Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Wednesday September 13, 5:31 p.m.

Well, I did look at that CNN Pipeline coverage of the original hours of the 9/11 attacks. I had originally caught it just when the 2nd plane hit the Twin Towers. So I managed to catch up in a way with the first 10 minutes of the bulletin. Judging from the coverage, it was a revelation that the CNN anchors couldn't realize initially that they were under terrorist attack even after that second plane had been sent careening into the building....even considering that first attempted attack in 1993 and then Oklahoma City in 1995. After that second plane, the reporters thought that it had been a second explosion from the first plane crash. Such was the mindset that the mighty fortress of the US couldn't be attacked.

My day yesterday was fairly pleasant as Tuesdays go. I had The Beehive...this time, we did get our old room back; the first floor of the bowling alley was looking pretty spanking brand new; the staff looked like their old sullen selves, though. Then, it was several hours of downtime just at Beckers the burger joint in Tsudanuma Station and then a Mister Donuts near Funabashi Station. The Mister Donuts had that classic American diner look but the music was this strange mix of Trance (interesting take on Queen's "We Are The Champions") and the "Superman Returns" soundtrack. Then, it was 002...which was fine as usual.

There was some more schedule jostling at the juku. Looks like I'll be starting an hour earlier next Tuesday with Seven because the boss decided to bring in a pair of twin kids for me to entertain for some reason. Thankfully, The Salaryman will be off in Bali so I have some off time to recuperate. I'm just having Mrs. Mild this month since hubby is really busy. Man, I almost strangled her last night since she had trouble with the just simplest samples of syntax...this, after over three years of teaching her. I was indeed glad that I didn't have The Siberian.

Well, I got a bit of a bombshell from GC out of Mie Prefecture. Looks like he'll be out of a job come December since the demographics for his client base have finally disappeared after over 12 years on the job. Man, that's rough. I gave him some advice and I think he has a 1 to 2-year safety net so hopefully, he'll have some lead time to get back on his feet. Speaking of old faces, I got my apartment partially ready for The Egg tomorrow. Man, did I throw out a lot of stuff today...including my 10-year-old pillow. Well, at least I got rid of the tick-and-mite colony.

But right now, I'm worrying about a couple of model lessons after 001 tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed but I'll be happy if I can just score .500.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Monday September 11, 5:39 p.m.

I had a pretty pleasant if sleepy time with The Madame yesterday, although things got off to a rollicking start (now, let's not get our minds into the gutter from what I've just written down). The two of us went to our usual haunt above Shinjuku Station on the 7th floor of restaurants. We decided to go for Thai, an unusual choice for The Madame since she's not one for spicy food but her need for Asian cuisine overrode all other factors. She was talking more about her quest for spiritualism in which her latest out-of-body experience had her empty body flailing away on the mat during her seminar. She even re-enacted her actions which, vertically speaking, kinda looked like a Warner Bros. cartoon character on acid. Then, we went all the way downstairs to the level below the JR level to a fancy food court known as The City Cafe. I'd passed by the place over the past couple of years without once setting foot inside it but I (with The Madame) finally took our steps inside. We were escorted to a table (basically, it was like one huge cafeteria) and we got our Bubble Teas. We ended up staying there for a good 3-4 hours; at one point, the two of us were in danger of just nodding off so we went for some rather strong coffee from one of the counters called Negishi, and drank it down with that teen fave of a chocolate-banana crepe. I felt kinda bad that I was starting to get sleepy in front of my friend but I rationalized it as being so comfortable in front of her that I didn't need to put on airs.

Quite a few changes in my work schedule. I finally got word about what happened on Saturday morning concerning the family of the two kids. I actually got the message from the father, and not the mother since it seems that she has come down with some rather debilitating pain after their trip to Europe. It looks like we'll be getting together on Sunday afternoon so I'll have to re-schedule The Carolinan's lesson back a couple of hours. And then, I found out from SIL that she may be going on another hiatus although she finished her message by asking me whether if another venue might be suitable. The Part-Timer is good to go, though, in the next 20 minutes.

I still have to get ready for Egg and his wife for Thursday. I figure that I'll be doing some major adjustments to the apartment on Wednesday and Thursday. Plus, I have two model lessons on Wednesday night that I'm prepping for. I'll definitely be suffering for my art this week.

Speaking of suffering, I've been keeping my promise to do the tofu-and-salad dinners so far, although I've got the loophole of reverting back to my old omnivourous ways if I'm invited to dinner (I did exercise that option on Saturday when I went out with Speedy and his gang). Interestingly enough, I've been pretty faithful so far and in fact, I don't even find the thought of regularly ingesting vegetable protein and just plain vegetables all that unappealing. I had a Wendy's Bacon Burger Classic for lunch, though. The Matron filled me in on a tastier variation on the tofu theme. She said that I should fry up a couple of slices of bacon extra crisp and then chop them into pieces and sprinkle them onto some unsuspecting bean curds for some mighty good flavour. One would think that bacon would be the last thing that a dieter would put on tofu but The Matron reasoned that the extra grease would have been rendered out during the cooking process. Well, I could always use an alternative from just soy sauce and sesame seeds.

Speaking of The Matron, I was grateful that The Lady did show up for the lesson today. When I got to the house, I had been informed by the housekeeper that The Lady had been under the weather but she did come during the latter half of the lesson.