Happy Labors Day

M

an, I have way too much on my plate. No, no, no, I don't mean that I'm over eating from the BBQ--that was yesterday and I did eat too much, as usual. I'm talking about my life. Way too much work to do. Not that I want to complain or whine. But i do want to convey that I am sorry for not getting commenting on everyone's site. But I seriously have way too much to do.

1. Work work work. School got me a new computer over the summer, but--ack!--I recently realized that all my material for classes uses a Japanese word processing program that works on Windows... 96 and 98 only! It will not work on XP. So what the heck am I supposed to do now?!? I just learned also that I can write vertically in Japanese (reading text) and horizontally in English (word list) on XP Word. This is sweet as this was the reason why I was using the Japanese WP in the first place... Actually, this is unsweet as I am trying desperately to reconfigure, redit and realign every file--virtually all the reading material in my language courses are self-generated, so I gotta fix all of these things pronto! This is, as you might imagine, time consuming....
2. Greed Card: and update. Okay, I talked to the lawyer last week and he assured me that M doesn't have to go back to Japan. But in order to prevent this, I have to fill out a ton of forms. And I have to reapply for her premanent residency from zero. Since her card was conditional--fiance visa--there is no exception to the rule: She has lost her status and we have to begin all over again... crap! So I'm in the midst of filling out all these forms which I have to turn in to the lawyers tomorrow.
3. The wayward son can't live in Japan because he has no means, and he can't llive in the US cuz he has no status, so he is trying to get into a community college. Guess who held his hand and helped him fill out the English forms and turn them in to the right office? Oh well, I did that on Friday and so I can leave that on the shelf until his I-20 (conditional admission) is ready in two weeks or so.
4. So where does that leave me? Fat... no exercise, lots of stress. And I eat a lot without the stress. Can you imagine how much I eat now? Ugh. My love handles were on the verge of being beyond handles as it was... now they are, what? love balloons? Yuck... Need to find time to work out... even a little...
5. Oh,yeah, there was that little matter of football Saturday, when I HAD to watch my games... even though UCLA lost :( But no major disappointment there. Expectations are low this year...

And so what did I do yesterday night with all this freakin' $hit to do? I watched "The Whole Nine Yards" for the first time. Man, I was really cracking up. I never realized how funny this movie was. I am not a "Friends" fan, so I usually stay away from flicks that star people from this program. But Mathew Perry was really funny. I'm not sure if the movie was really funny or if it was just a natural response to let go from all the pressure I feel currently... hmmm... you should also know that it's pretty tough to watch a movie as well, since I'm usually providing simultaneous translations to M. Oh yeah, "The Station Agent" was okay as was "Hellboy", "Badder Santa" and "Kill Bill 2". Am I getting blase? Tarantino is starting to bore me. While "Kill Bill" 1 & 2 were fun to watch, they don't come close to fascinating me like "Pulp Fiction" did. What did surprise me was "The Butterfly Effect". I'm not a Ashton Kutcher fan either--maybe I'm just against most TV stars on the big screen--but this movie had my mind working throughout. Much better than I had anticipated.

Again, thanks to Taku. "Friends" and "Ima dakara" are pretty good stress relievers. These songs allow me to recall a simpler time back in the mid 80s when perhaps the most stressful thing in my life was a final paper. Ha! That stuff is a piece of cake...

BTW: Yes, I am working on the senryu still. I'm about half way through... patience, little grasshoppers...