A Heart's a Heavy Burden

Today is such a busy day! Steve and I managed to sleep in until almost 11, the comfy bed, snuggles, and thunderstorms all night soothing us into comfort that we were both incredibly reluctant to leave. But leave we must, because as I said, so many things.

First on the agenda was food, coffee, and writing up the entry for yesterday. I confirmed the time of Pokémon Go for Larvitar as well. Shower was had and clothes were donned, entries were posted and off to Mall of America - which is really the only way to do it, what with the MANY pokestops, lures, people and Pokémon. Why waste your time anywhere else??

Holy crap it was INSANE there today! The parking ramps was already crazy full with a huge line, but I beelined for the roof, because I didn’t ant to waste any more time than we had already, and there was like basically no one there. It is really muggy out today, very VERY humid. Once inside, it was quickly discovered today was the regional yo-yo competition, which is always entertaining but SO. NERVEWRACKING. Steve says I make the best audience because I am so animated while watching - I gasp and cheer and hide my face and have running commentary. Yo-yo is actually a really impressive hobby. We spent a good deal of time on the 4th floor catching so many Larvitar and other Pokémon before heading to the 3rd floor, where we spent most of our time. The mall was filthy with Larvitar. I got a really good shiny as my second catch of the day, and I never did find one better. I found a better regular Larvitar as well, though I didn’t have as many terrible ones as Steve did. In the end I evolved three and buffed up 2. Then we walked around doing a couple raids, which didn’t show up until after the event was over. As usual, when the first Kyogre raid started, my phone borked out and we had to move everywhere. Steve didn’t catch his first one. Once I got into a raid, I did, and it was pretty good. Then we went to another one, and I got another good one, and Steve got a SHINY Kyogre. So jealous!!! They’re purple! I love purple! AND it had good stats. So lucky. On our way out I spotted Pa and Carrie, Parkway coworkers of mine, who were also playing Pokémon Go. We stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading out.

Next up was my brother Jack’s graduation party at my dad’s house. We made the 40-minute drive out there, feeling kind of bad that we wouldn’t be able to stay long because I had to be home before 8 to tutor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jack had several friends over and there were people there for Dad and Tammy to hang out with too. They made sure to have rice for my tacos and Jack’s cake was pretty good too. Jack’s friends were decently funny, and apparently the running joke of his childhood was that he always talked about having so many siblings, and his friends were over often enough, and yet they NEVER saw any of them. So Jack was excited to show me off as one of the “fabled mysterious siblings”. To be fair, Jack is much younger than the rest of us. Bethany, at 26, is his closest sibling and still almost 9 years his senior.

After hanging out eating, and watching his slideshow that Dad made, we had to head out all too soon. The children were loudly playing Smash bros downstairs, and Jack seemed a little bummed we had to go so soon but took it in stride. I told him that since he’s going to a college nearby y house that he HAS to come by and hang out. I’m so easy to hang out with; we barely even have to talk lol. Just play games quietly and have fun.

I took a daiquiri to go (it was delicious) and Steve and I listen to Name of the Wind on the way back (we also listened to it on the way to dad’s, and I may or may not have gotten tearful right before we got there. It’s a POWERFUL book). I was in the best mood. My lesson with Shinpei was pretty good, he was distracted at first but eventually got into it, and we had fun. After that I went downstairs and we chilled until it was time to go to Minneapolis.

Oh yeah, we had also bought tickets to the midnight showing of Howl’s Moving Castle. I think the Uptown theatre might do this every year or every few years, but they show Ghibli movies as midnight showings, subtitled, one weekend a month. Howl’s is my favorite, along with Spirited Away and Nausicaa (Only Yesterday is a strong contender too). Steve couldn’t even remember the last time he saw it, and I’m a HUGE sap for this movie. It is so romantic and tender in my heart. Like, the themes really get to me, and I wondered if the type of person I am makes me view the movie a certain way. Ugh, just so good. After the movie I talked at length about the various depths and details I feel, and he said I have a “really strong headcanon.” Lol.

Before the movie, we were both so tired, and the Uptown is on Hennepin ave, one of the most happening streets in Minneapolis. Loud people everywhere. Huge crowds everywhere. We were both super tired but happy during the movie, and were (stupidly) surprised to see that the activity had not died down, or even so much as slowed down one bit when we left the movie. It was 2:30am! How are you people still active??? It was like I knew the dichotomy of being an old tired person placed against my own alcohol-fueled energy going out to party... but still!

You think we went home and went to sleep, but you’d be wrong. Father’s Day is tomorrow and I promised a dessert. The dessert I decided to make is no-bake, but it requires 8 hours of refrigeration. So to Cub we went for a couple of ingredients I needed. I made a simple but amazing-looking chocolate pie thing. Vegan, of course. That meant us finally flopping into bed at 4am. Oh my god.

My Asian friend Joe and I were talking-


BAHAHAHA yessss! He congratulated me on joining the brother/sisterhood. It was awesome.   

For some reason, I got a jumpstart into practicing Japanese again. I think it had to do with the fact that after we got Black/White, Steve and I got into a discussion of the required mechanics to play the games.

On the back of the games, there's a rather long explanation of the requirements in order to be able to play Pokemon, and the rules about transferring Pokemon between games, and other generational topics relevant. This then led to a discussion of how old one must be in order to play Pokemon. It says "Basic Reading Ability." Was that true? I mean, I started the Pokemon games at like age 10 or something, which would then make Bethany 6, and she also started the games then. Adam started younger I'm sure. I don't know if a kindergartener/1st grader qualifies as being able to read whole conversations, or at least, understand them. With the original games especially, I think that you can get through without having to ACTUALLY be told where to go, though it obviously helps.

Children are incredibly determined, and haven't developed that impatience and adult sense of instant gratification. I remember playing Yellow without Flash, every time. Fuck flash! I can get through the cave ON MY OWN! XD When we were waiting in line to pick up our pre-ordered copies, a teenage boy between 13 and 15 struck up a conversation with me about Pokemon. Steve and I had brought our DSes so we could get Celebi via wireless. This boy had brought his DS too. Now, a normal teenage boy, with a fair amount of acne and a slightly deep voice would usually have a hard time striking up a conversation with a strange female, especially one who's standing next to a much more approachable-looking boy. After showing me his game time (211 hours), Pokemon caught (246), his current levels (At least 3 were level 100), and telling me a step-by-step approach to his battle system and how he likes to complete as much as possible when he plays games, I determined he HAD to be autistic. Which of course made him welcome kin instead of weird kid (I am sooo socially awkward and I hate small talk), and I enjoyed his lack of social cues until we left. The funny part was that I didn't say ANYTHING or make faces or any sort of hints to Steve - normally when strange people talk to me I'll give him "looks", whether exasperated or uncomfortable or awwwwkwarrrrd - and he went, "That kid? SOOOOO autistic!" XD He reminded me A LOT of one of my former students.

Aaaanyway, after our discussion of the level of reading skill required from Pokemon, Steve was like, "Why didn't we just import your version? That would have been so cool and you'd have been able to read SOME of it!" Which is true! Not a lot, though... I can't remember kanji for CRAP but I've started sentence structure and particles, as well as some vocab. I ordered a few cheap books (seriously, shipping was more than the cost of the books) off of Amazon, and I'm super excited to use them. I'll post what they are when I get them.

I'm starting to get subject-object-verb down okay, but it's hard when I don't even remember how English sentence structure goes. At least, not formally. Obviously I know how to write, but I feel like we can write however the hell we want. Some ways make less sense than others but fucking context helps you figure it out. Context in Japanese is like whaaaaaaat? Wait, in the sentence たろがりんごをたべた, if you think that the context in implied, you only have to write "ate"?! Omguhhhhh. So confusing. XD I know I'm ahead of myself here, but it's still mind-boggling.

I'm thinking about that email Athena wrote me where she included a small bit of talk in Japanese, and I pretty much died from being lost.

I FINALLY was able to figure out/take the time to/add Japanese keyboard typing on my computer! 三井～！I'm so happy I can't even tell you! To be fair, it looks like the Japanese editor is smart enough to realize I just wrote a nonsense word in hiragana (which I know fairly well, though I'm ridiculously frustrated because all the practice sites I can find, and even MyJapanese Coach for the DS, require romaji for practice/translation even though they all obviously insist to step away from it) and made it into katakana, which I don't know at all yet T_T So don't go thinking I'm good yet. At anything :P

My zest and desire for Japanese has come back, especially so when I heard chochajin PASSED THE N2~!!! YAYYYYY! Congrats again ;) It actually sparked when I was sitting at my desk looking at the tag from my Hello Kitty phone charm, and I realized that I had sounded out the hiragana without thinking and that it read HAROU KITEYU (or something, I can't remember what the last character was, but I planned on taking a picture of it. I think it was ゆ) XDDDDD OMG YES. So good. So funny. So great.

Another huge problem I have though is that I know basically no rules, no application, no words. Bleh!

I was super excited to open my new bento. I had to get a new one, because my old one cracked. I also wanted a rectangular bento, for ease of food-placing.

I ordered it at the beginning of January, so it was max anticipation because Japan cares a LOT about the New Year and therefore wouldn't be shipping right away. 's all g!

( It's so cute! )

I love it. It feels very "me." I'm so happy to be able to make actual bentos now, instead of using tupperware. It's just not the same!

Okay, first, some squee! I ordered the first Higurashi Kizuna game, because I don't give a damn if I can't read Japanese I will find a translation if I have to!

( Here are some case + game pics (Athena, translate XD) )

I'd originally meant to do a post on my gaming stuff a long time ago (and actually it started as something I was gonna email Athena), and yesterday I was finally motivated to take pics of my gaming area.

( Walk along to my lair... )

Broken down, these our our games, with me highlighting my faves (taken from Backloggery.com):



As you can see, we have lots of games.

Ignoring the oldest systems like Genesis and Atari, the VAST majority of those games are games we bought with full intention to play. Not just some random sports game to pad the numbers. Like, we thought about it and spent good money on it-type games. Steve's beaten a full 605 of those games, and he takes beating games seriously. He's far more dedicated than I am, I've beaten less than 100 over my entire lifetime :P

ふ in script needs to DIE.

I hate it. I hate writing it. It is stupid.

D:


On the other hand, I quite like ねand す.

But goddamn that ふ!!!