But, boring questions if you're not me. And, I can only assume (barring any crazy worm-hole/space-time continuum mix ups) that you're not. So, on to more interesting questions. Such as: Gwen, what have you been up to lately?
I'm glad you asked. As it happens I've been up to lots. Over the past few months I have done the following:
- Dressed up like a samurai and fought a bunch of other people dressed like samurai (with fake swords) for a giant battle reenactment in a nearby city in my ken.
- Started learning to play the bass guitar.
- Joined a band of other beginners that performs occasionally and isn't nearly as bad as it ought to be.
- Entertained my boyfriends mother for 3 weeks while she visited. (Just in case there's any doubt that was actually pretty fun aside from the wicked halt it threw on our sex life.)
- Written a short story that was rejected as a short story but that was encouraged as a novel by an editor.
- Begun the process of turning that short story into a novel.
- Halted the process of turning that short story into a novel.
- Resumed the process of turning that short story into a novel.
- Run out of steam as a writer do to lack of creative input (ie. reading)
- Ordered a shit ton of books of Amazon.co.jp
- Waited anxiously for the arrival of said books.
- Continued to wait.
- Still waiting.
As you may have noted there's been some angst surrounding my writing lately. Fear not, that's in the process of being fixed. I've always been a hardcore reader. By that I mean I devour books at an indecent pace and have always spent the majority of my free time with my nose in a book. Turns out, in Japan, in a small town, it's a pain in the ass to get English language books. That is, until I discovered the beauty of amazon.co.jp. Now, I've ordered a plethora of (overpriced but shipped at no cost) books. They will arrive over the course of the next few weeks. This should go a long way towards fixing my writing dry spell. Yay!
In other news, I've recently made a new Japanese friend. He's particularly fun because he's one of the few Japanese friends I have who I can hang out with on a regular basis. My schedule happens to be the opposite of most of the people I know. I work nights and am free during the day. And just about everyone I know is on a more normal 9-5 schedule. This guy is too. Well actually he's on some crazy other schedule entirely, but he works at a restaurant so that means I can hang out with him even when he's working (as long as things are slow). That makes him one of the few Japanese people I can hang out with every week, and BONUS he doesn't really speak English. Why is this a bonus you ask? Because I desperately need to practice my Japanese and everyone else I know want to practice their English with me. Not this dude. He likes to laugh at my horrible Japanese (which is fine by me as long as he still talks to me afterwords). Apparently I have yet to inadvertently insult his honor or his ancestors so, so far so good. I'm not entirely sure why he bothers to put up with me. He's clearly a nice guy, and he's even willing to help me with my karate (he's a blackbelt in the same style I train in) but I'm not clear on why. For all I know he's just trying to get in my pants, but I kind of doubt it since he's got a wife and kid and he knows I'm taken. I like to think he's just as excited to have a random 'gaijin' friend as I am to have a random Japanese buddy.
Well, it's long past bedtime and I actually have to teach tomorrow. Ja, ne! (Japanese for see ya!)
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