Kokochi

Electrical Christmas

I mentioned that my brother lives on a pretty famous street that prides itself on Christmas decor, right? This electrical show has been a tradition here for generations. The electric company comes out to decorate the gigantic trees that line the street, there's a full-blown choir with instruments that gives a performance, and Santa shows up every night for 2 hours. Up to 3,000 cars roll by on an evening. It's serious business.

Ian and Izumi threw a dinner party on Saturday (I've been running around too much to have time to post until now), so we got to go visit. My camera-phone does not do justice to the scenery. It's a magical little neighborhood street for sure!

Comments on hold

Due to spam problems, again, we had to close the comments. Dav will see what he can do from Viet Nam. Sorry!

SE Asia

My baby just left for Viet Nam. His plane took off 15 minutes ago. He's with Toni, our housemate, and they'll visit her home in Ho Chi Min.

I fly to Bangkok on Christmas day. Dav will get there a few days before me and email me where to meet. How exciting! We've purposely not made concrete plans so we can go with the flow. We're thinking of visiting Cambodia if we can get tickets. For New Year's, we're aiming for Thailand's southern beaches.

Lusty Ladies' company holiday party

At Studio Z. Yes, it's pretty happening! But that's all I'lI say...He he

Badger wanna-be Raccoons

Ele sent us a Christmas gift. And since Dav and I will be in sunny Thailand on that day, we (or I) made the decision to open her gift so we could enjoy it. And laugh our heads off we did! She aptly wrote that these little ones fondly reminded her of our Halloween weekend when she was visiting.

See, I had bought 2 fluffy, cute, animal outfits for Dav and I when I was in Tokyo last time. When Dav saw them, he said "yay, we can be the badgers in the badger video." And so we spent the good part of the evening enjoying our badger-ness. Yes, we danced the badger dance in public.

But mid-evening, we noticed that our tails and eyes on our hood were racoon-ish. We were actually, most definitely, raccoons. So I switched my costume from a happy badger to a badger-wanna-be-raccoon.

Thank you Ele for the cute gift! I'm sure every year, when we bring them out to decorate, we will be reminded of all the fun we had!

Another lovely dinner

Sorry about what might seem mundane to others, but I'm posting this for my memory of a wonderful evening. Last night, Gen Kanai, who is visiting from Tokyo for business, came over for dinner. John Poisson, who just moved from Tokyo, joined with his friend Yuki. Lorene, a friend I've known for many years who also lived in Tokyo and is visiting from D.C., joined us too. What a fantasist gathering of Tokyoites in San Francisco. I can't stress enough how meaningful and comforting it is for me to see my Tokyo friends here. Keeps my worlds connected.

And once again, there is no better way than to spend an evening around the dinner table, eating, conversing, and laughing.

Have you thought about bone marrow?

I just got the Marrow Messenger in the mail today, a publication from the National Marrow Donor Program. I've been registered as a donor for many years. Never been called up though. I initially signed up after reading that the registry needs mixed race people.

Tis the season to give, so I thought I'd put it out there that it is important to register in case you are open to it. Someone one day may live longer because of your bone marrow.

Memories

I love checking my brother's blog to catch up and read what's he thinking or doing. I sit next to him at work everyday, but that's work. We remain, for the most part, professional together. ; )

This most recent entry flooded me with memories I had long forgotten. These 2 little Christmas ornaments were my favorite and were special because of their limited once-a-year appearance.

I was surprised at how dorky they look now. I mean, I loved them. I combed Mr. Rudolph's beard and adjusted Mrs. Rudolph's glasses all the time.

As I get older, I realize how such small childhood memories are packed away inside me. And once triggered, like with my brother's blog entry, I was right back in those moments. Memories are cool.

And guess what Dav did?

He made an awesome dinner for us tonight! I came home from work to a table with stinky soft cheese (which I love) and the bottle of wine that has been in the fridge since I moved here. It was the bottle of wine Dav had presented to me as a welcoming gift when I moved here, along with snackies for Wakame and Katsuo (the card he had was addressed to me AND my cats = major bonus points earned right there and then). It had festive bows on it and I kept saving it for a special day. And today was that special day. So we had the wine with yummy ravioli and tomato sauce with shiitaki!

It's a new day

My darling Dav just finished one chapter of his life and is moving into another. I'm so proud of his decision and how he went about it. And I'm proud to be along his side.

I've had several major chapters in my life so far and each new one made me grow in ways I never imagined. It can be bewildering and also exhilarating. Being open to certain forces in my life has led me to the most beautiful experiences where I feel incredibly lucky to know the people I do and live the way I do. It took time for me to realize that I actually had the power to create the life I wanted. I believe the key is not to have fear of change. I look forward to many more wildly different chapters in my life.

So here we are. Dav is making change. I'm still coasting along in my current chapter, but, encouraged by Dav, I can hear the rumblings of a new chapter.