Body and Mind

It's a beautiful day. I feel much better.

I've been reading this book (in Japanese), titled "disease Named Myself." I'm not sure if the translation is accurate. The author is a Japanese 47-year-old woman novelist. This book is a non-fiction about her 3-day trial experience of working as a sex-worker. She did it "to know if I'm still a sexually attractive woman men are willing to pay for."

.......I wrote the previous paragraph yesterday and then went for a lunch with my friend Y. The lunch was very good. Y took me to a small Peruvian-Mexican restaurant near Kst & Vermont. We ordered very tender grilled chicken with rice, beans and salad. Yummy. The price was less than $6.

We talked about the book I was reading (I finished it last night). The author said that many straight men misunderstood or justified themselves by believing that women wear mini-skirts or body-fitting outfits in order to seduce men. Not really, she said. Most women wear sexy outfits because they want to feel good about themselves or want other women to envy. I agree with her. I sometimes wear minis or sexy stilettoes because I want to feel good for myself. It's not for men, not even for my husband. I don't like my face, hair, big arms, small boobs, big thighs, big butt, but I like my legs. That's why I wear minis and stilettoes.

The author recollect when she was 20-something, an old man touched her thighs at a bar. She said "please stop." Then this man went, "why do you wear mini-skirt, then?" Those men use the same excuse when they rape women. Unfortunately, even some women blame rape victims for wearing "slutty outfits." That's wrong! It's a attacker who should be blamed. You can't rape women just because they wear sexy clothes.

Anyways, I've decided to take additional Pilates class starting this Saturday. From 8:00am. Gah. I was shocked to see my butt in a mirror in a fitting room of H&M the other day. I found cellulite! Aghhhhh! I know my face is not beautiful. I think it's fair to say my body is better than my face. Since I can't change my face (I don't want plastic surgery) , at least I want to try to improve my body line. I don't believe inner beauty changes appearance. Body and mind are two different things. I want to be a better person, but also want to be a better looking person. To feel better.

BTW, the Japanese new cabinet was formed yesterday. As conservative as Bush administration. Hmm. Maybe it's not time for me to go back to Japan.

The photo is a sunrise at the Virginia beach from a hotel room.

I'm cranky

It's 10pm on Monday. I'm still working. It sucks. My co-workers have gone for a dinner leaving me alone. It sucks more. I sipped a Japanese instant noodle soup while working. It was terrible.

I hope tomorrow will be a better day. I believe it will.

Lovely Friday

I had been busy and a little stressed out, so I couldn't blog. Well, it wasn't that serious. I just did some stupid things. Sometimes I wish if I could go back to the time, let's say, when I was 16 or 17, and do my life over again. Then I can avoid many stupid things I had done in my life and make better choices.....or can I?? Well, I think I will repeat the same mistakes and make the same stupid choices. I'm the same person, after all. I love my life as it is. Besides, I don't want to go through the crazy university entrance exam in Japan and write hundreds of job applications again. Plus, I don't' remember many of my mistakes in the past anymore. Aging is sometimes a good thing, huh?

BTW, I read this article in a Japanese magazine that a Japanese blogger who criticized the craziness of celebration of the new-born prince have got bunch of threatening postings. He apologized, then got more angry postings and e-mails. Scary. In Japan, some of the people "living in cyberspace" are almost kind of psychos who write racist remarks on the web and sometimes even post photo, cell-phone numbers and addresses of someone who they "target." Some of those people don't get out of their room for months, sometimes years. What problem of Japanese society have created these people?

Today I wear Kara Janx dress! I love it. But it's a little too cold for the dress. And I don't' have any Happy Hour plan to go in this dress. It sucks. I guess I'll just go home and watch Desperate Housewives DVD and Japanese porn videos. What a lovely Friday night!

How come this spell checker doesn't recognize words like "blog" or "blogger"?

Summer is officially over

Sigh. I hate Monday. Especially after a fun weekend on the beach. I still can hear the sound of big waves....

On Friday, I decided not to work after I had learned Roberto's Happy Hour plan. I left office around 6:00pm feeling my co-workers' cold eyes on my back. I met Steven, Roberto, Mike and Darryl at Halo. I think I had two watermelon margaritas and one bad martini....in an empty stomach. After Halo, I vaguely remember I ate pasta with tomato sauce and asparagus at somewhere in Dupont Circle...I don't remember what time I left there, but do remember sweet Roberto walked me to the metro station.

Saturday morning, I had a little hangover. I and my husband left home around 10:00am heading to the Virginia Beach. After 4 hours driving, we arrived at the beach around 2:00pm. Great weather! We grabbed some sandwithces and ate them on the beach. Everything was great except for the disturbing noise of jet fighters flying over from Norfolk Naval base. It seemed that there was Air Show going on. Ugh. Around 6:00pm, we were back to the hotel room, and relaxed in a heart-shaped Jacuzzi watching the ocean through the window. How romantic! But nothing romantic happened between us. I can't believe my husband is an Argentine. Or is it me who is the problem??

Anyways, then we walked along the beach and saw a big spooky red moon. We had a dinner at this nice and cozy restaurant Tautogs. On the way back to the hotel, we saw the moon just above the horizon and the beautiful path of moonlight on the ocean. How romantic! We saw some couples making out on the beach. It didn't happen to us. Huh. Well, but we walked holding hands each other like a high school couple. Cute.

Next morning, a beautiful sun rise on the horizon woke me up. I woke up my husband. It was really beautiful. After a breakfast on the beach, I went for Day Spa. I had massage and facial. In the middle of a mud facial pack and foot bath, I became to want to pee. Urgently. I tried to hang on, but then I couldn't relax. So finally I asked to the staff "excuse me, Um...." Except for that, it was great. I spent the rest of the day on the beach. We had a lunch at a beach side restaurant. I had a tuna (real fresh tuna) salad and margarita, and shared steamed shrimps with my husband. Yummy!

When we left the beach, I realized my summer was officially over. I felt a little sad. I still wear sandals today, though.

The photo is the dusk in Shennandoah. I took this photo last October.

Yey to Friday!

Today I wear a metallic-silver 80s vintage dress. I thought it might be inappropriate for the office, but today's Friday. I just avoided to match red stilettoes with it.

Yesterday I made a day trip to West Virginia to report about the Cold War era secret "bunker." It took four hours driving each way. On the half way to get there, I noticed my car was about to be out of gas. I kept driving trying to find a sign of gas station. 5 miles....10 miles....15 miles....no gas station. The alarm started blinking. Still no gas station. I was panicked. 20 miles....25 miles....It was literally in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains, and there were very few cars on the highway. Ahhhhh.....then finally I found a sign!! Thank Buddha!!I think there should be a sign something like "there will be no gas station 30 miles from this point."

I and my husband will go to Virginia Beach this weekend. Maybe I won't get into the water....I'm afraid of stingray.....or jelly fish. I just want to relax on the beach. We'll stay in a hotel we stayed last year. It's on the beach and has a heart-shaped Jacuzzi! I made an appointment for a Spa treatment there as well.

Yey to Friday! And Happy Hour!

ともきーと (I try if Japanese font works. Does it?)

My English

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

30% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I've got this from VUBOQ. Well, since there isn't "Japanese English" category, and I've been living in DC area for 7 years....

It's a boy! Whatever.

Yeah, it's a boy. Whatever. It's such a shame those princesses are judged mainly, if not only, by their ability to give birth a boy. As far as Princess Kiko is concerned, she willingly joined the Royal family and accepted her role as a traditional good wife/mother. So it may be OK. But in the case of Princess Masako, she gave up her career as a diplomat to get married with the first prince (under a lot of pressure). I think she could have been Japan's foreign minister or a prominent Japanese diplomat. What a waste! Now all people want from her is a boy!!

Princess Masako had a little hope to change the Japanese Royal family. She wanted to be an active princess who travels around the world for goodwill diplomacy and charity, just like Princess Diana. Now she suffers from depression. The first prince promised to protect her from everything when he proposed to her. He should keep his words. He could transfer his title as the first prince to his brother and get out of the royal family. And he and Masako can be some kind of goodwill ambassadors or something. It would be really romantic.

Well, whatever. I really don't care. A TV morning show was talking about Princess Kiko's baby and TomCat baby Suri in the same category. That was good. Both of them are just another baby, after all.

Piano Woman

It was a fun weekend. Friday night, I went for Happy Hour at Tapatinis with Steven, Mike and Darryl. Our strong will and courage for Martinis beat the tropical storm! I had 3 Martinis and 2 Margaritas (I think). It was fun:) Saturday morning, after Pilates and treadmill, some supernatural force dragged me into DSW. My regular gym is located just next to a gigantic DSW. How could I resist? I stepped into the store saying "well, I'll just look at them....just look....." Alas, they were just in the middle of 3 day-sale "extra 30% off already reduced price." Ahhhhh....well, I was strong enough to stop buying after two pairs. And they were total of 80% off!

Then I and my husband had a lunch at Pho 75, a Vietnamese noodle shop in Rockville, and dropped in a thrift shop. I bought a beautiful green suede trench coat for $10, and a $12 Burberry-like trench for my husband. And.....I bought a YAMAHA electronic piano!!!! It was $30! Its highest C-key is broken, but it really doesn't matter. It can make more than 100 different tones and about 30 different rhythm. I used to play piano until I was 18, and wanted to start playing it again. I'm so happy! I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my piano. I've mastered so far "Piano Man," "Eleanor Rigby" and some classics. At night, we watched DVD a Japanese movie "Kamikaze Girls." It's a cute and bizarre movie.

On Saturday, Steven and Mike invited me for a picnic at Rock Creek Park. I picked up Steven and Mike, and Dennis, a Mike's friend, and his super-cute dog, Luna, joined. We played croquet. Mike won again. I improved a lot. I was the third. It was a lot of fun. At night, I and my husband played a dice game until 1:30 am. My husband didn't want to stop until he won more than I did.....finally I became sleepy and convinced him to go to bed. We played 12 games, I won 7 times and he won 5.

On Sunday, I and my husband went to Annapolis. I had never been to Annapolis. It was fun.

Tomorrow, Japan's princess Kiko will give birth to her third child by C-section. My mom e-mailed me to see if I wanted to bet on the sex of the baby. She thought it was a boy. Me too. So the bet couldn't be completed. It must be a boy. We'll never have Empress. Well, I don't care anyways.

Summer! Wait for me!!

It's cold and rainy! Ugh. I'm having the first hot chocolate for the season. Has the summer really gone already? Wait! I haven't enjoyed it enough! How many SAM (Saturday Afternoon Margarita, I'll explain it later) have we had this summer? NOT ENOUGH! Ahhhhhhh!

OK, I'll try to think some happy things. There is this joke about "the happiest (straight) man in the world." There are some variations, but usually he has a Japanese wife, a Chinese chef, an American house, a British butler, a German car and an Italian(? I'm not sure) lover. And the unhappiest man has a Japanese house, Chinese wage, an American wife, a British chef, and....I don't remember. So, I was thinking of "the happiest woman in the world." For me, an Argentine husband....no, I was just trying to be diplomatic....let me start over. For me, a Singaporean husband (Tony Leung is accepted here), a Beverly Hills house (OMG, my Japanese-English dictionary has vocabularies like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Beverly Hills Cop"!!) , a Thai or Vietnamese chef, a British bartender and an Italian lover. Sigh. I have none of them.

How about you??