New Series

When I decided to introduce the two new series that I'm going to be writing about (at least try to) weekly, I had to think to myself, "What if I'm talking about more than one series, what's the plural form of 'series'?" And it turns out there does not exist a word for multiple series. I would have thought "serieses" would work, but the annoying little red line appears underneath it. So I'll just try not to confuse you with saying "series" when I'm talking about introducing multiple ones and not just one series...

Anyway, the one I'm most excited about is going to be called "What I miss most" and it will feature whatever it is that I don't have access to here in Sasebo but is still in America. I've got plenty of these things just waiting to be written about all lined up. You can look for this weekly and maybe it will find out there waiting.

The other series that will be new is going to be called "Yep, the Japanese have that here" and I think it's one that you are going to be most excited about since it will feature crazy things that seem odd, different, unique, or any other thing I mind find at the last minute I think you might mind interesting.

Remember that I am 13 hours ahead of the East Coast so my Monday is not necessarily my Monday when I feel like posting something each week.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back on Monday for the first "What I miss most"!

I'm in Japan!

I've been in Japan for two weeks now and it's rather nice being here with Evan. It's nice not "just visiting" or seeing him over Skype. I'm actually here! I don't have a return plane ticket. I have my passport stamped designating me SOFA status. It says I am allowed to live here for longer than their 90 visa that tourists get.

So far I've coached one youth team (7-8 year olds) and got recruited to coach a second team (11-15 year olds) and to play for the women's 18+ soccer team for Sasebo's main base. The youth teams play the other team in the same age group within the Main Base and we also play the other base affiliated with Sasebo called Hario. The women's team, we play Hario and I think we also play a Japanese team.

For the last ten years I played soccer (I played for 13 years) I was mainly in the goal playing goalie. This team I'm playing on now may mean I'm on the field. We've got a few very skilled players, including myself, and we've got some good players, and some very fresh feet who have never played before. While I've got some theories on how I would field us, that may not be how the coach decides to play us. We'll see how it all goes. For all three teams, our first games are on Saturday. Wish us luck!

Those damn Yankees!

Last week I wrapped up a show with the MilledgeVille Players called Damn Yankees. We started rehearsals in the beginning of July and went just about everyday singing, dancing, and passing the time backstage in between scenes.

I had a number of costume changes (5) and alternated genders each scene I was in. It was a challenge, but it was fun!

I started out as a housewife with my green dress, brown apron, and my gold jewelry...and black shoes.
After that was over I then quickly had to change to a baseball player.

That's right. I was a man, sans lipstick and blush. Well, at least I tried to pass it off. I know the people in the audience could tell (at least I hope so).  I sang a song, then had to change yet again to be female again.

I had to put back on the blush and lipstick, let my hair down, change my pants, and tie up my shirt. Though this wasn't my favorite part of the show, this was one of my favorites. This was a duet song and dance with one of the main characters, Lola. We were the "I love Joe fanclub" and sang a song that doesn't have anything to do with the show really. It's just a dance break to watch talented people dance as far as I know.

I went back to being a baseball player and sang "The Game" which is a song about women the game of baseball and not women. This was my favorite, because I got to be all googely-eyed during stories about women baseball.

Then I changed yet again to my least favorite costume that I didn't even take a picture of myself in it. I was a woman this time for a night club scene.

But I had fun even though it was tough to sit through a very long show each night. And I'm pretty proud of myself because I had bever had such a featured singing and dancing part as I did in this one.

Stars in a Jar

After seeing "stars in a jar" on Pinterest, I thought to myself, "That's a cute idea! And I have all the necessary equipment, all the way down to the glow-in-the-dark paint!" So, once we used up a jar and cleaned it out, I gathered the stuff I would need to put a galaxy into a glass container that would be placed on the bedside table next to the child staring at the wonderment of how stars were captured and given to them.

Anywho, here's the basic equipment that I used:

On a table I spread out paper so I would get any mess on the table and make it look like a landing strip at night. I, of course, used a mason jar (cleaned out) including the lid, though that's probably optional and I'm sure you could use whatever you want to normally cover a glass jar. I used a toothbrush to splatter the paint. And lastly, I used glow-in-the-dark paint.

After I stirred up the paint, I dipped the toothbrush in the paint and splattered away inside the jar. I didn't realize it was going to be difficult until I started but trying to get more coverage of the jar was limited to how far my hand could take the toothbrush and still splatter. So I took the paint stirrer stick and the toothbrush down further into the jar and used the stick like my thumb. It worked so well!

I'm quite enthused by it all! I can't wait to make more for the rest of my little ones in my life!

This last one was an attempt at a picture in the dark, but when it was in the dark there wasn't enough light to see anything. But the kids loved it sitting under the covers looking at the stars!

Jessi Graduates!

Well, last week my sister, her two daughters, my brother, and our mom drove out to Ft. Sill Oklahoma to support my sister in her graduation from Army Basic Combat Training class 49-11. Jaime got in last weekend and then we left on Tuesday. We packed up the 15 passenger van which should have been a minivan and we left. We stopped in Conway, Arkansas Tuesday night and arrived to Ft. Sill Wednesday afternoon. We didn't get to see Jessi then because she wasn't released for Family Day until Thursday.

On Thursday, we saw the Bravo Battalion 40th Field Artillery do a little demonstration about what they had learned during their training, they went to change, and then we got her for almost the whole day.

Jessi was the guide for her platoon. She did us all very proud. She told us that she was the guide for the platoon, but we didn't remember until we saw her in front of the entire formation with the other guides and then we were so happy. We started the cheering by calling out her name. And we happened to be sitting right in front of where she was standing. When she caught a glimpse of us, she smiled.

I mean, who wouldn't be distracted by us? She got to go with us in her Class B uniform (I think). She looked really good!

The nest day was her graduation which took place indoors (thank goodness!). We were able to hear everything, see everything, and sit down without anyone in our way since we were sitting on the front row of the balcony.

We all had a great time and we were so proud of our sister/daughter/aunt!