Kokochi

Bay to Breakers - salmon run

Click to see video.	Click to see video.
Click to see video.	Click to see video.

Today was amazing weather: it poured in the early morning, cleared up for the race to an almost tropical temperature, then rained once the event was all over. Perfect!

We got to Alamo Square at 7:30am, and were ready to watch the professional runners, first the women, then the men. I almost burst into tears at how inspiring it was to see these amazingly fit people run by so elegantly.

This year, Dav did the salmon run. By far, this is the coolest and most original play on the event. All the salmon gathered at Alamo Square, and when the passing crowd became less about the serious runners and slowly more about a celebratory bacchanalia, and the crowd thickened to a river of joggers, the salmon entered single-file in the opposite direction. Their fins and heads bobbed up and down just above the crowd, and was the best sight ever! I'm so proud of my salmon husband!!

The video thumbnails aren't working now - sorry about that. But these videos are worth it.

• 1st one is of the salmon gathering, Dav flapping his gills.
• 2nd is the first two woman zooming by.
• 3rd shows the winning man.
• 4th is the salmon running upstream.

Baby crib

I wasn't joking when I said we weren't going to buy anything as so many generous people around us have baby stuff to hand-down to us. I'm very grateful, and it relieves me to no end that we're getting used items.

In addition to the car seat, baby bouncer, 6 big bags of clothes, a box of blankets and toys, and a baby carrier, now we have a crib, thanks to lovely Kimi. This crib came from her brother-in-law's family. After Kimi's 3 children using this, our baby will be the 5th!

To take advantage of going over to Kimi's, she cooked an amazing dinner with the most fantastic matcha sponge roll dessert with chestnuts and adzuki inside. To die for. Seriously, she should sell her matcha desserts!

I took a picture of their dog Micah, who is battling cancer. He has such a human-like face. My heart goes out to him, and I hope his soul knows he's loved and taken care of.

After dinner, we put the crib on top of our jeep, and drove to Christie's going-away party. I loved this image of Dav and I driving to a party with a freaking crib on our car roof! It's happening...we're acting like - *gasp* - parents-to-be!

THE baby seat

After visiting Michael, Heather, and their new addition Evelyn, they kindly offered to send us their baby seat as Evelyn had already outgrown it. It's the most high-tech, beautifully designed thing!

When I opened the box, I just stared for a while, noticing how small the space was for the little baby. I *so* can't believe we'll be filling that space soon.

The baby seat also represents a sort of readiness, as we aren't allowed to leave the hospital without a baby seat. So now, no matter when Gargle arrives, we'll be able to at least drive her home. [We REALLY need a name soon; even I'm getting tired of calling her Gargle. She needs something a tad more elegant, no?]

By the way, I'm 34 weeks, and according to the weekly baby email I get from BabyCenter, our baby would more or less be fine even if born tomorrow. Whew. It's a whole other phase now as we're heading into that "any day" zone. I must say, not knowing when she'll arrive is making this so exciting! She's about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long.

Playing on our balcony

Six Apart has an intern, Mika-san, for 6 weeks, and we work together. And Boris was in town last week. So I invited them over for dinner along with Sean, Manisha, and Mika-san's friend, Okui-san (who has contracted with Six Apart in Japan). As the sunset was absolutely gorgeous that evening, we ran to the upstairs balcony to take pictures of the sunset and each other. It all made up for some quirky photo compositions, I thought.

KaBoom!

Click to see video.

My first KaBoom! I had heard about it, but was suspicious it might be cheesy. It's so ingrained in me that the best fireworks are during the hot steamy Japanese summers with festivals, shaved ice, and wearing yukata. But this was fun...and actually pretty well choreographed with KFog's music.

I missed the almost romantic celebration that happens at Japanese firework shows as we were parked on the 280 on-ramp with a bunch of other people, just standing there watching the show with the car radios blasting. And as soon as it was over, we all left immediately. But it was so easy (compared to dealing with huge crowds), and it was a great show!

sad deflated birthing ball

This was from last Saturday's birthing class. We were told to purchase and bring a yoga/birthing ball for practice. I didn't get around to inflating it 'til the morning of, and filled it until it was filled out to a round shape, but had no idea you were supposed to actually fill it until it stretches like a balloon. As you know, I don't like balloons, so it makes sense that it didn't occur to me to fully inflate my ball.

But when Dav and I arrived at class and saw that everyone's ball was gigantic, I was so embarrassed to have this teeny tiny thing. You can see from the picture that my purple ball upfront appears the same size as the much larger one way on the other side of the room. I didn't even bother to use it for practice...

Now, it's the perfect size and I sit on it at home :) It's supposed to help my pelvic bone move around --> Gargle, get into position!

Computer History Museum

[I am totally catching up on a week's worth of events and pictures...this is from last Friday's company trip.]

We went to the Computer History Museum. Other than a backache from the relatively long guided tour, it was actually pretty neat. Started from old wooden calculators to more recent gigantic machines that were crazy-looking. The 5th picture shows the back of a revolutionary computer because it was "simple" compared to how others had been put together! I got a kick out of finding 2 items that I had: the Apple (back in college, my first experience really with a computer), and the chess game that my dad had.

My mom

My mom just bought her ticket to arrive here on June 23rd to stay until July 20. We've been talking about this for quite some time - to share the birth of 'Gargle' would be so special. But who knows when she'll be ready to be born? So we're guessing. And even if we have to wait 2 weeks or so, I know my mom will pamper me and we'll have some special time together before Gargle arrives. I'm so grateful too that my mom will be around post-birth. I'm sure coming home from the hospital will be surreal, and having my mom to help and guide me will be very reassuring.

I'm hoping to hear all sorts of stories I've never heard before about her own experience - she was in New York, didn't speak English that well, didn't expect to even be in the US after marrying my dad (they planned to stay put in Tokyo), and having her mom around was out of the question. Even calling back to Japan was super expensive back then. My mom was courageous!

I should add that I'm certainly not forgetting about my dad. I wish he could join, but it's not possible. We do plan on visiting Japan in September so he and 'Gargle' can meet. I am looking forward very much to introducing our daughter to her granddaddy. He'll always be MY dad, but now I'll get to share him.

Six Apart goes on a field trip.

Click to see video.

Getting on the bus. Yippee!

[This video is amazing to me as it shows just how big we are now. We rented 2 big buses! Last time we did this, we had a medium-sized bus, and it felt like a classroom outing. Having started as the 7th employee, watching Six Apart grow has been exciting, but also a little sad, since I miss the smallness (like when we used to all go to lunch together everyday). I suppose that's what it's like to watch a kid grow-up.]

[check out our group photo]

vivid dreams are poking at me

I'm in Japan visiting my parents. How wonderful to feel the sensations and see familiar sights. But suddenly, I realize in horror that my water broke, and I remembered that I was pregnant. I feel a desperation about my mistake in coming to Japan because I'm utterly unprepared - don't have a doctor or hospital, don't know the procedures, haven't packed, and my gosh, Dav is in SF! I call Dav frantically to tell him the baby is coming in less than 24 hours. Can you get over here??? Dav tries to sound calm on the phone, and says he's getting a ticket right away. But we both know he probably won't make it here in time.

Meanwhile, my mom is packing a bag for me so we can head to some hospital. But she's packing all these beautiful clothes she was going to hand down to me. They are colorful with flowers, and I remember her wearing them as a kid. No! I don't want to destroy those! This is labor, mom! My dad comes up and shows me several bags of dried fruit he has assembled for us to snack on during labor. I'm grateful, but eating is the last thing I'm focused on. I need Dav!! Oh, the sinking feeling that I'll be doing this almost on my own...why did I come to Japan when it was so close to my due date???

It's been years since I've noticed that I don't remember my dreams. When I do, once in a blue moon, I'm astonished and delighted at how cool and weird dreams can be. Lately, however, I'm definitely remembering my dreams. I've heard that pregnancy can make dreams more vivid, so this is an interesting experience indeed. And a theme is emerging; surprise, surprise, it's about my due date.

I've think I've been pretty laid back about this pregnancy. Didn't go out and buy 101 books (did receive a few used ones that I referred to), didn't make any list of do's and don'ts, and am not too uptight about much (although I'm noticing a bigger urge to organize stuff in the house). I've let my body do its thing, and Gargle her thing, with a sort of amused detachment - "wow, it works!"

But the clock is ticking, and Gargle will soon be ready to come out. I haven't really processed that reality yet. It's hard enough as it is to grasp that Dav and I will soon be parents, will soon welcome a whole other human being into our family, and we'll be in charge of shaping her values and experiences. Things have happened so smoothly and lovingly that there's no logic to comprehend what this means. It just is. Don't get me wrong; I'm quite thrilled about this and can't believe my luck in getting to do this with Dav. It's truly a special bond to share. It's just that with so much lovey dovey changes going on, I haven't paid much attention to the process so aptly called LABOR.

My dreams are hinting for sure...indicating some sort of mental prep happening behind the scenes. And now that I'm remembering the dreams, I'm paying attention (going to our first birthing class last Saturday was another reality jolt).

I've had other vivid dreams, like one where I felt contractions. I don't know what they really feel like, but in my dream, I was already leaving my body, looking down at my tummy, wanting to get as far away as I could from it. I woke up shocked at the intensity of that.

I'm sharing this because I've been more internal lately. In some ways I feel I should be constantly documenting about this experience. However, I've been content carrying on life as usual, posting about the mundane (although a lot of baby stuff does come up as that is creeping into even the mundane now). I don't really know what to say about the pregnancy. Yes, it's amazing, I love feeling her kick and become real, I love sharing this with Dav and am so proud of him, am feeling deeply grateful to my parents for what they've done for me, and just feel lucky. But it just is. I can't give it words adequately.

Now though, as I'm getting closer to what seems like some animalistic twilight zone I'm to step through, I guess I need to process this.