I took the GRE yesterday. Thank gods that's over.
When I visited Planned Parenthood this summer, they said that I qualified for a year's supply of birth control, free. I'd been thinking about trying birth control for awhile, but hadn't gotten around to it. Ex had a vasectomy, and other than that I've only ever used condoms. I was leery about the hormones and the side effects when I first started needing to use birth control, then it just wasn't an issue after I got with Mr. Snip-snip.
After looking at several options, I decided to try the Nuva Ring. It seems to have most of the same side effects as other hormone-based options, like the Pill and the Patch. I liked the idea of not having to take something every day, and although the Patch sounded okay, one friend had a bad experience with it and besides, it's visible on the outside of your body. An IUD sounded interesting, especially as there are no extra hormones involved, but I didn't like the fact that you need to have a doc insert and remove it.
I've been using the Nuva Ring for about a month now, and I haven't noticed any extreme side effects. I've had a light, almost constant ache while it was in - the way cramps feel just BEFORE they come on, but haven't really come yet. It doesn't hurt, but I can feel there's something going on. And I did have a bout of weepiness about halfway through the month.
Overall, it's going okay so far. I don't feel like I'm doing anything too drastic that's fucking up my body. And I like that I have a little bit of control over when my period comes. So I guess I'll stick with it for now.
Hung out with my friend Wave in Kamakura the other day. She took me to some funky alley café and talked my ear off about love, marriage, soul mates, and twin souls.
Her definition of soul mate is someone that you just really get along with, click with. It's natural. These can be your deep friends, not necessarily lovers. But the twin soul is the ONE.
She read my palm and told me that I've already met my twin soul, that it's someone I know. I'm a little superstitious, and I believe in ghosts and gods and mysterious things. I don't necessarily buy into astrology or foretellings, but I think there is magic out there. Unexplainable things. Things of wonder.
She got me wondering about the person I've already met, that she thinks is the one. Mulling over my acquaintances and old crushes and little flames. Thinking about strong bonds and weak ones.
She also said I'm going to die relatively young.
People are freaking out again over the flu (did it ever stop? seems like it died down for a little while) and more than half the people at work are wearing masks. It doesn't seem as bad on the train, but I've noticed lots more signs and bottles of hand wash on the counters at the places I frequent. I'm not a big fan of Purell or other alchohol-based de-germifiers; I generally believe that a few germs are good for you and help your immune system develop antibodies to fight off the baddies. If you kill everything that you come into contact with, you're even more vulnerable in the end. That's my thinking, anyway.
I work part time at a juku and with all the kids there it's basically a big germ factory. Today in class ten-year-old Miki was coughing all over the place. Great.
I started to feel just a little funny today. I hope it's psychosomatic, but I started taking zinc today, and I'm getting lots of sleep and eating more and more healthfully than usual. I also stocked up on a few of those super vitamin C drinks at the drugstore. Unfortunately, I'm out of multivitamins but I have some echinacea lozenges around here somewhere and maybe I'll start pounding those too. I'm not in the mood to get sick. Ugh.
While I was in the States I went to Planned Parenthood for an exam. It ended up being a big ordeal. I thought I should get a check up, since I hadn't had one in a few years and you're supposed to get one yearly. But I just hadn't gotten around to it and I wanted them to speak to me in English while they probed my lady parts. I don't mind going to the doctor here, I don't mind the dentist (too much - although what part of いたい〜〜〜！ don't they understand? Stop drilling with no numbing agent in my sensitive mouth when I'm telling you it hurts, fucker), but for some reason I wanted my gyno exam to be in my native tongue.
Anyway the doc found a lump and she thought I should get it checked out. They don't do ultrasounds at PP though, so I had to go to an imaging place (which isn't free like a yearly at PP) where they took an ultrasound. Except the tech thought it was borderline, and she consulted a doctor, who thought it was borderline, so I had to do a double mammogram. Those are pretty unheard of on people my age.
So I'm sitting there, sweating all this while they squeezed my boobs and prodded me and poked me. I'm not a worrywart and I wasn't too freaked out, because freaking out just isn't productive. But still, the doc found the lump and then I had to make an appointment for a couple of days later. Then I was cooling my heels for a couple of hours at the imaging clinic while several doctors, nurses, and aides debated whether I had cancer. Fun times.
In the end, the doctor said I was all clear. And oh joy, since I don't have insurance in the States, I qualified for the Medicaid discount. So all I had to pay was $500 for them to have me on edge for a few days thinking about my mortality and then tell me it was fine after all! Thank you! I'll sleep better (and poorer) now.
I've been reading Saint Young Men (聖☆おにいさん), a manga that WH recommended awhile back. It's slow going, but it's good practice for me.
Anyway, it reminds me of this Wilco song, which I love.
Princess J and I went shopping in the typhoon yesterday. We went to Shibuya and Harajuku, because she was determined to visit Forever 21 and H&M.
I was on a mission to buy hot underwear. This is a much tougher mission than you might think. Underwear here tends to be frilly, ugly, overly lacy, and either belongs on a granny or a six year old. All the bras are padded to holy hell. Where is the sexy stuff? Where is the slinky stuff?
After visiting about ten stores, I managed to find about three pairs of bottoms, and two bras. Since they wouldn't let me try on the bras at the store, though, they were a disappointment when I got them home. Not as cute as I thought.
I should have stocked up while in the States, but it slipped my mind.
Edit: some Une nana cool underthings.
This trip flew by. Even though I was here for three weeks, the time just evaporated. It's been so good to see friends and get a reality check. I get so wrapped up in the way some people think about age, women, marriage, etcetera, that I get really mindfucked. Pulling back and spending time with people who don't think that way is refreshing and gives me perspective.
My family is starting to tell me more insistently that I need to move back to the States. I feel torn. It would be a lot less lonely to live here. Things come easily. Too easily.
Then again, Oregon has the second worst economy in the nation, trailing only Michigan. Scary. Seattle's looking good, though, as is SF.
Something to mull over in the coming months as we descend into fall and then winter and seasonal affective disorder kicks in. Not sure if I can handle a dark winter without a good support system in place.
Soo jetlagged. Slept all day yesterday then couldn't sleep at all last night, so I baked corn muffins AND made a run at 530 this morning to get a dozen Krispy Kremes. Bad food, but addictive. My family's set for breakfast.
On the plane, I was sitting behind a really cute family. The dad was a big strapping blond Caucasian guy, with blue eyes. The rustic, mountain man type. Mom was Japanese. They had four kids, the oldest a girl about ten. The kids were so cute! They were pretty well behaved, with a few of the "how many minutes til we get there?" kind of questions. But they were all super bilingual, and they didn't have accents at all in either language. I was a little envious because my mom didn't really speak to me in Japanese when I was a kid; it would have made things so much easier now.
Anyway, the kids kept looking at me, especially the younger ones. Like they were curious, trying to figure me out. I don't think they knew themselves why they were staring at me. But I think it was because they look like me, and maybe aren't used to seeing people who look like them. I've had this happen to me several times with hafu kids.
They seemed like a really sweet family with a good dynamic. I felt affectionate toward them. Is it weird to get all smooshy about total strangers? I wish them the best.
I went and got a haircut. The salon is on the cusp of Harajuku and Omotesando, but I'd call it Harajuku. (The models in the background of their webpage are the stylists. I met several of them.)
The guy who solicited me - I'll call him Cactus - was waiting for me outside. He was super smiley and cute. A bit quirky-fashionable, in short-shorts. Which could be questionable but he pulled it off and it was hot.
He led me in and I put my bag in a locker. The place is pretty cool, a big open space, kind of deconstructed. Concrete walls, slabs of mirrors. It looks unfinished but hipsterish at the same time.
We chatted and he pulled out a notebook and talked about my hair. He sketched a picture of what before and after might look like. I found this charming. I didn't see any of those hair magazines around that they usually have at salons. He washed my hair with some special shampoo that he had mixed himself and gave me a head massage and asked questions and told stories. He's from Osaka and just moved to Tokyo to work at the newly opened place.
When I met him in Shibuya the night he talked to me near Hachiko, he had sculpted purple hair. The day I went to the salon, it had faded to a dusty lavender. But this is definitely a "hair-art" kind of joint, and he really wanted to do crazy stuff. He was pushing me to get short bangs and highlights, but I guess I'm not a very adventurous hair model. I like my natural color and don't want to have the same color as every other Japanese girl. So I just let him trim it and shape it a bit.
After he was done, probably as a balm for not having been allowed to hack the crap out of my head, he asked if he could "arrange" it. So Cactus and another cute assistant (what is it with the hair salons and these hot stylists?) spent a bunch of time playing with my hair and sticking a million bobby pins in.
Finally finished, he took pictures and walked me outside.
All in all, it was really fun to be pampered and flirted with for a couple of hours. We have each others' mail addresses, and I told him I'd come back as a paying customer next time. It's a totally cute place, and good if you want something pretty edgy. Maybe I'll be braver next time.
A wise approach I would say. Mostly I find a lot of the Newagers sort of a mix between brain... read more
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