I'm quickly reading Lady Oracle (about a writer who fakes her own death to get away from a life in shambles, which she immediately proceedes to reflect on in detail...) in preparation for going to see Margaret Atwood speak on Monday, luckily I'm really enjoying it, so I took the train this morning to get some more reading time in (plus, I thought I was going to be playing volleyball, and thinking that biking so much is contributing to my shin issues, etc.)

The exciting news at work today was that the new Weekender came out, its our special China/Chinese New Year issue, and I was particularly looking forward to it because I have lots of writing in it! The cover photo is mine, and then the calendar (as usual), the feature, the up my street, a movie review, and the sports page. I'm not keen to actually read my stuff, since I've already read it more than enough times before submitting it, and because I'm convinced I'll find a mistake once its gone to print, but my portfolio is growing which is good!

I spent a lot of the day doing admin type stuff, running to the post office and stationary store, and a bunch of distribution, but I really don't mind that sort of stuff so it was totally fine - a pretty busy day which passed quickly!

Controversy at work today too - names and context eliminated to protect the innocent (and my job!), but basically we got word from a guy who wrote in to tell us that he feels gaijin women don't take care of themselves, and don't care about their bodies compared to Japanese women, and that they really couldn't be that successful in that case, and its no wonder that foreign guys go for Japanese women and ignore the gaijins. It was all written pretty offensively (esp. since we're a magazine celebrating successful gaijin women!), and sparked off some heated retribution within the office! I personally have my own ideas on why so many foreign guys go for Japanese women, but I'm curious what you all think - leave a comment!

I went to teach this evening and that went well too - I got a bunch of books out of the library yesterday for the two of them and they went over well - we have some we're still working on for next week - Sleeping Beauty for the Girl, and Encyclopedia Brown for the boy, I'm making him write down what he thinks the solution to the crime is after he finishes each story, which doesn't make him a very happy camper since he doesn't like writing, but he needs to practice, so I'm putting my foot down! <--yea not so much, but I'm firmly encouraging at any rate.

Lisle had to work late, so Volleyball was put off until next week, but that's OK, because Peter was actually home before me today, so I saw him for the first time since like Monday (he's been working super late on some very exciting possible projects!). Hitomi was also here, so we looked through his piles of giri choco and then Hitomi made some delicious minestrone soup and pasta and we watched Desperate Housewives and American Idol and part of the Hills (God I watch too much crappy tv!) and now I'm going to crawl into bed with my Margaret Atwood for a bit and try and even out the brain drain from the last few hours ;).

I also got a book in the mail today, which looks like some quality chick lit! I'm going to be reviewing it on here, (that's why they sent it to me), so stay tuned... It's called The List by Rara Ison.

sleepily yours,
D