So, anyway, what's with the rain, you ask? Well, as I lie here on my couch with my laptop perched against my knees and listen at the open window there is a serious deluge taking place. I love the sound of the rain on the roofs nearby and the smell of fresh rain and wet ground in the air is lulling me to sleep despite my best efforts to remain awake to write this. If it were light out, or even if I simply weren't about to go to sleep. I would change into some shorts and go play in the rain and the puddles. Little can beat puddle jumping in the midst of a summer storm. Here in my neck of Japan we're just heading into the rainy season. We've had a series of showers over the last few days interrupted by warm sunny days that, aside from being overly humid, are quite pleasant thanks to a constant breeze. In other words, the weather's lovely. I know some people get upset about the rain, but as long as it's warm, I love it. And I have every intention of parading around in the warm rainy weather during my free time over the next few weeks.
Ok. So, that's out of my system. I'm sure everyone is now quite clear on how much I enjoy rain. I'll let that bit go for now. In the meantime let's see. What has been keeping me occupied... I think another list might be in order. (Just to help keep things from getting heinously long.) So, here are some things that have been keeping me occupied lately:
- My books arrived! Remember all those books I ordered back in May? They showed up. I read them in short order (11 books in 13 days) and enjoyed them thoroughly.
- My stories came back to life! All the things in my head that need to show up on paper have started twitching and turning and groping for the light once more. In other words, it's time to write.
- I had a dream with a new novel plot in it. I was pleasantly surprised to awake a few mornings ago to the beginning of a very interesting plot as the remnant of a dream I had had.
- I bought a new digital camera. After an excessive amount of internet research, I decided to buy a waterproof, shockproof, dirtproof, point and shoot, digital camera that I can lug around with me on all of my adventures without worrying about it's inevitable destruction. Result: Yay!
- I bought a Kindle from Amazon so that I can buy books without paying for shipping etc. and so that I can take my library home with me when I finally leave Japan. More yay! (Though it hasn't shown up, so I'll keep you posted on exactly how Yay! that really is.)
- I found not one, not two, but THREE, Japanese microbreweries that supply our local grocery store. They are delicious albeit extremely expensive by US standards. Yet, they aren't that much more expensive than the "premium" mass produced beers here in Japan, so really that's not bad.
- I ran in a 10k race. I was as slow as drunken sloth but I finished and I "ran" the whole way (no walking, but picture said drunken sloth trying to jog and you'll have an idea of what I mean by "run").
- After watching one of my friends here compete in her first triathalon to great effect I have decided that I want to compete in a triathalon next year and am planning to start training accordingly. This is exciting for many reasons, not least of which is getting in shape, and part of which is definitely the bad-ass factor.
- For reasons best left unexplored I wrote a ninth item in a list of things for no particular reason other than that there wouldn't have been a ninth thing if I didn't make something up.
- That's all.
So, that's it for my list. The rain has made me quite sleepy and I think I'll go ahead and let it cradle me to bed. It's let up considerably since I began this post, but the drip drip drop off of the nearby roofs is still quite soothing. That's all for now.
Gwen
PS. If you remember that little competition thing I posted about back in May and were perhaps wondering what happened, wonder no more: I didn't win. :-)
