You know, I took Denison for granted (though, I must admit, it is nicer sleeping now than worrying about Denison homework then). I've been writing more lately than I ever did at Denidoo, but I have no workshop to take it to! I suppose there are worse things in life, but I really want to succeed at this writing thing, and part of that is simply writing, workshopping, revising, and repeating. That didn't really require a post, but hey. [View Full Entry]

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Las Vegas is not a place I could live. Not for a long period of time, anyway. I've noticed a ton of differences between here and Michigan or Ohio. Or any other place I've lived, for that matter. First and foremost, people seem to breed here--quite early. I'm getting quite sick of questions about my (non-existant) kids and my (non-existant) husband. I realize that these questions aren't meant to annoy me, but about half of these people think I look 16, too. So, what is it? Do I look like a fabulous who has clearly been swept already? Or do I [View Full Entry]

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I'll be perfectly up front with you now. There will be nothing spectacular about this post. I didn't actually even make it to the mountain. I am just a little too under the weather. But I think I may have taken some interesting pictures. Enjoy! Also, I'm missing Japan all of a sudden. I want to take in a tea ceremony. Haha. And go to Nara, because I haven't yet. And Ise. Bah. Oh well. [View Full Entry]

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Methinks that my body is trying to tell me something about my new 'be healthy and get in shape' campaign. I have a small blister on my pinky toe, rug burn on my knees (apparently I slept-crawled in a panic, somewhere, very quickly...), and a foot that is now making cracking noises when I step on it. I take full responsibility for that one, though. Not a smart idea to run over rocks in platform shoes. Just dumb. However, it does put a damper on the hike Mt. Charleston plans I had for this weekend. Even if my foot is feeling [View Full Entry]

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Oh, the Mojave. I went for a walk in the open desert. There was a fire in Red Rock recently, so I got to see the burn, see a desert tortoise, a weird unidentified bug, kaleechi (not spelled like that, I'm sure), a desert squirrel, and other things. I really like the desert. It seems really full of life to me, despite the fact that my mom and dad both think nothing without trees can be vibrantly alive. It's just a different type of vibrant here. It's too bad there was a fire recently. I think was started by lightning. After [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so I went to Tennessee for a funeral (which was funny in a cynical way), but since I had a day to kill between the funeral and going home, my dad and I spent a delightful day in Memphis. At first, we only found the bad parts of town that reminded us of Flint and we were disappointed. I thought that maybe there wasn't much to Memphis, and we decided that we should at least drive by Graceland. It's a big white house. I'm glad we didn't pay to go in, but it was cool to see. The best part [View Full Entry]

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Yes, some days do have more than 24 hours. I have to say, changing my flight was a pain in the ass, but in the end rather charming. Let me explain. My original flight back to the states was scheduled for December 13th from Nagoya to Las Vegas via San Fransisco. I called ANA, my airline, told them there was a death in the family and that I needed to change my ticket to leave the sixteenth. They said there was nothing available, but that if I wanted to buy a new BUSINESS CLASS ticket for 3,500, I could get on [View Full Entry]

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06/8/12 I woke up this morning at 6:30, despite not having gotten to sleep until 5:00, with the intention of going to a small village called Obara at the edge of Aichi Prefecture. I hit the snooze button twice, but the thunder woke me up again at 6:45, which made me think to myself: If the weather is bad, should I go? And I'm tired... But, I got up anyway, ate, cleaned well enough for a 3 day absence, walked to the station, and caught my train by 7:50. I had to different buses to take to Obara after the train, [View Full Entry]

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It's vacation, and I am not going anywhere!! Well, that's a lie. I'll spend o-bon with my host family. I really need this vacation, too. Yay!! Yesterday was payday, but I didn't get paid until 9:00 at night because my boss LOST my salary. This is a bit of a problem, yes? I called him twice before he even did anything about. Lazy bastard. I'm going to have so much fun when I leave. I hope it really inconviences him. He charged me full rent for living in someone else's living room, too. We will have a fun chat about that [View Full Entry]

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Ok, no, not a holy cow, but an interesting tidbit. I'm doing a class for someone else today, and my student is an Olympic Athlete (according to Saori)!! She competes in Softball. I didn't know that was an olympic sport. Check it out: http://www.toyota-shokki.co.jp/sports/softball/member/takayama.html Her name is Jyuri Takayama. [View Full Entry]

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