Whoops!

It's been a while since I posted. I had a nice five day vacation, in which I accomplished my goal of doing absolutely nothing. Thursday and Friday were back to school.

Thursday I went to elementary school and introduced myself to the teeny tiny first and second graders. They were absolutely adorable. I wanna teach Elementary School! They're so much more fun than these middle schoolers who are too cool to speak up in class. I'd much rather have the kids fighting over themselves to scream a response at the top of their lungs.

Friday.......

Okay so, the dinner party below? Both Alex and I heard Friday but it was actually Saturday. WHOOPS. @_@ Alex really worked hard to get the house sparkling clean and prepare everything. He even made homemade lemonade. (I had some, it was delicious!) And then at around 4:00 PM (about two hours before we expected people, give or take an hour) we get an email...

"[Name] is coming tomorrow. So we'll have the party on Saturday, also we're bringing some more people"

It had some more important stuff in it, but the point was...

Saturday?

Two hours before we were expecting the party?


It was one of those "Oh man" moments.

Anyone who knows me when it comes to things like plans, is that I absolutely lose it when plans get dropped or pop up really suddenly. I can be spontaneous sometimes, but other times (like after a long day) it's like "WHAT."

So I called the person about it just to clarify, just in case. See, what had happened in the first place, was that the AET (my position) from...like...three AETs ago was coming back to town. His religion stated that he couldn't drink, so we couldn't have a meeting for him at an izakaya, and the house he was staying at couldn't accommodate people on the night he was coming. So we agreed to have it at our apartment.

Now, both Alex and I could swear that it was Friday night. Both of us. But she was like, "Huh? ...No, it's Saturday....it was Saturday from the beginning!"

So of course (and this is Nat holding back full "I'm a moron" mode) I grit my teeth and was like, "Oh, okay! That's fine! Um, Alex prepared a lot of stuff but he didn't cook it yet, so we'll just cook it tomorrow..."

But OH MAN was I embarassed. Probably more than I should have been, but, hee.

That night I had PTA chorus practice anyway. So I walked there at night, sang, and then came home.

Now, I don't know if Alex has said anything about this, but we have loudspeakers all over our town that play little tunes at 7 AM, 5 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM, and a siren at noon. It's because we're out in the country. I think they're signals for people working out in the rice fields.

But anyway, I was walking home from chorus when the 9 o'clock song went off. Now the song it plays...I think it's 'Moon River' from Breakfast at Tiffany's at 9. I'm not really sure what the rest of them are. But walking through a dark alley, and all of a sudden absolutely surrounded by this music...I was suddenly just overwhelmed with the feeling that...I'm here, in Japan, half a world away from almost everything I know. I'm in a tiny town full of friendly people who want to take every opportunity to spend time with me, and I'm not being an idiot and pushing them away for once, because it's part of my job. I've got a really fulfilling job with great perks, and I'm with my husband, the person I love most in the world.

So standing there in the alley, surrounded by corny music, I just started to cry.

I only cry for really stupid things! Seriously! Moon River played over an intercom system!?