Monday, March 13, 2006

   Oh...the weather outside is... icky!

Well, it's almost 1:00 a.m. now. My work day ended about 45 minutes ago. The snow, however, started around 2 hours ago. It was raining/spitting pretty much all day before that. Fortunately the temperature did not drop by the time the snow started. The streets have turned to slush and the snow continues to fall. So, here I am, sitting in a motel room posting and watching the tail end of "How William Shatner Changed the World" on the History Channel. I wish I could have seen the whole thing. Now to watch "Futurama."

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There's another story part down below... Finally. I have no excuse for taking so long to put it up. I kept forgetting about it. I think the wee hours of the morning may have something to do with it. But then again, maybe I just finally remembered to post it. Whatever it is, it's finally up there and I hope those of you that read it enjoy it. Otherwise, for those that don't read it, enjoy this post.

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And finally, I will hit the magic "Add Post" button down below and this will be submitted to all of you to read!!! Whee!!!

Laters!

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Nakamura's Thoughts & The Party

Nakamura stood by the window in his office, lost in thought. He had returned to Tokyo from Kamakura earlier in the week and had just returned to work that morning. So much paperwork had gathered on his desk during his absence, but he was not yet ready to take on the task.

He sighed and turned back to the desk. A cup of green tea waited there for him. He sat and drank and considered his grandson. Hikaru’s collapse at the funeral concerned him, but the later visit confirmed the boy was all right. Yet the appearance of Hikaru during that visit made Nakamura uneasy. He tried to recall what he knew of Hikaru’s mother and what her people were like.

Nakamura had known about the village on the hill near his home since he was a boy. The hill was known as Kitsuenkoyama – the Smoking Hill – because of the thin plumes of smoke that would occasionally snake up from the trees. The hill was part of his property and for generations his family was duty bound to keep the outside world away from Kitsuenkoyama.

His father had told him of the village and the people there when he was ten years old. It was a village of silver colored demons. At first he was frightened at the thought of demons living so close, but his father assured him that they were just trying to live their lives in peace. Not all demons were evil.

The first time he encountered a resident of the village happened ten years later. Nakamura’s father had just died. He was meditating in the garden when the two women came out of the trees of the hill. The older woman introduced herself as Rin, an elder of the demon village. The younger woman was her daughter Shizuyo. They offered their condolences at the death of his father and thanked him for the acceptance of his duty as protector of the hill.

Years passed by and Nakamura’s sons were told of the village on Kitsuenkoyama. The oldest, Tsuyoshi, was expected to carry on the family responsibility when he was old enough. The younger son, Yoshihiro, seemed unconcerned by the presence of the demons on the hill and spent his time learning the way of a warrior. Nakamura was proud of both his sons, but was later dismayed at the friendship Yoshihiro formed with Shizuyo.

Shizuyo was one of the few villagers that could pass for human, as she was able to change her appearance. She would come down from the hill to go to market, and that was where she met Yoshihiro and things changed. They fell in love.

Thinking back on the events now after Yoshihiro’s death, Nakamura had regrets. He wished he had been more understanding. But, as the second son, Yoshihiro needed his father’s permission to marry. Nakamura had no way of knowing what had transpired between Shizuyo and her family, but the arguments between him and Yoshihiro went on for days. In the end, the young couple put aside the differences between their races, broke ties with their families, left Edo and married on their own.

Time passed. Tsuyoshi died of a lung disease, Yoshihiro was killed in battle, and a half-breed grandson was all that was left of Nakamura’s family. That grandson needed to be told of his legacy, but Nakamura was unsure of how he was going to tell the boy. He had to get past one hurdle first – Takeda. Nakamura needed to get to know his grandson, and Takeda seemed to be overly protective of Hikaru.

Nakamura set his empty teacup on the tray and came to a decision. Ignoring the paperwork that still waited for his attention, he pulled out some paper and wrote a letter to Hikaru. The time to get to know his only heir had come. The boy would learn of his heritage, and hopefully would come to embrace both sides.
***
One day a letter arrived for Hikaru, but he was not home to receive it. He was at the local inn having a birthday dinner. The party was the idea of Samantha and Midori… and Akiko, the innkeeper’s wife and Satsuo’s mother. The three women had spent the morning getting everything just right for the occasion. Akiko had cooked all of Hikaru’s favorite dishes while Sam and Midori put up decorations. Anyone that asked about the occasion was pleased to hear that it was for Hikaru. So many of the townsfolk were still concerned after his collapse at his father’s funeral. They didn’t know how he was faring, as none of them had seen him since the funeral.

Takeda had a difficult time getting Hikaru to go to the inn. It wasn’t that Hikaru didn’t want to wake up that morning, he was just finding all sorts of ways to avoid going. Finally, Takeda grabbed him by the braid and pulled until he stood and got dressed. Threats of more braid pulling got Hikaru to leave the house at last.

They arrived at the inn just before noon, as indicated on the invitation. Takeda propelled Hikaru into the dining area with a firm push. Aside from the usual noontime crowd, a table had been reserved for the party.

Of course, Sam and Midori were the first ones to wish Hikaru happy birthday as they guided him to the table. Takeda observed that as soon as Sam spoke to Hikaru, his mood changed. That girl seemed to be able to get the boy to do anything.

Satsuo and Akiko started bringing out the food as soon as Hikaru had taken his place at the table. Hikaru had never seen so much food at one time. Takeda caught his eye and raised an eyebrow. Hikaru grinned and nodded, and the feast began.

The group ate and talked and laughed for a while, and many people from town also wished Hikaru a happy birthday. Finally, after the cakes had been eaten and the dishes cleared away, Satsuo’s father asked Hikaru about his coming of age ceremony.

Takeda explained that the ceremony had taken place earlier in the year, before Hikaru’s father left. Sam asked what they were talking about and Midori explained that the coming of age ceremony was the passage from childhood to an adult. Even though he was just turning fifteen, Hikaru was considered an adult.

Conversation continued on various subjects. Sam was asked about her home and through Midori, she told about Boston and her grandmother. She talked about parties she had attended there and explained that this was the first one she had given. “I hope it was all right,” she said.

Hikaru whispered something in Midori’s ear after she finished translating. After hearing Midori’s whispered reply, he said, “Sanku yu, Samansa-san.”

Sam smiled and said, “You’re welcome, Hikaru-san. Oh! I almost forgot. This is for you.” She handed Hikaru a package, remembering Midori’s advice to hand it over using both hands. “I hope you like it.”

Hikaru took the package and thanked Sam again. He didn’t open it right away, and Sam was confused.
Midori explained, “He will open it later when at home. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate the gift. That’s just our way.”

“Ah, I see,” Sam said. “I was afraid I did something wrong.”

“Not at all.”

The party wound down shortly after that and Hikaru left with Takeda. Takeda looked over at Hikaru and smiled. “I see you had a good time,” he said.

“Yes, it was fun,” Hikaru replied. “I was so sure I wouldn’t enjoy myself. I was… I had…” He stopped talking and looked down at the package Sam had given him. “Why did she do this? I didn’t expect anything?” His ears were turning pink.

Takeda noticed Hikaru’s ears and laughed. “It’s her nature, Hikaru-kun. She’s just a nice person.”

“Yes, she is nice. I like that.” He fell silent with a smile on his face.

Takeda smiled again, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. They arrived home shortly and found a letter on the stoop in front of the door. Takeda picked it up and read Hikaru’s name on it. "A letter for you,” he said as he handed it over.

“Hmm?” Hikaru took the letter. “It doesn’t say who it’s from.” He went into the house to the main room. He sat at the table with the letter and the package from Sam. He looked at both, trying to decide which to open first. He decided on the package. He carefully unwrapped the kite Sam had bought.

Takeda looked at the gift. “That’s nice,” he said. “Tomorrow you should go to the inn and ask Sam-chan to fly that with you.”

“I think I will. I’ve stayed in too long.” Hikaru set the kite aside and picked up the letter. “Now, who sent this?” He opened the letter and read. His face fell.

“Hikaru-kun, is something wrong?” Takeda asked.

“I don’t know.” He continued reading.

“Who is the letter from? Is it bad news?” Takeda watched Hikaru as he read.

“No, not bad news,” Hikaru said quietly. “It’s from my grandfather. He wants me to go to Tokyo to live with him.”

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Sunday, March 12, 2006

   Help me!! Make it stop!!!!

There's karaoke going in the bar!!! BAD KARAOKE!!!!!

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Well, it's about 11:30 on Saturday night. I'm still at work. Got a half hour to go before I get to go home. Whee!!! I can't wait to get out of here. I feel sorry for Jerry, who's the night auditor tonight. He's got to put up with the noise from the bar until at least 2:00 am!

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I have some comments on comments here.

MiasmaMoon: I'm sorry. My life hasn't been very exciting lately. I could make up a bunch of stuff for you if you like. *grin*

Matt3402: You're so silly! Getting Sioux City & Sioux Falls mixed up! Neener neener neener!!! Are you happy now?

There were other comments, but I don't remember them. Those are the two that stuck out in my mind.

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I witnessed some truly stupid driving tonight. I was on a van run and had been to the grocery store with the railroad guys. We were heading to the depot and had to turn right at this one intersection. The light was red & we were the second vehicle at the light in the right lane. A big SUV came zooming up in the left lane and made a right turn in front of the guy in front of me!!! Then when we got to the intersection by the depot, there was an accident. A pickup had run into the pole that holds up the traffic lights. We were wondering if the idiot in the SUV was the cause of the accident. Stupid driving....

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I gotta go now. Need to do a van run.

Laters!

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Saturday, March 11, 2006

   The noodles are coming!!!

It's actually Saturday morning! Early Saturday morning!!! Whee.

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My Friday was weird. I had to work a really odd shift. It was mostly boring.

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Other than that, I really have nothing interesting to say. So...

Laters!

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Thursday, March 9, 2006

   I'm an airplane! I'm an airplane!

I think I used that subject line once before. Oh well...

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Another thrill a minute day for me! I did some typing on my Japanese/English thingy. Watched some TV. And that's about it. I wish I had more exciting things to tell you guys.

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I work from 11 am to 7 pm tomorrow. That means I have to get up before 10. It's gonna be hard to do. I won't be taking the laptop to work because of the oddball hours. *sigh* If I do anything online, it's gonna be on the computers that are slower than this dialup!

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Hmm... well, this exciting unit has to wander off and finish up email. Wheeeeee!!!!!

Laters!

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Wednesday, March 8, 2006

   Dialup sucks.

It's a night off for me, and I'm at home dealing with the dialup. I've been online about 2.5 hours and have been dealing with innumerable "Page can't be displayed" messages. MSN Messenger dumped me at least every two minutes for the first half hour that I was on. It's been very frustrating. I can find nothing that would cause me to have such issues with the connection. I did disconnect and reconnect a little while ago. I got a slower connection at first, but reconnected and got a little higher speed than the original connection. I just think my computer is objecting to the dialup.

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Today was wet. It's been rainy pretty much all day. I didn't do much of anything. I played around with iTunes for a while this afternoon. Didn't buy anything, but was playing with what I already have. Did laundry again. Whee. Then I did some serious typing on my story.

I do have a bunch that can be posted, but in light of the pain in the butt the connection has been tonight, I'm gonna wait before posting. I do have to update the story site, too, but won't do that either.

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Well, it's about that time. I think I'm going to wander away now.

Laters!

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Tuesday, March 7, 2006

   It's a cocktail party with a hockey game in the background!

Well, here I am again. I'm in a better mood than last night. Well, I wasn't in a bad mood last night, just "hurried." I was working with the person that has had no training on front desk things aside from answering the phone. I swear any calories that I took in while eating dinner were burned off as soon as I swallowed! At least I got to go home at 11 instead of midnight. Yay!

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Well, there was a little confusion about my "Clapton is God!" line from the other night. katocool was on the mark with saying that Eric Clapton's music is awesome. So, SunfallE, that's who I was referring to: Eric Clapton. In the 60s, people were actually saying that about him and his music. And in the mid-80s, I saw that painted on the support of a railroad bridge in Ames, Iowa. Cool.

Now the fun part of me wanting to run into the hotel and yell that out was the fact that we had a rather large church group having a banquet that night. A few words to describe this church group: radical, extreme, ultra-conservative... I think I'll leave it at that before I get carried away and say some really nasty things about them. I'll just say this: It would have been a trip to see their reaction when I yelled out "Clapton is God!"

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Well, we have a basketball team from Virginia staying here this week. The NAIA Division 2 Women's Basketball Tournament starts up tomorrow. They just wandered through the lobby, and they all had flowers around their necks and were carrying something that made a rattling noise. They all had plastic maracas! One of the girls gave each of us at the desk one of their maracas. I'll be driving home tonight and wondering what the noise is, I know it.

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Well, I think I may have more story to post here one of these days. I just have to take a look at what was last posted and figure out which end is up. I've got a rather long section in the process of being written right now. That's what I did last night here at work instead of getting online with this thing.

Oh...my back feels better than it did the other night, but it still has a twinge of pain now & then. I still don't know what I did to get it to go all wonky on me like that.

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Hmm... I suppose I better get back to studying e-commerce. I'll try really hard not to fall asleep while reading it. It's massively dull, yet I must get through it again if I want to pass that test!

Laters!

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Monday, March 6, 2006

   FARGLESNOT!!!

At work.
No time.
Too busy.
Laptop is still in its bag & won't come out.
No patience.
Back feels better.

Laters!

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Sunday, March 5, 2006

   Owwwwwwwwwwwwww.....!!!!!!!!!!

It's Sunday evening. I'm at work and it's been busy!

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The subject line refers to my back. Around 4:30 or so, my back spasmed. It's now almost 9:00 and it still hurts! The naproxyn I took right away has not done a thing. So, of course, I've been busy running all over the motel and driving around in the van.

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There's been a big banquet in here tonight. It's a church group. I wanted to run into the motel and scream out "Clapton is God!" after one of my runs. A song by Cream was on the radio, and that just sort of brings out the hippy in me.

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Well, I think I still have email to read. So...

Laters!

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Saturday, March 4, 2006

   This is an EX-PARROT!!!

And I have completely lost the abiltity to type, so don't mind any typos that may apper in this post. I don't know where the skillhas gone, but it's not here anymore.

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It may say SAturday up there, but it's still Friday for me. I had an uneventufl day. I did some tyoping on my Japanese/Engoish diciotarly thing. At that time my tyhping wahs not bad. Later on I went to Siuox city with my brother. I had two books come in at B&N. I now have SAiyuki #5 and Samurai Deeper Kyo #4. Wehh!

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I'm having fun with MSN Messneger. matt3402 and i are playing with "Music Man". It makes a jazz jam seession out of our chatting. I"m on the piano & he's on a saxophone. We've been typing nonsenes at eachother to see what it wiil do. lOt's of fun!!!

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Well...my borhter sneezed himself awake a little while ago. then he came down here to tell me he's going beck to bed. He didn't sleep well today. He works nighst, so he's usually sleeping all day. He got up kinda early today so we could go to sioux city. hmm... i seem to type a little better if i don't capitalize stuff.

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Well. i htink I'll go now before this gets to be completely illegible. Have a gerat weekend! If you can figure out what "gerat" is....

Latesr!

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