I have dreams

一回寝たのですが、起きてきました。
これを書いて寝ようと思い。
昨日Facebookに「お母さんありがとう」的なコメントを書いたら、妹から「何か良いことあったの？」とメッセージが。「特にないよ。」と返したものの、ありました。
つい最近になって「わたしには夢がある」っていうことに気付いたことです。

なんでこれが特別なのか？

わたし子供の頃から、すごくやりたいことが多くて、とにかく夢も大きかったのです。小学校の頃から留学したかったし、大人になってやりたい仕事もありました。世の中も変えたかった。
高校の頃は良く親友たちと将来の夢について語り合いました（みんなもそうだよね？）。なんだか自分の人生がとてつもない可能性を秘めているような気がしていました。大学のころ、「メリちゃんと話すとワクワクしてやる気が出てくる」とよく友達に言われた。

でも、大学の途中で大病して留年しそうになり、留学の奨学金ももらえなくなり、その後の人生として思い描いていた道筋が奇麗に消えてしまいました。病気するのは２度目だったので、もう元に戻れる気がしなかったし、その後別な道を目指したり色々したけれども、ギリギリの体力でやっと乗り切る毎日があるだけで、夢なんてありませんでした。
そのとき自分に言い聞かせていたのは、「今は回り道しているだけ、いつか辿り着くはず。自分は自分の道」。

このブログの上の方に「Life List」というのがあります。最初には「自分が何をしたくて生きているのか思い出せなくなるから、メモしておく。」とちょっと前まで書いてありました。これを書いたのは、たった２年くらい前。

先週末、友人と食事に行ってすごく楽しかったのですが、なぜかと振り返ったら、夢がね、話し始めたら止まらなかったことです。気がついたら、なんだか、この世でやりたいことが沢山あって、それを出来るだけのエネルギーに満ちている。

ああ、私１５年ぶりくらい（無駄に歳をぼやかしてみる。笑）に元気になったんだな、と思って、それが特別ないいことです。
毎日時間が足りないほど、やりたいことが沢山あるし、正直会社で働いている時間がもったいないと感じています。

私には夢がある。

こんな素晴らしいことがあるでしょうか。

では、おやすみなさい。明日は金曜日！

des pommes

子供の頃から山形の祖母が毎年紅玉を一箱、必ず送ってくれていました。

わたしにとって、リンゴといえば紅玉。実は普通のリンゴはそれほど好きではありません。甘すぎるし薄いし冷たい。甘酸っぱくて口に含むと温かい感じ、これは紅玉特有。
去年になって「そうだ、自分で箱で買えば良いんだ」ということに思い当たり、去年も今年も一箱買いました。スーパーで４つしか入っていない袋を買った時の悲しさと比べ、箱一杯のリンゴからは幸せの匂いがします。

紅玉の唯一の弱点は、旬の時期が短くてすぐ傷んでしまうこと。箱が届いたらよーいドンなのです。今年はジャムを２回作り、焼きリンゴと、今日は傷む直前ギリギリセーフでタルトタタンを。

バターとリンゴの香りがアパート中に染み付いて、この空気を保存したいくらいです。


My grandmother used to send us a box of Japanese cooking apple every year.  It's a different kind than American cooking apple, and also different from common Japanese kinds.  This very red and small apple is my absolute favorite, and actually, I don't like other kinds of apple that much.

After my grandmother passed away, it was only last year that I realized, I can buy a box myself.  I was so used to the idea of someone else sending me boxes of fruits, that it didn't occur me to do it myself.
The only drawback of this apple is that it doesn't last more than a few weeks, even being kept in a cold room.  So I made 2 kinds of apple sauce, baked with cinnamon, then baked a tarte.  My apartment now smells like heaven - butter and apple and angel.

An ending, a beginning, and a new challenge

Yes, it's my car.  Well, technically, it's a car that I rented and drove.
For the first time in my life.

As I have written a couple of weeks ago, I did took driving lessons, and did go on a road trip on my own.  I have some tiny agony in myself because driving a car with only one passenger is so environmentally unfriendly.  I was rather proud of myself not driving at all.  But, it was fun.

I feel a bit sentimental, because one of the projects I have been working on at work is almost complete, and is about to be launched in a few days.  It has been a long way.  In the beginning, there was so little interest in the entire concept.  Now, many people support our efforts.  I almost cried at work.

I feel conscious about beginnings/endings today.  On returning from my vacation, I discovered that the summer had completely gone, and it's already deep in fall.  Fall is the season I start a new year.  I start many things from fall.  It's the beginning of my personal fiscal year.  I feel reborn.

It's also because the production for amirisu's second issue is just starting now.  And I have another secret project, and also another end/beginning thing happening as well.  A piece of news was waiting for me in Tokyo, and I am pretty excited about it.

During my vacation, I stayed beside the Japan's biggest wetland area, and went canoeing in the river that runs through it.  The whole driving/visiting a new place/canoeing/meeting new people experiences awakened my senses, and gave me new perspectives.

The owner of the B&B and canoe instructor is an immigrant from Tokyo.  We talked about a lot of things, such as life changing decisions, while we canoed in the pristine landscape.  He moved there when he was my age, and got married just 5 years ago.  He is extremely happy and says he has no regrets.  I envy him from the bottom of my heart.

That was, probably, a sign and a new beginning.
I feel like a whole new experience is spreading in front of me.

We'll see.

Birthday!

Last week was my xx-th birthday and was such a wonderful week.  Thank you everyone for your messages, calls, gifts, and above all, your warm wishes.  I feel so blessed!
(above image courtesy of Marie-Claire Idee spring edition (April?))

On the evening of my birthday, my close friend invited me to a piano concert of a small scale, the music was just fantastic, and I totally enjoyed the great company there, except... my teeth started to ache, more so, with some champagne.


I wrote a long paragraph about my horrible toothache experience, but I decided to summarize it in one phrase - it was the worst pain I'd ever had!  It was mainly because I can't take antibiotic medicine (allergic to it).

I've known of my allergy since my childhood, because it caused heart, liver, kidney etc failures when I was 8.  It took me (and my family) a few years to recover to the OK level, and a blessing to live my life nonchalantly was lost forever.
But then, people have some limitations or another, be it financial, ability or family related, etc. So I can't say I am completely unfortunate.  I have a great family who always supports me.  It's just I can't do everything I want to (like volunteering for the disaster relief activities, choose a very challenging job and work like hell, or living in the unsanitary countries to help them rebuild their communities).

If you are healthy and are gifted with talents, please don't waste them.  There are people who are yearning for that health.

On entering the 2nd half of my life, I decided to be more thankful for what I have, what I can do, and to take a better care of myself.  And spend more time with all of you, my dear friends.

Nicolai Bergmann

On Saturday, I met up with my friend Kishiko from the French language school (which I dropped out a year ago) for late lunch. She took me to a gorgeous florist and cafe in Aoyama area. The "walk back" post from yesterday was about from there to my house.
Spring is right there, and I felt more so, looking at this purely green grass above.

A half of the interior space is the cafe.  It's spacious, crowded, and the light is gorgeous.

My friend, Kishiko, is a lady extraordinaire. She studies 6 languages including ancient greek and latin.  She encouraged me to go back to the French school, and I decided to take classes with her, one on Marie Antoinette and the other on French philosophy / Foucault.  I have no idea if I can keep up at all...

 

My April will be extremely busy - French school twice a week, Unraveling eCourse on Photography, probably moving to a new place, learning to do art journaling, and my friend is coming to visit me from overseas.  Oh, I forgot.... and work.
Please wish me luck!

être aux anges

An angel came to me this afternoon with some chocolates wrapped inside it.
Happy Valentines' Day!

Thank you October

I realized today was the Halloween after I put a pumpkin pie in the oven.  And I also realized that I forgot to put a cup of heavy cream in the filling...  Ta da! A pumpkin pie from the scratch. 

オーブンに入れてから、今日がハローウィンだと気がついた。オーブンに入れてから生クリームを入れ忘れたことに気づいた。。。でも我ながらホッペが落ちる美味しさ！

お菓子作りの記憶と高校の記憶は同じところに格納されていて、片一方が刺激されて蘇ってきたらもう一方も蘇ってきた感じがします。とはいえ、土台もフィリングも混ぜて焼くだけなので、なんのテクニックも要らないのですが。強いて言えば、固いカボチャの皮を剥く根気？

こういう重いタルトは冷やしたほうが美味しい。冷蔵庫に保管して今週は楽しめます。レシピはクックパッドで見つけました。

I think my memories of high school years and my knowledge and experience in baking were stored in the same area in my brain.  Meeting a roomful of high school classmates brought me back "baking" too.

Today I bought a bouquet of flowers in the neighborhood (my favorite florist!) to celebrate the end of October.  I won't have to blog every day from tomorrow.  And I stayed very healthy.

Looking back, I got hospitalized twice in October, got sick in October and was hospitalized in December once.  It seems that I always become over-the-top excited in October and November that I tend to sacrifice my body.

When the air is cold, night sky high, and when telepathy can fly far and beyond, there are so many things to distract me and excite me, that I can hardly sleep at night.  It's probably from the nature of animals, that we get high before the hibernation.

近所のお気に入りのお花屋さんで、１０月の終わりを祝うためのブーケを買いました。アンティークローズのような色のカーネーションや、シックなオレンジのバラ、買わなかったけど、秋色の深い橙の日本の菊（でもアナスタシアというそう）など、いつも珍しい花があるお店です。

１０月が終わったのでもうブログを毎日書かなくてもいいし、それに健康に乗り切れました。いつも１０月になると嬉しくてはしゃぎ過ぎるらしく、１０月に入院したのが２回、１０月末から体調を崩して１２月に入院したのが１回。

空気がひんやり、夜空が高く、遠くまでテレパシーが飛んで行きそうな季節になると、やりたいことが山のように出てきて夜も眠れません。これって、動物の習性のような気がする。冬ごもりの準備に大忙し、みたいな。

Kindle

Today I am thankful for my Kindle.  I didn't really use it today, but anyway.  I have been showing it off around all month, so I am also thankful for people who displayed excitements for me even when they couldn't care less.

But honestly, I am quite fascinated by it.  I haven't named it yet, though.  You know, my computer has a name.  I always choose black color for all my gadgets, so the names are usually male names.  This time, my Kindle is white, but why do you want to call your Kindle "Jane"?  It's got to be men's name.  Copernicus, maybe?

I have a tendency to feel incredibly attached to my things, like mobile phone.  It is always hard to let an old one go.  My iPhone 3G is 2+ years old, with an old camera and all, but I just don't have a heart to see him off and get a 4G.  It is just so cruel.

In case you are wondering, my mac is Alain, and my iPhone is Arsene.   How can you part with your Arsene Lupin?




On a last note, I love her singing, and I also completed a cardigan today.

今日は９月に買った新しいキンドルに感謝。そして、見せびらかす度に私の興奮に付き合ってくれた皆さんに。

Friday burger girls' night out

A bunch of us went out for a new burger shop in Kagurazaka called Martini Burger.  They have martini and burgers, NY style. (and cheese cake, and all that.)

The burger was really really good.  We all ate in like one breath.
I also had this chocolate soda, which is, according to the menu, a NY specialty.  It's kind of sour and chocolate, hard to say which.  It's not too bad, but not so great either.  I've been to NY many times but not once I have seen this.

A friend of my colleague was wearing this cool T-shirt.  I love it and I really want one for myself!  She kindly let me take a picture :)

Today I am thankful for the wonderful evening, plus for those very unique people in our office who gave us so much to talk about!

Blackbird

I skipped a day.  I feel defeated.

Yesterday, I heard on a radio (KCRW-music) Paul McCartney talking about the song "blackbird".  He said it was not about just anyone, but he meant it to be for black people. (I don't even know what is the politically correct term now... I personally think black is cool, much cooler than yellow.) Then he played the song in the studio.  The whole thing was from their 2002 archive.
Thank you, it was great.

The day started out weird.
An old man on the train told me to turn off my mobile because "they say so on stickers on the wall."  I looked up, there, on the wall behind the priority seats, there are stickers saying "turn off your mobile in this area".
If you go to other countries, people are eating, chatting, doing whatever they want on trains.  In Japan, you have to be quiet, cannot annoy others, cannot eat nor drink, and you are not allowed to talk on the phone.  They also demand you to turn off your mobile, which is, think about it, completely unrealistic and illogical.

I remember 10 years ago that they were asking us to switch off for those people with heart pace makers.  I get that.  Then I realized, they don't ask me to switch off my mobile in any hospitals these days.  I googled it, and found out that based on the Government's annual research, you have to put your mobile within 1cm of a heart pace maker to affect in any way. Come on, 1cm!

So of course, I wrote an email to the railway company to give me "the logical reason why they demand us to switch off."

****

In the afternoon, the metal thing covering my tooth came off, so I had to go to the dentist.

When I came home, the apartment elevator was out of order and under maintenance.  In my building, you can come down through exterior stairs, but you can't go in from outside.  So the elevator is the only way up.  I had to make a call and wait for 15 minutes at the entrance, empty stomached, when it was pouring outside, cold.

But then it was not a bad day.  Just so weird that everything happens in one day.

Regaining, restoring, repacking

今日は比較的近くに住んでいる高校時代のクラスメートが私の職場まで来てくれて、一緒にランチを食べました。とても楽しかった！もう殆ど忘れていた記憶が、最近色々と蘇ってきて、なんだか自分の抜け落ちていた部分が修復されているような、そんな感覚です。
クリーニングから冬物がど〜んと戻ってきて、クローゼットが満杯になりました。持っていたことを忘れた服ばかり、似たような服を持っていることを忘れてまたスカートを買ってしまいました。

Today, one of my old high school classmates came by to my office's neighborhood, and we had a great lunch together.  I have been seeing a lot of friends from high school these days, and the long-lost memories started to submerge from somewhere.  It's kind of like restoring an old painting - my memories and my self have been restored and I am seeing a clearer picture now.  For this, I am grateful today.

My winter clothes all came back from a dry cleaner in a bulk, and my closet is completely packed now.  The other day I bought another skirt, for I had forgotten about the other similar-looking one.

Above is a desert for lunch, matcha ice cream with red bean curd, 

on top of Japanese -style crispy waffle.  Yum!

A very ordinary great day

Today I am thankful for:
(1) Malcolm Gladwell - Outlier is awesome!
(2) My job - there is always something new.  I love learning and trying new things.
(3) My friend with whom I had dinner - it is fun talking to someone of your age, who has similar job issues and perspectives.
(4) That Amazon delivered me Grey's Anatomy season 5, and I just found out that Kevin McKidd is in it!!

Today I am thankful for a day off.  I've had a terrible headache yesterday and this morning, and I took a sick leave. 

I just stayed home and watched Grey's Anatomy, season 4, which I bought a year ago but haven't watched.

I am also thankful for the series, that watching it makes my life look a lot better, less of a mess.

(It also helps me get used to the natural speaking speed at the same time.  Kills two birds with one shot.  I also have to add that Meredith and Derek came together at the end of the season 4, so I can sleep happily tonight.)

Photos from yesterday.  Look at the alan sweater dress!  

I can totally knit this.  Lovely.

There had been an opening of a film festival in my neighborhood, and I didn't know about it, watched it on the news in the evening.
Anyway, the Armani boutique has these fantastic dresses on their window now.  It's my 8-year-old-ish dream to one day wear that kind of dress for an occasion.  Just once.  I love the blue one.

 At a book store, the craft and architecture sections are on my regular route.  I found two new books by my favorite architect, but didn't buy them because my piles of books are growing and growing.

Among Japanese architects, Hiroshi Naito is one of my favorites.  He is a good educator and a good person too.  These books, his interviews with other architects and designers, should be really a great read.

Tarte Tatin - I peeled 12 apples today

English follows.　Later.

今日は日本語から！という作戦で。これでバイリンガルを目指します。

思わず早起きしてしまったので散歩に出かけて、半分部屋着のままスタバでコーヒーとマフィンを頂き、編物をして朝を過ごしました。帰り道、広場で「信州物産展」なるものに遭遇。まあ小ちゃなファーマーズマーケットです。紅玉を一袋買いました。５００円で９個くらい入っていた！
お店のおじさんに「何に使うの？」と聞かれ思わず「もちろん食べるんです」と答えそうになったところ、別な種類の甘いリンゴと一緒にジャムにすると美味しいと教えてもらいました。家に帰って早速皮むき。紅玉の煮えた匂いって、コーヒーの次くらいに良い匂いだと思います。

紅玉が思ったより熟していたこともあって、残りの５個も使ってしまうことにしました。

今では買い食いを極めるわたくしからは想像もつかないかもしれませんが、大学くらいまではほぼ毎日のようにお菓子やパンを焼いていました。今考えれば、母もよくあれだけバターや小麦粉を買ってくれたものだと思う。バターだって高いのに。
当時、秋といえば「紅玉でアップルタルト」が作れる季節。で、久しぶりにタルトタタンを作ろうと思い立ったものの、もう作り方が分からない！ネットで探して１５年ぶりにタルトのクラストを作ってしまいました。

使ったのはこのレシピ。大好きなSmitten Kitchenを検索して見つけました。

クックパッドのレシピは冷凍パイ生地やホットケーキミックスを使ってお手軽に作るものばかりで、却下。（冷凍パイ生地は不味いです。）

リンゴを剥きすぎて手が疲れた。
ストウブの鍋を使い、鍋が深すぎたこともあって水分が蒸発せずリンゴがすぐに煮えてしまって、結果的にキャラメルっぽくならず。クラスト生地の上にリンゴのコンポートが載ったようなかたちになってしまいました。

でも！美味しい。。。。。。。

やっぱり砂糖はこれ以上入れられないので（今でも十分過ぎるくらい甘い。紅玉って砂糖入れなくても美味しいし）、焼き時間を次回は２７分ではなくて３５分くらいにしてみようかな。

美味しすぎる！ただ、バター２００gと砂糖１カップ、小麦粉１．５カップを総て一人きりで消費するのかと思うと、非常に哀しいものがあります。だから一人暮らしって嫌なんですよね。

今日は早起きに感謝！かな〜。う〜ん。

友達に「美味しそう、あれ、カボチャじゃないの？」とメールで言われたので、次はカボチャに挑戦しようかなと闘志を燃やしているところ。

Farmers' Market, Japanese Style...
売っているものはファーマーズマーケットなのに、見た目がここまで違う。。

I happened to have a very early start this morning, against my will, so I really treated myself well.

After spending a few hours knitting at Starbucks, I found a small farmers' market in the neighborhood, and bought a bag of cooking apples.  It's my favorite kind of apple, called "Red Ball"(sort of).  In fact, I don't like any other kinds.
So anyway, a man at the apple stand told me how to make apple jam without adding any sugar - just add another sweeter apple.  So I was compelled to try that myself.

On returning home, I peeled 7 apples (I could not fit any more apples in my cooking pot), started an oven, then my room was filled with an amazing aroma of cooking apples. Hmmmmm!
Three big jars were now full.

While chopping up the apples, I noticed that some of them were rather soft.  Instead of saving them for eating, I decided to make a tartlet.  There is a fairly easy but great recipe on Smitten Kitchen, linked here.

The process was fairly easy.  The only issue was that, because I used Staub deep pot, the apples were cooked too soon and it became more saucy.  After baking it for about 27 minutes, it was not yet caramelized as it was supposed to be.  Next time I will try 35 minutes.

Anyway, though it looks like some apple comport on top of a crust, rather than Tart Tatin, it taste soooo delicious!  My god.

But if you imagine the 9 ounces of butter, 1 & 1/2 cup of flour, a cup of sugar, all destined to go into my belly, it makes you a little scared.  I hate living by myself.

Nevertheless.  Today I am thankful that I couldn't sleep in, that I had a wonderful start of the day, and ended up with a delicious tarte.

The best part is looking into the oven and breathing in the gorgeous smell.

Therapy

Yesterday was another difficult day, although, I felt stronger myself and felt it easier to endure.  Perhaps thanks to this dog, Bailey!  He is a therapy dog, owned by the Tyler Foundation, for those children with cancer.  People from the Foundation visited our company for a charity event.  They said they traveled all the way from Hamamatsu driving, because in Japan, therapy dogs are not allowed on public transportation.
Bailey is a very very calm and sweet dog... he won't hurt anyone at all.

I could not sleep well and am up before 6 AM...

Also yesterday, a friend of mine sent me this photo.  It was such a coincidence that I met him for the first time, exactly 10 years ago yesterday.
Hope it is alright to show to everyone, especially to Retta!
I am more of a dog person, but still, the kitten is so so cute.

Thank you, all!

Fish

I am thankful for a fish in a depth of the sea, which traveled all the way to a supermarket around the corner, so that I can eat for dinner and make up for my bad day.

Today was another bad day.  Not because of the meetings all day (even during lunch hour), but because, oh gosh, we are stuck again.  And I feel so down for so many other reasons, too.

So I needed some fish.  (And I am not a cat.  And do cats eat a lot of fish in the States?  Perhaps it's just in Japan.)

I feel down because my vacation is over,

because I wasted the best part of my 30s,

because I can't spend all my time reading the huge piles of books in my room,

and because there is nothing in my life that I am looking forward to right now.

But then, pain and hardships are sometimes good for us. 

Yesterday, I was watching Grey's Anatomy. There was an episode with a little girl who cannot feel any physical pain from a genetic disorder.  She keeps getting badly injured, and she could not even feel her stomach bleeding internally to the extent that she needed immediate surgery.  Someone said in the end, "We feel pain for a reason."

And I am also reading a book called "Giver".   It's supposed to be a Young Adult fiction, but the theme is so profound that I wonder whether a young kid really understands.

I am still in the middle of it, but the book seems to be about experiencing pains and developing wisdom.

So, in addition to the fish in the water (subsequently at the supermarket), I am also thankful for a life  that doesn't go so well, so that I can learn.

Post Script:

I wanted to add that, one of my ex-boyfriends used to smile everytime things wouldn't go well.  When I asked him why, he simply said "well, it's a new challenge."  I really loved that about him.

Soup

Today I am thankful for a soup restaurant chain in Japan.  I go eat there quite often when I am too tired to cook but still want something healthy.  They usually have several kinds of soup, plus you can choose bread or rice for a set.

Mom's Cooking

Today I am thankful for my mother's cooking.

I went back home for a day and had dinner with my mom.

We had:

Soup with vegitable, mashroom, and minced fish ball.

Rice cooked with chestnut.

A small side dish with seaweed, raddish sprout, and tiny white fish called shirasu.

Sesami tofu with miso sauce.

Cooked fish with ginger, sweat and salty sause.

Gosh, the photo looks like an old cookbook photo from the 70s...

Friends and Family Weekend

Japanese follows. 日本語は下に

Today I am thankful for everyone around me.

I saw in many emails and on Facebook that this past weekend seemed to have been a "Friend and Family Weekend" in the States. I am not sure if that was ture, but that was exactly what my weekend had been.

On Friday, I met a very good friend of mine whom I haven't seen for about half a year. He is much older than myself, but one of the older friends who I see very regularly. We had both been busy and had gone through a lot individually, so I fell out of touch. It was a great catch-up dinner. (And the food was great, too.)

The restaurant he chose was very coincidendally housed in an old, classical-looking building, which I had been eyeing for my potential restaurant location (in case I should open a restaurant myself... which I don't have any plan so far... but just in case). The 2-story building had been so under-utilized that I was wondering why nobody would buy it and convert it into something fancy. Well, someone had the same idea, obviously. It's just.... now it's pink.

On Saturday afternoon, there was my high school reunion. I am not going to count the years after graduation. Who cares?

I was so reluctant to go, but my best friend literally dragged me to there. Thank you!

My reluctance was derived from two reasons, in afterthought:

(1) My college reunion was so not fun. People had changed so much, and I only saw very snobbish people flashing their gold, or very humble people who were about to fade into the background. I wasn't sure where I belonged.

(2) My self, my identity, my character was so unestablished back in high school. It's almost like, people who knew me back then knew me before I was born. Does that makes sense?

I did not know who I was back then, what I wanted to do, what I liked. The only thing hasn't change was I spoke English back then, I speak English now. People remember me by that, how funny.

(Oh, and there was the third reason... (3) I am not married.)

But I realized my mistake when I went there.

My high school friends, 150 people who came yesterday (out of 450), still feel like my buddies who I grew up with. We all became who we were, fighting, joking, studying, agonizing over ourselves, together.

Out high school was rather special that, due to the education system in Japan, we belonged to the top several percentile in terms of the achievement level, which means we all came from the similar family background. But it's a public school in the suburb so that there was no son and daughter of super-riches. We were all so naive in a good sense, and we all had to study hard to get on with our lives (no family advantage).

My first year classmates used to be especially close. And it still feels to me that they are my brothers and sisters.

... Anyway, after I recuited several single/DINKS girls as my dinner-mates, I went to visit my sister's family.

My baby niece had grown so much since the last time I saw her!

As you can see, it was truly a Friends and Family Weekend for me.

日本語で書くのが面倒になっちゃったのですが。

この週末はわたしの周りの人たち総てに感謝する週末でした。

何故か先週から「Friends and Family Weekend Special」という広告メールを色々な会社から受け取り、アメリカではどうもそんな週末があるらしい、と薄々感じていたところでしたが、今振り返ってみると、まさに私の週末にピッタリのタイトルでした。

金曜日は古い友人とディナー、土曜日は高校の同窓会、そのあと妹の家に泊まりに行って、お喋りいっぱいの週末を過ごしました。

高校の同窓会は本当に面倒だな〜と乗り気ではなかったのですが、親友に無理矢理連れられ、陰のように寄り添って辿り着いたところ、実際はとても楽しかった！大学の同窓会があまりにも詰まらなかったのと、高校当時の記憶が余りなくて実感がなかったのもあったのですが、行ってみたら記憶が蘇ってきました。ああ、一緒に大人になった仲間なんだな〜、と妙に感動してしまいました。

妹の家では妹夫婦とお喋りし、赤ちゃんと遊び、犬と戯れ睡眠を妨害され、でも犬も可愛く、とても楽しかったです。

どうみても日本語が少なくて済みません。。。英語が出来る方はぜひ、詳細は英語の方で。

Aroma

Speaking of aroma, in the time when "aroma-therapy" and various types of herbal essence is so popular, the smell of coffee relaxes me the most.

Today I am thankful that our office is full of wonderful aroma of coffee.

After our team moved down to an executive floor (I'm not an executive, just working for one), there was a coffee machine installed, which is such a privilege in our company.  The company doesn't even provide a water fountain, except for this floor.  So, before, I was reluctant to be working on the floor full of C*Os and their secretaries, but now I am totally happy.