I just wanted to make a post to tell everyone how much I love "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. They're making it into a movie, which I'll never watch, for the same reason I avoided seeing "The Cat in the Hat" and the film version of "Rob's Most Precious Unspoiled Memories".
There's another post below in case you haven't read it.
Dear Melissa, who updates her blog almost daily, which is amazing to me, says that people will post more comments if I post more often.
:)
but I'm not gonna start apologizing. I have my own things going on these days.
Among them,
1. Yoga class! I'm taking a yoga class and it's great! It's ALL in Korean so I just have to keep popping my head up to see what everybody else is doing. That's fun. I park myself as close to the center of the room as possible, so that whatever direction my spine and limbs are twisted, I'll still be able to crane my neck and see someone. I'm starting to recognize some of the regulars. That's fun.
The yoga building's elevator is so slow you have to either laugh or punch something, or (best of all) laugh and take the stairs. Punching the stairs hurts.
The upshot of this is I feel great. I eat lunch early, do my last morning class, spend two hours writing, go to yoga, spend an hour writing, eat, teach my evening classes. Those kinds of days make me happy.
But they keep me away from my house, where I can post on my blog.
Sorry, eh? You'll be happy to know that, while I'm tantalizing all of you with the missing details of my life, I AM enjoying those missing details immensely.
2. I'm not ready to tell everybody about number two yet.
3. The weather's beautiful, so Im back in exploring-my-neighbourhood mode, trying new restaurants and sandwich joints and tea rooms, and finding the most comfortable place to bust out my word processor and type.
4. I got a word processor. Did I mention this before? It's a little machine simpler, sturdier, and cheaper than a laptop, that I can carry with me ALL the TIME and type on it, so that I can work on my stories or plays any time I want, instead of having to wait till I get home to my laptop, or carrying my laptop everywhere and worrying about a rainstorm, or a thief, or a dropping incident (of the clumsy mishandling brand OR the petting zoo brand), or any such terrible thing ruining my laptop. This is great. Every week I'm typing about ten pages on my word processor that wouldn't have gotten written if I had to return to my room to work. Along with all the pages I would have typed anyway. It makes my writing SO mobile.
5. I get to plan going back to Canada.
6. I just had a perfect weekend. I saw Ocean's 13 (I enjoy both George Clooney AND Heist flicks, so the Ocean's films are great for me -- kind of like eating Barbeque Chicken and talking with Matt -- two things I like teaming up together!) I saw my old friends from SLP, and had a great time with them -- they're so comfortable, because we worked together and travelled together. Then on Sunday I ate a Canadian style truckstop breakfast with Anthony (who's a class act), and next I climbed a mountain with Matt and Heyjin in my old neighbourhood, after which I sat outside a 7-11 and drank Japanese beer in big cans, talked and laughed with my best friend and his wife, and when that was finished, we went to a sauna, and then we had GREAT barbeque pork for REAL cheap in Matt's neighbourhood -- the good things just kept piling up this weekend. It was almost unbelievable, how much ultimate awesomeness can fit into a weekend. A bit like this video (if you're not up on your pop culture, don't bother, but if you are, your head might just explode):
Fun conversation class: The Would You Rather Game. My favourite this week was "Would you rather be intensely aware of others' body odours, OR have a bad body odour, but not realize it?"
Not a single comment on my Buddha's Birthday extravaganza!
Very well. Here goes:
This is a game I play with Sally. She says "Guess what?"
and I answer with totally silly suggestions until she gets bored of my randomness and just tells me what's on her mind.
(We stole this game idea from my dear friend Tiff, who just got married, and also, is awesome.)
Here are some examples:
"Hey Rob! Guess what?"
"Your elbows are growing teeth." "You learned how to pick things up with your toes." "Gravity will stop working from 2-4pm on Wednesday for maintenance." "From now on, all you need is luck instead of love, and the Beatles song will be changed accordingly."
And so forth.
So, all my wonderful readers:
Guess what?
(keen points for making me laugh)
(I watched game 5 of the Stanley Cup hockey final today on tape delay, after avoiding computers all day long so I wouldn't be tempted to check the score. I explained to my Korean students how, once a Canadian's hometeam is eliminated, Canadians will always root for any Canadian team still playing for the Stanley Cup. After that epic meltdown in game five (an own goal in an elimination game? Come ON, Canada! That's humiliating! As humiliating as visiting your wife's aerobics class for a session and collapsing! [backstory to that comment]) I get to explain the phrases "meltdown" "go down in flames" "choke" and "crash and burn" as well as "mental toughness" "resilience" and "clutch" (in the negative) to my students today. At least the MVP (and all the stars) on the winning team was Canadian.)
