Cleaning

Thank you for your encouragement yesterday. We're hanging in there!

I find I can't send e-mails from this computer, (I have no idea why and I haven't wanted to bother my brother with asking him to teach me) so I haven't replied to anyone's comments. I wish I could.

While camping out in my mom's house I've been trying to do little chores though she isn't happy with me when she knows what I'm doing. I've tossed some plants that seemed to be ant infested and I've rearrange piles of paper so that at least people can sit down. Hardly dare to throw anything away except for pizza adds and old magazines but even those she is liable to notice are gone. She is queen of paper clutter that's for sure! She has typewritten copies of all the cards and letters she's ever written plus copies of all meeting minutes that she was ever secretary to etc. Paper is piled in mountains! My theory is that even if you save it, if you can't find it, it is as good as gone, but she and I have never agreed on this and there is no purpose in trying to reason with her now. So I move the piles.

In the process of cleaning I came across a couple of my quilts. The one is another Bible quilt, probably one of the first I ever made. I gave this first one to my mother and since she doesn't have much room in her little house/apartment, it has always been hidden behind a door. Isn't it interesting how our color preferences change? I really fretted over the colors in this quilt but it doesn't really strike me when I look at it now.

The next little quilt I made is a paper pieced one I found and ordered from Paper Panache. It was just cheery and I had been ordering other things so I decided to make this for my mom since she loves birds. I don't really know if she liked it or not and she's had it stuffed under some PAPERS for the past couple years. I pulled it out for a picture but unless I put it up somewhere I think it is going to end up back in the piles. Maybe I should just steal it and take it back to Japan! (What a low-down daughter to think such a thing!!) I won't. I'll leave it for her piles.

Washing windows, vacuuming, cleaning spots off of the carpet, dusting. What a busy bee I can be when I put my mind to it! No thought of patchwork or quilting whatsoever! Tetsu probably wishes I were so industrious when I'm in my own house!

Changes

Hmmm... Not the way I'd planned to spend the day but not altogether unexpected.

For years we have joked that every time I visited from Japan my mother would get sick. In the last couple years it has been a couple of times while I was here always entailing a trip to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. And, in the past couple of years Marcy and Keion end up taking her there a few times a year the last time ending up for an eight day stay.

Last night, Mother was feeling sick so Marcy gave her some nausea medication (always keep it on hand) and by night she seemed better. Today Marcy and the kids had a trip to the beach scheduled but I bowed out thinking I'd do some cleaning, some washing, and be around "just in case". Well, the just in case came true. At 10:00 Mom's not perking much, at 12:00 she's downright sick and I panic! I'm really terrible at this. My instinct is to call for help! Call Marcy on the cell phone. Nope, she's not answering. So I grab Mom's purse, a towel, her medication and Mom herself and take off wildly headed for the Emergency Room! (I'd spent a night with her there last summer.) Once on the streets though, I realized that it was noon, it wasn't a Sunday, Urgent Care would be open so I switched directions.

Urgent Care was packed so we waited and waited with Mom groaning and her head wobbling here and there. Finally after an hour or so we get some action and I won't go into all the details. We stayed for 5 hours and after much prodding and needle pokes and tests etc. we are home and Mom is in bed not looking that much better but at least she's been checked and has been given some shots. I have a headache.

I don't know what I want. I'd like Mom to be her rather proper, ladylike self, always a bit absent minded but quite high on the uptake usually. This is changing. She asks the same questions. She tells me the same things. Embarrassing body functions she hardly realizes are happening. She isn't interested in my Blog!

You may think, "my how egocentric Tanya is!" but truly, there was a time when she absolutely loved my letters, showing them to people, telling me I should write a book someday. Over the past few months I'd ask her if she'd read my blog and always the answer would come back.
"What's a blog?"
"Ask Keion to show it to you. I write almost everyday about my life. It's like my letters to you and better yet, it always has pictures!"
But every week we'd start the same conversation "What's a blog?"

When I got here and showed it to her she seemed so surprised though Marcy had said they had showed it to her before. But she found it hard to concentrate on the computer screen, so I read a few posts, but not really that much interest.
"Oh, she's really aged!" a light seemed to flash in my head.
I'm taking a risk writing this here in case some lucidity returns and she suddenly wants to read my blog! Boy, will I be in trouble!

Ah well... All part of life...

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."
John 14:1-3

Teenagers

Ok, I've got permission to post this and a picture so I'll tell you about the nice girl that Leiya's become friendly with. Here again, just thinking about differences in culture again...

Stephanie is 17 and will be a senior in high school from September. She's off on summer vacation and she drove over (her own car) to spend a couple of days with Leiya. Stayed the night, went shopping together, watched DVD's etc. We got to talking about some of her classes in school and she said she'd taken a class in forensics. For my Japanese blog visitors, forensics is a science that uses methods and techniques to investigate a crime. This means that Stephanie's class was going down to the coroner's office and studying corpses etc. Stephanie explained that she needed to study forensics since she wants to go into epidemiology. New word for me again! (Sometimes I feel like a foreigner when I'm in my own hometown!) Two summers ago she did some volunteer work at a local hospital and she came across the epidemiology lab in one of the corners of the hospital and after asking questions of the people working there she suddenly knew that this is what she wanted to do with her life! Study what causes diseases; research all the factors, environmental, hereditary etc. in figuring out why the person is sick. The field has to deal with science of course, but also with laws and politics since a lot of the research is connected with public health and preventive medicine. Stephanie has practical plans laid out for checking out what colleges offer the best opportunities, for taking science and law classes, for improving her research and writing ability. I'm sorry if this doesn't seem extraordinary to American friends but again, I don't think a young person in Japan would have put so much thought into their future at this young age. Most high school students in Japan are mostly concerned about getting into a good college, and they don't worry about anything else until after they have been accepted somewhere. Anyway, Stephanie was great fun to be with, quite into make-up and fashion, ate large quantities of food and bubbled and laughed and had lots to say on almost every subject. A very delightful young lady.

Here's a picture of the sleep-over. No one ever made it to a bed. If you look closely you can see four bodies spread out on the sofas. Stephanie, Leiya, and my niece and nephew. (You can only see his arm.) Looks like a wild night!

Southern California evenings

Sometimes I wonder what I would have been like if I had stayed all my life in Southern California. I find that I'm definitely not as laid back as most of my family is, nor as inclined to just sit and relax. I must seem like a compulsive worrywart to people around me here. I wonder how much of this is personality, how much is summertime thinking, how much is Japanese influence. The daily sleeping in and sitting on the porch listening to the birds is relaxing to a point but there is no schedule set for the day. In Japan usually I have my week planned out in hour increments. Here someone mentions going to the mall or out to eat and then I jump to it, sit clutching my bag and ready to go while everyone else starts a new TV program or decides to take a shower or something. I put my bag down and maybe 45 minutes later someone will say, "Ok, shall we go?" and I jump up again. The phone rings and we all go into hold again for another 15 minutes. The same thing happens in reverse. "Ok. Time to head home." and I've gathered up things and am ready to start out to the car when a new conversation starts or something in a store catches someone's attention and it's another 20 minutes before we get going in a specific direction. I can just picture Tetsu in the throws of irritation over this and it throws me for a loop too. That's not to say I'm not relaxing. I've usually got a book open but I feel like I need to keep myself on call in case someone makes a suggestion.

We spent the evening with some family friends and I made a few observations there too. First of all, one of Marcy's friend's daughter who is about Leiya's age, came over to spend the day. I was a little surprised that this very bubbly teenage girl who had never met Leiya until the day before would warm up so much and be so willing to want to be friendly. What I'm saying is that I don't think Japanese teenagers would be so easy going about making a new friend. This girl has got her own friends and life, why would she want to put out the effort of getting to know Leiya? Anyway, we decided to go to the mall. Just as we were leaving, the family friends (neighbors) called to invite everyone over for fish tacos so my brother and nephew went but we girls went shopping and picked up the neighbor's daughter too, promising to stop by later.

After shopping, all of us went back to the neighbors' s house where everyone was sitting around the pool chatting and eating. The husband deep fried some of the fish that they'd caught a couple of days ago and there were tortillas and salsa and cabbage and cheese and it was a serve yourself meal. The "party" lasted until 10:30 and candles were lit, the children were swimming, someone brought out a guitar, a bit of singing began. The neighbor's teenage son was there as was Leiya and the girl who had spent the day with us (the other kids were all 12 and younger). I just thought it nice and a bit unusual that these teenage kids would sit around on the porch with their parents and parents' friends listening, singing, talking about school and part time jobs, just being friendly and social. What's unusual? Well, I don't think too many Japanese teenagers would feel comfortable participating in the mainly adult conversation nor would they be expected to by their parents. I know when my kids were in Japan I always made Takumi and Leiya greet guests but they didn't stay around and socialize. Ahh!!! Southern California evenings!

Nothing in the way of pictures. Here are some shots of the bougainvillea around my mom's house. The one in the pot she just bought a few days ago and my brother came home and looked horrified!
"Not killer bougainvillea!? That stuff is deadly!"
He is referring to the fact that he can't seem to kill the bougainvillea that grows up over the roof of the house every couple of months.
"But it's so pretty." my mom says.
"Then you go out with the chainsaw." he mutters under his breath.

Barbecuing!

We've been eating and shopping and doing a little reading when we can manage to stay awake. Leiya has finally decided that she really should be reading a book that she has to know about by September so we spent a couple of hours at the library yesterday.

Last night my sister-in-law, my niece, Leiya and I went to a street fair that is held near here for a few hours. Every year we go at least once and I love to wander through the booths and look at all the hand made things that people are selling. Lots of crafty things, lots of home grown fruits and vegetables, lots of food booths set up selling steak and corn, baked potatoes, popcorn, cookies, candy and cakes. Unfortunately once there I realized I had dead digital camera batteries so I didn't get a single picture! Rats!

While the girls played, my brother and nephew were off for a day of deep sea fishing (a once a year event) and they came back really pooped! We didn't get to hear about the trip until this morning when they finally woke up and showed us their catch. I think they caught bonita, sea bass and perch. Tonight we had a great barbecue of fish and steak! None of the Californians here can stomach the fish skin nor the idea of cleaning fish so I guess the boat crew did that for them. Marcy grilled it with butter and lemon salt! Delicious!

And here are Leiya and me in the newly put in lawn in the back yard. I remember this area full of ivy and geraniums but it looks like a park now!

Arrived!

Arrived and posting no less! Wow! I am impressed with my ability to figure out a new system in less than a day! I think I can even download pictures! (We'll see...)

An easy flight and arrival in California. Some tears from Leiya when we said goodbye to Tetsu but that is understandable. Tokyo's Narita airport is lovely and a lot of fun to wander through. It is a very pleasant airport and has lots to see and do. The flight was crowded and I slept the whole 9 and a half hours so not much to report there. My mom and Marcy and family were waiting for us at Arrivals and after a quick stop at In 'n Out hamburgers, we were home.

Lots of changes at my brother's house. A newly remodeled kitchen (they're still putting things away so I'll take a picture later.) A new lawn in the backyard. A new car. After a quick rest, the women in the family took off to WalMart for... fabric!!! I had heard that WalMart was closing down their fabric department and I wanted to check it out so I found lots of lovely bright fabric there for $2 a yard! I bought a yard of about 10 different shades of the same print. I know, WalMart may not have the best quality but it's nice for a simple project and I don't have a whole lot of money to spend so it suits my purposes. When I asked the lady to cut the fabric I said "One meter each." and she looked at me and said, "What's a meter?" I'd forgotten we use yards in America!

Speaking of fabric, look was waiting for me at my mom's house!! I package from Thelma! She sent me some hand dyed fabrics. (I have yet to figure out how to e-mail her a thank you note, so if you're reading this Thelma but don't hear from me, Thank you!!!) Now this is quality stuff! Look at the beautiful colors!!! Oh, I am going to have so much fun when I get back to Japan and get back to the sewing room!! Anyway, this was a wonderful welcome gift that greeted me when I walked in the door.

Ok. I'm off again. Just reporting in!

Wonky Word Finished!

I FINISHED!!!!! And I've even got the label on!!! Now I can go to bed!

I love the colors, I love the words, I love the stars, I love the quilting. And more than that, Leiya is happy with it too. The Wonky Word quilt is going with us to America tomorrow. I think I started January 20th of this year, and that means it took me six months to do. It was a great six months and I hope I'll find a chance to make another one. Thank you again Tonya for your inspiration and advice!

The upstairs is a mess and the bags aren't packed yet, but Tetsu the whiz packer will help us tomorrow morning. Talk about cutting it down to a fine line!!! I'm leaving here at 10:30 so I won't be able to post again, but we'll see what I can do from the States. Thank you Ulla, Tonya and Calico Cat. I'll take the address and password with me.

Bye!