Quote:

That's really true. Today I read about Tara Lipinski on Wikipedia and discovered that she had to stop skating because she ruined her hips. I thought that was rather sad, especially since she's only a few years younger than I am.

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I agree. I hope she only looks ahead and is satisfied with all that she has acomplished. I know I'd be really happy if I were a five time world champ and had two Olympic medals under my belt.

Hair
Did a coconut milk soak earlier in the evening. I used the same can of milk from January and I was surprised that the milk hadn't spoiled. Now I just hope I got all of the coconut milk off and won't find any greasies when my hair dries.

Kimono
Tried on the juban with my black tsukesage. I need way more practice with kistuke (dressing) because everything looked sloppy.
Notes:
-Get muslin koshi himo because the nylon ones are too slippery
-Need eri shin
-The sleeves of the juban are longer than the kimono so they'll need to be pinned up an inch
-"Easy collar" for the juban would be a good idea

Thanks, Onee san! I needed that.

Well, today was my JET interview. During my calligraphy class this morining I was getting really nervous and felt that jumping off a building would be preferable to going through the interview. But after class my sensei said I looked nice (had on a blouse and slacks) and I told her I had an interview with JET. She said, "No, don't go. No waste your time with that." I thought that was so funny that I started laughing and felt a lot of the pressure I was putting on myself go away.

As for the interview, I was nervous, but not as nervous as last year. I know I rambled and there were times when I was thinking, "What the heck am I saying?", but overall, I think I did a lot better. Compared to the other interview, I was much more upbeat and not so serious. After last year's interview I wanted to get drunk and forget it happened because I felt like it went so horribly, but I was rather happy after this interview finished.

There were a couple of questions I flubbed because I had no idea how to respond in a coherent manner, but it seemed like this year's questions were easier to answer. This time around I had "What would you do if..." type of questions and not, "What would you tell a Japanese person about America?" After some of my answers, the interviewers (there were four of them) smiled and nodded, so I think that was a good sign.

The Honolulu counsulate is going to interview 80 people and take around 40 of them for the 2006-2007 academic year. I hope I make it this time. If not, well, that's okay; I tried my best. Now all I have to do is wait until April when the final results come out.

Onee san--Arigatou! Japanese is hard to learn, not only because of the kanji and kana, but also because of honorifics and the polite and casual forms of speaking. I thought Mandarin was difficult because it's a tonal language, but in some ways it was easier than Japanese.

Welcome back!!

Thanks, Curlgirl64 and BB! Not being able to visit LL was annoying. There were so many times when I wanted to write about something in my journal or wondered what you all were doing. Sigh. But at least now I can join in all the fun. On the bright side, not having internet connection forced me to develop my non-computer related interests.

Hair--The ends felt kind of sticky the past couple of days so I did an ACV rinse tonight and hopefully that'll take care of the problem.

Weather--Well, we're into either the fourth or fifth straight week of rainy weather. I usually like rain, but it's been raining too much. It seems like just when one weather system is going away, there's another one waiting in the wings, ready to dump more rain on the state.

It's almost midnight here so I think I'll stop for tonight. I've caught up with the new posts in the other sections of LL, so now I'll have to work on reading the journals. There seems to be new ones so that should be fun.

Welcome back!

Lisabelle and Galadriel--Thank you! Sorry for taking so long to reply. >_<

Khrome--Thank you for your concern. After 42 days of constantly cloudy/rainy weather, it looks like things have finally cleared up and it's actually sunny today. As for the flooding, luckily my family and relatives don't live in flood-prone areas, so we were okay. Wish I could say the same about the people on Kauai. It seemed like they got hit hardest by the rainy weather and the dam that broke only made things worse.

Glad you figured out what was causing the build up on your hair! I think in my case I had conditioner build up, but the ACV rinse took care of the problem. (thank goodness)

Kimono--There was a two-day vintage kimono sale this past weekend and my mom and I went on the second day. Actually, we tried to go on the first day, but half-way to the sale it started pouring and it got so bad that we had to get off the freeway and tried to wait it out at a near-by Jack 'n the Box. Long story short, we ended up going home.

Anyways, the sale was interesting. It wasn't a huge sale, but there was a decent selection. The prices were similar to what you could get on the internet, but some things seemed overpriced. Still, I ended up buying a cute yellow haori with little flowers on it and my mom got a nagoya obi to use as a wall-hanging. Oh, for some weird reason there were a lot of all-black kimono, the type worn to funerals. I'm not sure why there were so many--around 10--but I thought that was a bit creepy.

Sewing--During my month-long abscence from LL, I actually managed to finish a sewing project. It was really simple, but considering my history to abandoning craft projects when they're halfway done, I'm rather proud of myself. Anyways, I ended up making four koshi himo (kind of like kimono belts) and a wasit pad using an old towel. The koshi himo look kind of like the ones on Puchi Maiko, but instead of Japanese-type fabric, I used regular flower-print cloth at the ends. I'd post a pic of it, but unfortunately I can't edit photos on this computer. sigh

Hair accessories--Well, after the kimono sale Mom and I stopped at the mall and I immediately went to Shirokiya (it's a big Japanese department store). Much to the dismay of my wallet, they had a shipment of hair toys made with kimono fabric. Despite my restraint at the kimono sale, impulse buying took over and against by better judgement, I bought two fakkare-type clips and a set of cherry blossom shaped hair pins. An hour later when the adrenalin rush ended, I thought, "Agrh, what was I thinking?!" >_< 

The hair pins were a good buy, but I'm having trouble with the fakkares; they don't hold my cinnabun very well. I think my hair's too long for it to work properly. Crap. On the bright side, they work on my mom's hair so I might end up giving them to her.

I'd love to try a kimono.  Could you give me a beginner's course of what to look for,where,how much ($) is ok and how to wear it??  What site is good to look at when I want to purchase?  Maybe I could even learn how to sew my own.  Another project to be conpulsive with!! lol