouds around the horizon.
After a childhood in Texas, I have learned to regard dark skies with a respectful fear. Even without a drop of rain and knowing that tornadoes are pretty freaking unlikely didn't make me want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary outside. We scampered to the store and back.

After we came home, it rained a bunch but the cloud cover has not abated.

It is my understanding that parenthood with a 3 year old is essentially intermittent spurts of joy, pain, anger, fear, frustration, exhaustion, and grief, all while varying between becoming a monster and melting your heart.

Maybe that's just me.
I am trying not to be awful, but I do lose my temper more than I'd like. I'm working on it.

Once I can get us on a sleep schedule, this will be easier for all of us.
Until then, ganbatte imasu.