Not the tea lady, but pretty good!

In my continuing efforts to avoid disputes in the morning, I found myself at the local Second Cup this morning for breakfast. I decided to take advantage of their Tuesdsay Chillers promotion and try their Matcha Chiller. First, I usually don't do the coffee shop thing. It's hard for me to justify spending over $3 for a cup of something that I could make easily for a fraction of the price. But, I figured mental health is priceless. Secondly (pun!), I'm usually pretty skeptical when it comes to green tea items on menus here, ever since the Starbucks fiasco (I don't care if it's a grande, green tea does not have a mint flavour!). Anyways, much to my pleasant surprise, the chiller acutally has a matcha flavour! It's the small, unexpected joys in life...like the construction crew that just started in with their jack hammers right outside the window...

I'm a criminal...

At some point during the school year, I hurt my back. I can usually stretch it out, but this time has been different. It's been hurting for about 2 months now, and has only gotten worse. So, I finally decided it was time to see my old chiropractor. It just so happens, that his office is down the street from my old junior high school. While the school is now closed (such a shame, it's a beautiful building), I couldn't help but go and see it anyways. As I drove up, I was saddened to see the construction equipement, the half torn down walls and the broken or boarded up windows. As I walked around the back of the gym, along the same path that I had sketched for art class, the first place I ever saw fireflies on the night I had my first slow dance, I heard a gentle but frantic flapping sound. Trapped between a screen and a piece of plywood, was a little swallow. Half climbing up and down screen with his delicate feet, as his wings beat hopelessly against the screen on one side and the wood on the other. I tried to shoo him up the window to where the opening was, but he couldn't make it. I nervously looked around and weighed my options. He might be able to make it out on his own. But on what was expected to be one of the hottest days in recoreded history, it didn't look promising. It was already above 30 degrees, even though it was before 9am. I looked him in the eye and my choice was made. Grabbing my key to Skippy (old car) which had the best edge, I sliced open the middle of the screen in one stroke. The swallow instantly dropped down to the gap and flew out over my shoulder and into the sky. Still apprehensive about the screen, I went to the chiropractor's.

Major Withdrawl Symptoms

Well, it all started last weekend. I was shopping in an Asian supermarket when this song came on. It was the Chinese version of an EXILE song, Lovers Again. This particular song was not only released when I was working in Japan, but my baseball boys had used in as part of a hilarious presentation during the school festival (complete with dancing ichi-nenseis and sakura petals). And now, I've been stuck for the past week on this "natsukashi" rampage. I've been sing choral competition songs to myself, looking up zen-ken results, and of course I got an email from an old student as well (great timing). Then the dragon boat team had an otsukaresama enkai at a place that had a real izakaya vibe. Oh, the agony!! I predict I will start watching koshien over a very shakey internet connection soon...