Made it to Beijing, now the long-haul flight to Paris!

Tomorrow we leave for France, and we'll be gone for a month. I spent hours yesterday packing, but there's still so much to do! I really don't want to do anything today.

Last day of school! Finally!

Sitting here scowling at my phone while Shiny Happy People plays.

Went to see this exhibit by Yoshitoshi Kanemaki at Parco Museum today. Stunning work! (Unfortunately didn’t get any of the names of the pieces.)

Soggy weekend… hydrangeas in the rain.

TIL Faramir from LOTR and Audrey from Moulin Rouge! are the same person (David Wenham). It's been nearly 25 years and I had no clue. (I've been going back and watching favorite films from my early 20s.)

I've spent the past couple of days under the weather... Headache and sinus issues, and a bit of congestion developing in my chest. But I'm taking meds and skipped out on my writing group this morning. I really don't want a repeat of last summer's pneumonia—especially so close to our trip to France.

Suddenly, I am feeling like trash… congested and queasy. Hope I’m not coming down with something.

Yikes! This happened at the elementary school in our old neighborhood. So glad no one was seriously injured or worse!

I’m lying in bed, listening to my daughter making us a Father’s Day smoothie downstairs. I’m both proud and terrified, but she said she didn’t want help. 🥹

Had a headache all night, so after I put my daughter to bed and wrapped her friend's b-day present, I decided to just veg on the couch. Bad idea, it's 3:05 a.m. and I just pulled myself from youtube. Decided to block the site to kick the habit. 😤 Now to finally wash the dinner dishes. 😩

Just got half an ultrasound. Tech sent me to go drink at least 500 ml and come back at 4.

Holy shit… just had a pretty big earthquake. Daughter was in the bath and had to rush downstairs to get her out. All seems fine now.

I really wish I'd gone to school for creative writing. I have all these stories in my head I want to tell, but it's like pulling teeth figuring out how to actually do it. My current story is at a tense, nail-biting scene, but now I'm stuck on how to handle what comes next.

The short story I’m writing started feeling much more like a novella when I hit 15000 words and wasn’t even near the climax. Now I’m at 16000 words and definitely feels like I’m halfway there. This thing might need a full 40-50,000 words. 🙃

Frog came into the house. “Toad,” said Frog, “your pants and jacket are lying on the floor.” “Tomorrow,” said Toad from under the covers. “Your kitchen sink is filled with dirty dishes,” said Frog. “Tomorrow,” said Toad.

At some point, I decided my own health wasn't important enough. I used to eat healthy, work out, sleep well (unless I was locked in on something creative). Now, I'm always tired, floating from one to-do to another, consuming the negative and unhealthy slop spread before me, and wasting away.

My writing group’s organizer is back from Mexico & brought candy as a gift. Everyone was calling it “dolce de leche” or “sweet of the milk” while I just smiled & happily took my piece. When I said it gave me such nostalgia having grown up on the border, an old Swedish guy said “oh you’re so special”

Watched ET for Family Fun Night and had breakfast for dinner. My husband was afraid our daughter would be terrified, but she loved it. Just thought it was a little sad.

Why are kids so mean? My daughter is having a hard time with her "best" friends. They've decided to stop playing with her and are also convincing other kids to avoid her. The reason, they say, is "too long to explain. Just know you can't play with us." So she sat in the schoolyard crying alone.

I am very tired today. Only had two classes, and one of them was a two-hour book party (last day with my 9th graders). Went to the cafe after and finished up my 6th grade appréciations, then came home. But I've been lying in bed the past two hours, just completely exhausted.

Leftover beans or leftover noodles for lunch… I chose beans and made egg and bean tacos. Absolutely the right decision.

Family Fun Night was pizza, ice cream, and a first-time watch of The Parent Trap (1998) for my daughter. She enjoyed it, but for me, it can never top the original. The reason being it was the movie my sisters and I were watching when I walked in on my parents "doing it" ... on MY bed. Core memory.

I could go to bed at a decent hour, so I won't be cranky on a Monday morning. But I've got a stack of old papers that need to be graded, and I've already put them off too long. Of course, I had all weekend and blew it off. Still, they don't NEED to be graded until next week, so...

My mom’s parakeet Tweety died today. It was unexpected & she took it pretty hard. She’s told me in the past how she likes to have conversations with him, since she’s often alone. And with my sister battling leukemia, this is just another hit to her fragile heart. I wish I could be there for her.

Yesterday’s handiwork. The larger tree had grown out of control, completely covering the mailbox and overtaking the gate—which is awful when it’s raining & the branches knock back your umbrella & you get soaked. So I cleaned her up... Even trimmed the branches pushing against the windows.

Front tree trimming accomplished, and I've got the house to myself (husband and daughter are at the library). Gonna have a coffee and treat, and maybe watch a little movie film.

I just spent many hours prepping for a class I don't even have until next week. I hate these split schedules! I can never remember what week we're on, and now it's 2 a.m. I'm just about to do the dishes, and I'm soooooo sleepy!

I wish I was living in a time when everything was getting better.

I hate sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but this is the world we live in today. Despite such a low approval rating, every single Trump-backed candidate has won their election. Is there some kind of vote-rigging going on or do MAGA Republicans really turn out in droves? I think I know the answer.

I absolutely love teaching poetry in my 9th grade class. I really want them to do well & use the concepts I've covered. But some of them really dropped the ball. And it's not for lack of trying. Yes, I had a couple AI submissions, but there are some who genuinely tried, but oof, they're just so bad!

Happy birthday to me.

Five of our six tadpoles are now froglets, and I have no idea what to do with them. They're tiny, so we've had them in a bug box with about an inch of water, a stick, and the ワカメ they've been eating. They're still too small to be released & we don't have a tank. Guess it's time to invest in one!

Really hate being on the toilet during an earthquake! 😤

Got a D grade on my annual health check. 😩 As usual, my BMI is shit, as my target weight is 66 kg. I weigh 73 kg now... The last time I weighed 66 kg was 20 years ago, when I was in college, sucking down the Whataburgers and multiple liters of Dr Pepper each day.

I despise with the heat of a thousand suns the way I have to be suspicious of all art I see now while I investigate it's authenticity, because this couldn't be more diametrically opposed to the state of mind one should be in while taking in all art.

12:15 a.m. and half dead on the couch: “I need to wash these damn dishes… ughhhh.” *Proceeds to wash dishes with eyes half closed, cleans the counters, throws out garbage, then gets ready for bed.* 1:40 a.m., finally ready for bed, but now wide awake: “uggghhh.”

TIL Natalie Portman has a 9-year-old daughter with the same (distinctive) name as my 8-year-old. Now I'm terrified that people are going to think I named her after a celebrity's kid. 🤦‍♂️

This lovely Sufjan Stevens produced cover of the Cranberries song Dreams by Meg Lui is going to be my Saturday mood.

I had breakfast at 6:45 and it’s now a quarter past 10, but I’m starving! I have class at noon, so I should just go ahead and eat. But something about having lunch when it’s still technically breakfast time seems wrong. Elevensies then?

Discovered note.com today (late, I know), and I think I'm going to join. It might be a good place to practice reading Japanese and finding decent niche content. TBH the first article I found was a guy who posted about the conbini donuts I've been addicted to the last 6.5 years.

Somehow didn’t realize I needed to make a unit test and a new lesson for my 5ème class. So now that that’s done, I can get a total of 2 hours of sleep before I get up to go to work.

Living in a large city definitely has its drawbacks. What I wouldn’t give to just be in a big open field right now.

I am real f*cking stressed today. Spent hours on tomorrow's history/geo lesson only to realize the info is all over the place. I feel like I'm not in my right mind.

A highly publicized space launch, an increasingly authoritarian government espousing America's greatness, another forever war, poverty at home, a climate crisis made worse by the pillaging of Earth's natural resources... I can't help but be reminded of The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.

I'm stressed & damn near hysterics. Argued w/ my husband this morning. Water heater went out again because of the rain. Then my daughter started complaining her tummy hurts, and turns out she snuck some pills from the medicine cabinet. THANK GOD they were just probiotic pills—but can you imagine??

Legit not sure if I’ve had heartburn for the past two days or if I’m on the verge of having a heart attack. 😕