yes, it has taken me this long to get my shit together and post again. not just because of the awesome weekend i shared with friends, either. you see, i had a not so awesome friend show up, and she took her sweet time about it. fukkin auntie flo and her sly, pain-filled ways....

i had a fabulous time with friends in the city! first, kuri picked me up and after a slight delay (me prying two pairs of hands from around my thighs and trying to bribe childrens with chocolate), we were on our way, bopping along route 3 to fukuoka. we made good time and didn't get lost (i rarely drive in hakata, just tenjin or momoji) and only had to wait a few minutes for the oita ladies to arrive. then we had lunch in a spanish restaurant (delish!) and then did a tiny bit of shopping. jo and GW took ryu to the hotel while kuri, rachel and i had an ice cream at cold stone creamery (which i kept calling stone cold!) for a divine afternoon treat. i still want to go back to canal city!!

the three of us also headed off to the hotel, checked in, and then rachel and i went to tenjin. we hiked around a bit, got a couple of sandwiches (for later) and hit a bookstore (where we found calendars at half-price!) and then back to hakata just in time. as we returned to the hotel, it began to rain! that nixed our plans for walking to/towards nakasu in hopes of finding a place to have dinner. instead, we decided to just go to karaoke (which was in our plans anyway) and eat there. yummy! i had a great time, drinking a few too many beers, jumping on furniture and singing my head off. (i'm still rather surprised ryu slept through most of that!)

back at the hotel, we had just enough time to jump in the bath (it closed at midnight). jo and GW decided to head off to their rooms, so it was just the three of us again. then back to rachel's room for a bit more wine, magazine perusing, foot baths and a bit of hand massage. we then said goodnight and (kuri and i) went back to our own rooms where i read and ate my sandwiches (hey, they were good! LOL) i only got a couple of hours of sleep, though, my room was pretty hot. i turned on the 'air conditioner' but it only blew out hot hair. there were no controls for temperature. i was pretty uncomfortable so i went down to the lobby and got a few (non-alcoholic) drinks. i took them back to my room and found out i could open the window, which i did. i read some more (i love stephen king!), got my fluids and felt better.

later on in the morning, we decided not to eat breakfast in the hotel. i remembered a royal host nearby, but it must have been moved--it was gone. no worries, one can always find starbucks, so that's where we went. then back to the hotel, pack up, say goodbye to rachel and then off to costco. surprisingly, it wasn't bad for a sunday, and we got our shopping done (i only got a magazine, can you believe it??) and had a quick snack. then we said goodbye and headed off, although i think GW and jo hit the GAP before they left.

my thanks to kuri for driving, and many heartfelt thanks to all of you ladies for an awesome weekend!

now for the shitty part....when i got home, only my MIL was there--with the kids. yoshi had a lecture on sunday.........he had told me that all his lectures were done, which is why i felt confident on making plans with my friends, even if the plans changed (as they do.) then he had this lecture come up, and he decided to invite his parents over. so, they came on saturday night, slept in my bed and then were there when yoshi had to leave the house. i'm not going to dwell on this any more, except to say that FIL was out getting bento for lunch.....

i had eaten something at costco so wasn't up for fishy and seaweed-y bentos (especially not on my semi-hungover state) so i managed to sneak out of the house (sneaking so the kids wouldn't notice--it was yoshi's idea for me to get a couple more hours to myself). i only went to joyfull up the street, with my latest crochet project, but i was really starting to feel like shit: lower back pain, crampy tummy, headache of doom. i probably shouldn't have had so much to drink (but hey, i rarely get to go out!) which was making me feel worse, but i did order the drink and soup bar, so that help me rehydrate! when i got back and was feeling like crud, it was still only 2:30 in the afternoon! tommy was really tired so i took him upstairs for a nap, and we slept for a couple of hours. yoshi took his parents, hiro and sasha out for a drive, so it was nice and quiet. we 'enjoyed' the rest of the evening as we usually do, though i felt like hell, and probably didn't look much better!

yesterday was pretty tough, we had no milk in the morning so sasha started pitching fits right at breakfast. i went out to get milk, bread, you know, the essentials but i forgot that someone was coming over in the morning to check out our bathroom (fuckin' bathroom) although i did think he was coming at eleven. yoshi called me at about 10:30 asking where i was and i admit i felt a bit overwhelmed. luckily we could reschedule that and nothing else unpleasant happened for the rest of the day. for dinner i fell back on that old reliable chili (although i actually had plans for making meatballs) and made hiro and sasha go to bed early--by themselves--for being pains in my ass. ha. i was feeling kinda bleak yesterday, overwhelmed and definitely hormonal, so i hope the rest of the week is better!