Perfect cure for a hangover (long)

Yesterday was a great day, and today even better! Though I expected a horrible day since I woke up at 7a.m. with a pounding, painful headache and completely nauseous, but that is what 6 Heinekens will do to you.

It has been gorgeous every day this week so far. On Monday it was a whopping 13.5 degrees! We didn't really do much though besides grocery shop rather late in the afternoon, so I promised myself I wasn't going to let us waste anymore beautiful weather inside the house, because who knows when winter will rear its ugly head again. I made okonomiyaki for dinner and 1. it was not a disaster 2. it was fast and 3. it actually came out quite delicious, so I think it will be a permanent addition to my very limited cooking repertoire.

Yesterday morning it was warm enough to put Sara in the stroller and actually walk to play group. It's about a 20 minute walk, so when it's cold it sucks and I end up driving, but yesterday was totally enjoyable. We were the first to arrive at playgroup and the last to leave. Sara ran around like the mad little monkey that she is, and tired herself out enough to fall asleep in the stroller about 3 seconds after I put her in.

Left playgroup and went to the Docomo shop because my phone is fucked. I'm dying to get a new one, but I want the brand-new, super shiny, fancy shmancy Experia, and it's not coming out until April, so I went in to see if they could fix it at least temporarily, and it turns out they can, and for free, which is even better! But it's going to take about 2 weeks, so they gave me a loaner in the meantime. And I got to reserve my brand spanking new phone too! Left the Docomo shop on a total retail high!

While I was in the Docomo shop though I got a text, text, text, phonecall, text from Mrs. X. I've managed to avoid her for a month or so, and that's usually when the guilt starts to settle in, so I was feeling rather guilty and agreed to meet her for coffee. I have finally realized why I can't stand spending time with her though, I find her incredibly, insufferably boring. We have absolutely nothing in common except that we are both married to Japanese men, but even our husbands and marital situations are as different as night and day. If we were married to Saudi Arabian men, she would be married to a sultan, and I would be married to a basket weaver. So when she complains about trying to convince her husband to buy her a Mercedes instead of a fully-loaded Toyota van, I really cannot sympathize with her plight, nor am I interested in any of it. Okay, enough about that.

Went back home, got changed and ready to teach. Had 5 students show up again at last night's lesson, which is fantastic for me motivationally and financially. I feel like they're improving a lot too, which is the best feeling. I feel like I'm actually earning the money they pay me, and I get a great work out while doing it! What could be more satisfying? We decided last week that after class this week we would go out for a drink, so we did. That's where the 6 Heinekens made their very welcome appearance. God I miss beer! I figured it was probably (hopefully) one of my last chances to really get liquored up for awhile, so I just went for it. I even smoked 2 whole cigarettes (and I felt totally guilty about it the moment I walked in the door)!

Lots of talk about sex, hot guys, drinking, sordid pasts. It all made me really, really miss being young and single, well being single. I'm pretty happy with my age and who I am at this stage, so I don't really feel like I need to get any younger, but man, the damage I could do without a husband or a child. I think it was probably all of those thoughts that propelled my drinking, and I stumbled (literally) into the genkan at around midnight I think. I had two sips of water before going to sleep, and in my impaired state I thought that would be enough to prevent a hangover in the morning because I couldn't be arsed to actually go into the kitchen and poor myself a glass. I was so wrong.

Sara slept until 9 yesterday, so I was hopeful that she would today too. Murphy's law and all that. She woke up at 7, and I popped a bottle in her mouth, which will usually buy me another hour or two of sleep, but not this morning. Wide awake, bright eyed and bushy-tailed 10 minutes later. It was so beautiful outside though, I didn't care as much as I thought I would. Plus my hangover wasn't really letting me get the best sleep either. I can't believe I used to sleep all day after a night out drinking. Well, I would also get home at 5 or 6 in the morning, on an early night, 10 or 11 if I was really enjoying myself. So I guess sleeping all day made sense.

Anyway, we got up and I let Sara run mad around the living room while I tried to keep my dinner down on the sofa for a few hours. I finally decided that it was time to clean myself up and get out and enjoy the day around noon. So for the first time EVER, I turned on BabyTV, left Sara alone and took a shower. Don't get me wrong, we turn on BabyTV all the time, but I have never left her alone for more than 2 or 3 minutes when she was awake, or when I couldn't run right back into the room if she started screaming. We have the living room gated off so there's not that much trouble she can get into if left alone, but she can still definitely get into trouble unfortunately. Our house is just so poorly designed that I can't really do anything in any other room and confidently leave Sara alone in the living room. But lately I've been feeling like Sara has matured enough that maybe she won't kill herself or the cat, if I take a quick 10-minute shower. So I did and it was a brilliant success. No tears, no injuries, intact baby and cat. Clean me. Yeah!

So first we went to 7-11, took out some money to pay the bills and bought some snacks for the park. Went to the post office and paid the bills, of which there were many, sadly. Then off to the park. We passed by the local fruit and vegetable stand and Sara used her feminine wiles to snag 3 tangerines. We then stopped by the photo studio where we took ridiculously expensive photos last month and had them made into a book, only they spelled our last name with a "d" instead of a "t", so Akinori had me take the book back so they could create a new cover with our name spelled correctly. Now we were finally ready for some fun, except Sara was asleep.

The sky was so perfectly blue I had to take a photo:

The beautiful WARM (16.5 degrees!!!) weather, having a shower and eating a bowl of rice smothered in cheese and salsa right before we left the house was doing wonders for my hangover, so I was quite happy to just sit outside while Sara slept. And we were at the park, and so was everyone else, so it was just a matter of time before the screams of other children woke up mine. And once she was up there was no stopping her. She is a little machine!! And boy has this girl got balls! If anyone gets in her way, she just pushes past and soldiers on. Not necessarily a trait I want to encourage, I can't wait for her to understand the concept of "excuse me", but that's not for a little while I'm guessing.

I am absolutely exhausted though after our day. Forget the fact that I was hungover, I got a full workout at the park today. I was definitely not planning on climbing walls over and over and over, but that is what happened. Sara has got a thing for climbing. For those of you not on my Facebook, this is a video we took a couple of weeks ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeYhmJwmqgM of her climbing in and out of her highchair. She loves to do that, ENDLESSLY! So I wasn't too surprised when she started climbing up this:

It's not stairs. It's just logs screwed together with two ropes running down to hold on to. Of course my little monkey isn't old enough to grasp the concept of holding on the ropes, so she just did it holding on to the logs. I wanted to take a photo of her on it that far away, but I was not about to risk her falling backwards and cracking her skull open. So this is what I managed to take as I was climbing up after her.

There was a 3 year old girl who wanted to climb up too, but she kept saying "kowai yo! kowai yo!" (I'm scared). The mother said "Look at that wee little baby climbing up. She's way tinier than you and she's not scared." The mom was very impressed with Sara's - gumption, shall we call it? This was far from the first time that another mother has commented on Sara's lack of shyness or fear. I'm a little worried to tell you the truth. Is this one of those things that will wear off with time, and as she gets older she'll become more shy and careful? Or is she a daredevil for life? Right now I think it's great that she's so fearless, but I'm wondering how I'll feel about it when she starts talking back or gets a little older and starts experimenting with really dangerous things.

This was the first time she has really had free reign to walk around outside since learning to walk, so she was just enraptured with everything. Dirt on the ground, grass, rocks, manholes. EVERYTHING! Watching her run around was amazing! Days like today are why people have children. I kept thinking about how funny it is that last night I was almost regretting being married and having a child, and today I felt such complete and total bliss at being a parent.

I tried to stay out of her way as much as possible and just let her do what she wanted. But man, I have decided we need to have "outside play clothes" and "inside play clothes" She was absolutely filthy by the time we left for home! I'm far from being OCD, but not as far as some people I suppose, and I need a little mental preparation for getting my hands dirty kind of play or whatever. I guess that's just something I'm going to get used to really quick. I've also learned that I need to bring snacks to share with other kiddies we may meet at the park since Sara definitely mooched way more than her fair share off of other kids. That was pretty embarrassing, so on the way home I gave one of the mothers two of the tangerines we got from the fruit store (we had already eaten one).



So that is how my hangover was cured. But now that my body is free from aches and pains, that incredible exhaustion is setting in, and it is time to go to bed. Man am I going to sleep well tonight!