Feliz Navidad!

i had a lesson just down the street at 11:00 this morning with a new student. she's a fortune teller and is studying in preparation to better communicate with her soul mate whom she met in a dream - oh, and his name is michael too. when she first saw my name posted at the international center she thought i might be him, but then she called me and said that she didn't recognize my voice - so i must not be him. it was a good lesson (a christmas and new years dialog) and when i got home i saw that i had missed a package!

side note - why does eric clapton let these fucking white people CLAP ALONG to the blues.. what the fuck! really! can't he make them stop! i can't listen to that shit - it makes be homicidal.

the third box!! i had been really worried that the customs people might not have let it through or that it got lost or misdelivered. but it was here in okayama! i tried to find a number i might call - maybe i could just go pick it up at some post office? i was pissed that i missed it - i should have still been in my pajamas at 11 something.. i could have been eating mexican lunch! (dad, you gave the mexican food away, but it honestly only intensified my excitement!) i couldn't find out where to go and hiroshi and teresa were calling me out to eat homemade rice cakes and new years stuff for lunch. i hung out with them for a while and then popped back home to practice my bass! i was just working out some stage theatrics on "the midnight train" when the post man slid the door open with my package! he knows me because he delivers taku's lost and subsequently found cell phones every few weeks or so and he's dead friendly. anyway i had my box, but i had a lesson and then band practice, so i didn't actually get to it until tonight. when i finally broke it out i was cooking and eating in such an excited state that i managed to burn myself twice and got a fair amount of food on my shirt~

but OMG, it was AWESOME!! i just ate the end-all-be-all taco feast to-end-all taco feasts alone at 12:30 am on a thursday morning!! man, i'm still reeling. it had been so long since i had refried beans!! they knocked me out! i was spooning them from the can! i could have eaten the whole thing cold - i shit you not! i managed to restrain myself so that they can accompany tomorrow's breakfast, lunch, and dinner! what i hot christmas present!!

table setting party?

what's a table setting party? at first i assumed that table setting, much like making tea or arranging flowers, is considered an art form in japan and there is some strict set of traditional rules governing the "correct" way to set a table..

i recently started teaching a group of 8 year olds! their moms are all friends and rotate lesson hosting duties between their homes. it's good fun really - the kids are alright, and we keep it light. one of the moms studies table setting (?) and invited me to a party at her home after my lesson last friday evening. we did a christmas themed lesson (santa says, all i want for christmas, etc) and then joined a throng of 40 something ladies for evidently a potluck party with one impressive table setting~ it wasn't in fact any traditional art, but a series of creative martha stewart-esque tips and tricks put into practice for an attractive table. impress your friends with a festive holiday table arrangement and a invite a young foreign man! i was happy to go - the food was awesome - and we all exchanged recipes, of course. the kids all fell asleep watching kung-fu movies in the next room and all those ladies got smashed and rode home on their bicycles. unbelievable.