You know those days where you plan to get lots done, and you actually get negative amounts of crap completed, and then everything goes wrong as well? Well yup, that's pretty much how today went! Since I don't particularly want to dwell on it, I'll just list some of the crappy things, and then leave it at that.

This was how today was SUPPOSED to go - I was all packed and ready to take my laptop out to a Starbucks and work on both my internship application and my book, since that REALLY needs to get a move on!!! After that, I'd come home, get ready, and then head out for a nice evening at Hitomi's office party, and that would be that. This, however is the story of what REALLY happened:

So;

1. I walked to Omotesando, which would be fine, except it was freaking hot today, and I was wearing too much clothing, so by the time I'd walked half way there and was safely nowhere near a station, I was annoyed at my decision.. At the time, it didn't actually bother me too much, since I was listening to my new obsession - Travel With Rick Steeves podcasts (this one was about packing light and Samoa). Anyway, since this small gripe kind of fits with the flavour of the day, its going in.

2. Finally get to Starbucks, and the guy mis heard me, thinking I wanted a cappuccino, not a frappacino, which actually ended up being better than I thought it would be (that whole liquid sugar thing again), but didn't help with the 'ugh I'm overly hot after a ridiculously long unnecessary walk' thing...

3. Said Starbucks had no power outlets, anywhere... How bizarre! (tho apparently not so bizarre here). Since my laptop can't boot off a battery, I was a bit screwed in the accomplishing anything department.

4. Headed out in search of power, and finally found some, in of all places, a McDonalds, so I grabbed a little snack and set up my laptop. Now, I have to admit that the power I was plugged into had 'kanji, kanji, hiragana hiragana, CAUTION, kanji, kanji' written all over it, but I thought it was like 'hey parents, there's power here, don't let your kids stick their fingers in the holes', or 'watch out for cableage going to laptops and don't trip' or something. And for all I know, that could have been the warning, but about a minute after I booted up my computer it just turned off like the power had been yanked, and didn't/wouldn't/couldn't start back up, so maybe that was a 'we don't give out free power, so we'll be cutting you off if you plug into here' sign... Luckily, my computer seems fine, since i don't think I have a recent draft of CRASH anywhere else (oops!).

5. Finally got back home, and decided to get going on the task of making up some meishi (business cards), which are waaaaaaaay more common/obsessively used over here - just about every meeting is accompanied with a meishi pass off, and I need to get some going, as Pete pointed out last night. Since I've been feeling like I'm capable of accomplishing approximately nothing on my own over here, I decided to get something actually completed.

5a. This would be easy if no Japanese was required

5b. My name has too many L's.

5c. Word is NOT a DTP program....It's not even a wannabe DTP program. I miss my Adobe CS2 more than I should perhaps admit, but anyway, text boxes ARE NOT THE SOLUTION! (On the upside, only 149 more hours of teaching English before I can afford a macbookpro-totally doable!)

5d. When you're looking through the symbols palatte to try and find the requisite Kanji for your address (copying off my residence form, which I thought was quite resourceful!) There are enough to make you go cross-eyed. Several times over.

5e. When Pete gets home and sees what you've accomplished in two hours (not much), and then mentions that you should have just asked him at work (which is like so precisely what I wanted to NOT do *that whole self sufficiency lark*), and then points out that the ward office writes the super official version of the address on the form, so that last little Kanji you've been searching for over the last 45 minutes is completely irrelevant.... IT REALLY JUST ALL PRETTY MUCH SUCKS!!!

6. The subplot to this day is that tonight was Hitomi's office party, so in between searching for elusive and unnecessary kanji, I was getting ready for that, and it was actually going pretty well, until-

6a. Pete arrived home, and I went to put my red kitten heel sandals on and the strap across the top broke, rendering them unwearable, and me scrambling for footwear at the eleventh hour.

7. By this point, I was ready to curl up in my cocktail dress and stay home, but Pete talked me into coming, which was good, because it was fun! Got to meet most of Hitomi's co workers and some people Pete knows, including his kiwi intern, Sara, who seems very cool (she's an MBA student at Waseda university). For the record, the party was held here, on the 27th floor of a nice building, and had some fantastic views!

8. By this point, the day was definitely looking up, until we walked back in the front door to utter carnage. Ms. V, who'd only been alone for a couple of hours, had taken out some serious aggression all over the kit-crafts I've been talking about the last couple of days! She went through the bag of unmade kits, opening most of them, luckily only destroying two and just spraying the rest around the room, but also jumped up to a pretty tall surface and claimed the box I'd made yesterday - more than two hours of work, chewed! It's completely destroyed :( She was banished to her porch while we cleaned up and tried to figure out what might have caused this seemingly personal attack on my crafting!

Luckily, the rest of the evening went pretty well, when Pete wasn't teasing me about the whole stupid meishi incident - we made some nachos, and Hitomi, who came home with us after the party, made some delicious guacamole to go with them, and then we watched a few episodes of Friends, and then I came up to whine on here.

I'm done now though, and yes, I know I complained a lot, and there are like, starving children in Africa, and illiterate children in Canada (its actually shocking how bad that issue is in North America), but anyway, it's my blog *foot stomp*. However, I'll shut up now and go to bed - with one eye open in case Venus decides to eat my wallet or something... I wouldn't put it past her tonight!
D