The last pic is the kitchen window view of the hill and roots. Very solid and comforting.

And here are some cute videos of Tesla having so much fun at the river beach. And morning in the cabin while Tesla eats breakfast.

[update] And here is a video Dav took of Rachel and I cooking together. No sound, unfortunately, but I'm very happy Dav caught us two having a great time together.

This visit was before Tesla got sick, and I wonder if she got some bug from splashing in the river water. Plus, one time she was completely wet around sun down and shivered, "coooold" when I peeled off her clothes for something dry.
]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/10/post_32.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/10/post_32.shtml Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:33:52 -0800

Catch-up again from a while ago, but here are few pics from Fia's fabulous birthday bash. The theme was animal costumes, so I glued leftover fur we had (being us, we have tons) to Tesla's clothes, and voila. She didn't seem to mind. I wore my giraffe outfit, and Dav was a dinosaur. I have other pictures, but they are of all the kids running around naked in the kiddy pool so those are private :)

Be sure to click on the cake that Michelle made to see the details. See the furry ears on the barbie? So much fun to do such things for kids! ]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/10/post_31.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/10/post_31.shtml Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:22:11 -0800 I had to come home early from work today because Karla called that Tesla threw up. I'm glad I did because Tesla continued to be sick. She threw up in the car all over herself coming home, then later twice on both of us and the sofa while we chilled in the living room (each time with a full clean-up and change in between).

Now she's laying in her favorite spot, in our bed. I keep checking in to see if she's fallen asleep, but she's just lying there half dozing, but half not. Just now, I leaned over, caressed her hair, cuddled blankie around her, gave her kisses, and whispered, "I love you" to which I heard a faint whisper back, "I wuv u..."

Not that I truly cared, but now it's totally OK that she barfed all over me...: )

Last night we went to Sofia's for dinner, and when we arrived, she had on a cute ballet dancer outfit. She kindly brought out a pink tutu for Tesla that matched her pajamas. So until bedtime, we put on classical music and the gals danced around.

At times, Tesla looks like she's doing capoeira, but it's her version of elegantly raising her legs while dancing.

Daddy joined later, obliging Sofia by wearing her tiny white butterfly wings. Daddy also did a puppet play with Fia's toys. When bedtime rolled around, Tesla was more than ready; she actually walked up the stairs to her regular bed at Fia's all by herself!

The graffiti was part of a marketing event for new spray paint called Montana, and although it was marketing, I thought it was smart because they were supporting the artists, giving art to the event, and educating people about their product but also about graffiti.

They had a table where Mel Waters was doing renditions of people's names. I went by several times, wanting one for Tesla, but there was a line so I passed. Then later in the afternoon, I found no one. Dav and I were on our way to Amon Tobin, but I couldn't resist, so I told Dav I'd meet him later...and I'm glad I did. It was cool seeing Mel Waters take his time to figure out how to do Tesla's name (on canvas), and I chatted with one of the company people who had spent time in Japan (she recognized a character I have dangling from my phone that only exists in Japan so to know it, you have to have been there). And the final rendition was worth it. I'm going to frame it for T!]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/post_29.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/post_29.shtml Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:50:53 -0800 In their million gallon Outer Bay tank there were tuna, hammerhead sharks, and giant schools of fish. We sat there and marveled for quite some time. I'm going to eat a lot less tuna.

More catch-up from when my mom was here:

We went to Monterey with mom and Elida. Rachel and Cesar were going to come, but Rachel woke up sick that morning. Our plan was to check out the aquarium, then drive along the coast a bit to enjoy the beauty. In reality, we spend all our time at the acquarium, and since I had scheduled a gift massage at Kabuki for my mom, we had to leave to make it back in time. I was pretty bummed I didn't get to show my mom the coast as she wanted. Plus, it was too much driving for one day, especially for Tesla. We should have spent the night.

Still, the acquarium was worth it. The jellyfish were amazing. Elida's set is here.

This is a catch-up post about an evening when Rachel came over to cook rhubarb pie for my mom. Back when she came with me to Tokyo, my mom had mentioned how much she missed rhubarb, so Rachel kindly promised to freeze some so they could make a pie together since my mom also wanted to learn how to cook rhubard. So while my mom was here, Rachel came over (meaning, she brought ingredients and cookware all the way over from Oakland), and first at Michelle's house since I was still at work, she started the pie crust. Later, they moved to our house and baked the pie, cooked Thai shrimp that Elaine and everyone else wanted to learn how to cook, and my mom contributed some Japanese dishes too. We had Elida, Elaine, Manisha join in addition to Rachel, Michelle, me and my mom. Was totally a gal night!

I was very happy that my mom got to experience hanging with my special friends. As each person left - it being a weekday night - the group slowly got smaller and the discussions more intimate. Michelle was able to stay til the end, and my mom shared a lot of our family background. I'm glad M got to hear that too!

"Potty Power" refers to a dvd Tesla got into that is about toddlers using the potty. I recommend it. She's not super interested in it now that she's seen it so many times, but she knew it was for her as in her story and not a show for us, and it gave us vocabulary to talk about the potty with her. For example, we congratulated her today saying, "you got potty power?" and she understood what we meant.

I didn't get it. I watched in earnest, and as much as I admired the parents and their belief in their baby, I didn't get the story. Their baby was fine 2 years later. Who cares about delays as long as the baby is OK and does what is in their own time. Right???

So I emailed about that...to everyone.

Then Dav let me know it was a joke. Then Jeremy kindly emailed the same.

And as much as I want to laugh at myself, it made me sad. I just don't get things...A LOT of the time here. I don't get sarcasm AT ALL. It will probably never make sense to me. It's probably the most opposite behavior to have vis-a-vis Japan.And I miss the majority of pop-culture references to boot so I'm quite doomed.

Thus tonight, I tumbled in the, "I don't really belong here" feeling because I don't 100%. Yeah, I love a lot here, and yeah many people aren't "American" here too. It's still important that in my reality, I don't feel 100% because there is so much I miss...and so much I don't even know I'm missing. I know I wouldn't feel 100% in Japan either because I look "half" and have different values, but at least I can navigate and have a sense of what's going on.

I have these delicate moments from time to time. I think this hit me because my mom was here. And I miss her now that she went back to Japan, just yesterday. I miss having a person who understood, and brought out the parts of me that I don't get to be normally when here (thus hanging with my high school friends is so precious and necessary). I miss having someone who also didn't get things. I miss having someone who knew without having to say anything.

Anyway, no conclusion to the story. Just a sharing of a moment.

p.s. Now that I've typed up this post, I realize how off I can be. I knew that tiny wheelchair for the baby was strange. Never seen it, and why not just use a stroller? But my brain was so into taking word for word from the daddy. I have a friend, SASSY, who will be my trainer in sarcasm. She is the master and I just realized how much I need her to teach me!]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/sarcasm_is_a_thorn_for_me.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/sarcasm_is_a_thorn_for_me.shtml Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:24:01 -0800

Picture is thanks to Mika.

[no worries...this is a good story...]

Everyday, when I get home from work, the usual routine is: put away the groceries I bought, check mail, feed the kitties their well-deserved wet food, make T's dinner, feed her, begin our dinner, give T a bath, and either eat while T is awake or put her to bed so we get an adult dinner. In general, busy...until 8pm

Today, however, Wakame didn't come out when I came home. Both Kats and Waka sleep all day in one closet or another, and come out once I'm home. I knew pretty quickly that something was weird, but as mentioned above, there's a lot to do until 8pm. I imagined she didn't hear me, or maybe was stuck somewhere. I've had many a nights worrying about my kitties only to have all be fine, so I didn't react. I fed T. We put her to bed. We had dinner. Then I got worried. Worried enough that I voiced to Dav that I'd be surprised if it were Waka who left us before Kats since he has a heart murmur. I know cats are known to go off on their own when that time comes. Dav scoffed and told me to search with a flash light. So I did.

I looked everywhere...and know for sure that if I call, she'll come out or at least meow. I had called from our door to the hallway that leads to the building entrance and garage, but nothing. At the very last of my search, I got my shoes on and went to the garage. Sure enough, as soon as I called, "Waaakaaa," she meowed. She somehow got herself down to the garage but was too timid to make it back up until I was there with her. She used to be so much more independent, but now that we're in this apartment, she's super fearful. So she was stuck.

The one nice thing about feeling that loss and then finding her is getting to hug her and give her treats that make her happy. Even Dav said to her, "so you had an adventure, eh?" while he pet her. Tonight, we shall cuddle!]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/wheres_my_waka.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/wheres_my_waka.shtml Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:23:23 -0800 As I gathered pics for these BM posts from Dav's, friends', and my pictures, these 3 struck me. This was from Jeremy's collection of his friends dancing while wearing EL Wire. If you don't know the context, it's quite striking. Where else would you see such? As much as I love exploring the city during the day, night is more amazing to me. The sounds and lights highlight just how big the city is, and it's so other-worldly to see the denizens of the city walking around decked out in lights. It's hard to explain why I like this picture. When visiting museums, photography exhibitions usually resonate with me the most. I love seeing people, current and past, captured in a moment. At times they are mundane moments, but you wonder what's going on in the subject's mind. Other times, there are weird moments and it's hard to tell what's going on or why anyone/anything is placed the way it is. If in 30 years someone comes across this picture in a dusty box in some attic, what would they think? There's Jeremy atop the RV dressed like a superhero oil sheik, I'm doing whatever, frozen between moments, and Kitten is in the corner looking up. Such an odd composition...but makes perfect sense to Jeremy, Kitten, me, and Dav who took the picture. Click to enlarge to see details. Here is Dav and I about to Ranger the burn perimeter on Saturday (by then we were ready to go home to Tesla but had signed up to work the shift so were staying, but we were definitely feeling the pull to home). There was a big dust storm so the burn was put "on hold," so we waited in Center Camp. We happened to meet our friends Jessica, Colin, and Sassy. I like how this captured us...at BM, on shift, parents, old-time burners. Thanks, Colin!
]]> http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/post_26.shtml http://kokochi.com/archives/2008/09/post_26.shtml Burning Man 08 Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:51:17 -0800 A few years back I did this post, and many days, if you google "burning man fashion," Kokochi comes up first. Quite surprising, but I decided to post another fashion post so that folks have something else than 2005 stuff to see. The first one is just something I happened to have on during the day, and wasn't really planned, but Dav captured it nicely with the sunset, and I think it represents a certain BM vibe. Second is the first new outfit I've made in 2 years. I used a traditional 50s dress pattern. I envisioned wearing it more elegantly as if it were the 1950s...just with fur...but I was tired that night and chose my comfy boots and attached ears to give a little extra something...I'll probably wear it to Decompression, and will try to complete it better. A slight Fetish angle which I tend to like...but is much better when standing with 2 gorgeous friends! At the Lingerie Party chez Douglas' Dust City Diner camp. And on the way over there, posing with M. Everyday wear...in the dust. Nothing special, but still, even when hanging at home, I dress differently when on the playa. Here is M and I in the last dust storm before leaving. Then there is Brad F. and me taking cover in the RV. M made this awesome silver top for both of us, we coordinated our skirts, and M had some playful decorations for our hair. We had fun riding around as twins, and totally got comments on our twinness. I had fun like a little girl running around with a friend dressed up.

And from 2007...

So yeah...I missed Tesla a lot this year! Didn't matter what I enjoyed wearing this year...next year I'm gonna make matching outfits! And that means for you too, Dav. Triple matching!!

Here are snippets of our RV with dome...before the rest of our camp fully showed up. By the end, the space was pretty packed. Our group had 6 RVs all together! We all used to be tents only...

When Douglas came to visit us, he brought our old Campalicious sign/banner that he so kindly had stored for a few years. We stuck it on our windshield. We also covered one side of the windows with tinfoil to reflect the heat...very effective!

We didn't use our dome the past 2 years since it was more hassle when we had so much baby stuff to bring. So it was nice to hang out in it again, with the hammock, chairs and a table. Dav decided to sell the dome after this year, however, and get a better square structure that we can put against the RV to make a continuous shelter (but low and behold, the day we got back, Dav left the dome polls in front of our garage while we went to get lunch...and someone stole them!!)