June 14

Well, if you're gonna live here in Japan, it's always a major plus if you can get a master fisherman as your friend. My ex and I had dinner tonight at his place. He had gone out early in the morning to see how lucky he was out on the bay. Sure enough, he was able to reel in a lot of mackerel and two red snappers (how many people can do that back in Lake Ontario?) for dinner. When we got there, he was already hard at work scraping off the scales off of his catches before he eviscerated them and then made a whole mess of sashimi and other Japanese fish-based dishes. It was like going to a really good restaurant in the Tsukiji district of Tokyo (it's the area that has that huge warehouse of fish getting auctioned off) for a free meal. Just lovely.

That dinner certainly helped out with today after having my first class with the kids out in the west end today. They were both nice kids but the bottom line was that they were kids, one of whom was in danger of becoming a teenager. It was the usual gawky shyness and lack of focus. It was somewhat arduous, to say the least. I have rather mixed feelings about only teaching them sporadically. I do miss out on a regular source of Saturday income but at least I keep my sanity.

Some feeling of poignancy also seeped into me during dinner. Y'know, I've been living in the same increasingly cramped apartment for 9 years; I can't really have anyone over, except for my very closest friends, without getting a sense of embarrassment over the growing dowdiness of my pad. And yet, the fisherman and his wife were able to move from their old cramped place to a much bigger and nicer condo within a year. I asked myself, silently of course, "What the hell am I still doing here?" I mean, various students have expressed some surprise at my longevity in my current home, and I'm convinced that I am the longest-living resident in the entire apartment building by a long shot. Heck, my real estate agency hasn't even bothered for my guarantor's stamp for the last two lease renewals.
On the other hand, I also have to realize that I am lucky that I can still stay here without needing a guarantor's stamp. I also realize how very difficult it is for a foreigner, even for a stealth gaijin, to acquire accomodations in this country, thanks to the lousy custom of key money and an oft-xenophobic real estate agency and a few bad apples. And finally, I have a barnacle-like attitude when it comes to a residence.

The second source of poignancy was when my ex was leafing through the wedding album that the fisherman and his wife had decided to show us. She fell in love with the wedding dress so much that she asked if she could actually try it on. Luckily, the wife had the dress in her bedroom so she actually allowed it to be worn. When my ex came out wearing the dress and looking so happy, I must admit that my heart flipped a bit. Usually, that's the clump of cholesterol coursing through the aorta but this time, it was just a reflection of what could have been. Also, the fisherman and his wife related that they often had spats over the most insignificant things, and yet they looked completely at ease with each other. Basically, they were soulmates. So I wonder in my late 30s if my door of opportunity has finally shut for good. I don't know the answer to that question....yet. But I do know that I may be in for some episodes of poignancy as I struggle through a new phase in life financially, and also in terms of not having a partner that I could really share my life with. Maybe all of the past events in my life have shaped me to the extent that I'm just not the type to blast forward, I'm just not the type to have a soulmate.

June 13

It's Friday the 13th, but my luck wasn't too shabby today. I had thought it would be since today was my first payday since my reversion to part-time status. It wasn't as low as I had feared. But I realize that I'll have to be very careful about what I spend my money on. Basically, I'm going on a hobby diet. Let's hope that I survive the month.

I found another place with a good deal for lunch. It's the COCA Chinese eatery that I usually go to for dinner with friends. I was actually dong a bit of scouting for a future event so I went there for lunch and found out that they had a decent 1000 yen special. Soup, salad and five steamers of dim sum with dessert. For Japan, that's not too bad at all.

Spent some of the afternoon at the World Magazine Gallery in south Ginza. It looks like that that place will be second home away from home for the foreseeable future. When mags cost 1000 yen easily in Tokyo, it only makes economic sense to peruse them for free. Then I just browsed through two CD shops, Yamano Music and the Ginza chapter of HMV. As I was passing through the floors to head for HMV, I noticed the open massage clinic right by the escalator. Great way to market. I certainly wished that I could've been in that chair getting my shoulders rubbed. The only thing I mind a bit is that technician who gets overly enthusiastic for shiatsu.

Looks like my Friday circle is gelling nicely after all. My ex is adding her form of non sequitur-ish fun to the proceedings. Tomorrow, I meet up with her to head for a housewarming party the next station over.

Well, two American icons have departed this mortal coil. I never really remembered David Brinkley in his "Good night, David. Good night, Chet" days but I do remember having my pancakes on Sundays while watching This Week with David Brinkley. He always had that syncopated delivery which appealed to me.

The other legend of note who has now passed into history is, of course, Gregory Peck. The tributes today have referred to his Atticus Finch as the defining role of his career, a fact punctuated by his lone Oscar win. And of course, I would agree with that except for the fact that I, sad to say, have yet to see To Kill A Mockingbird in its entirety. To be honest, Peck will always be best represented to me as the stolid Joe Bradley whisking Princess Anne off her feet in Roman Holiday. I've seen that movie four or five times while I have to admit that I have not seen any of Peck's other flicks. Well, there was a bit of McArthur here, The Guns of Navarone there, and I did catch his cameo in Other People's Money with Danny DeVito on the big screen, However, as I said, it was just a cameo and it was obvious that his best days were behind him by that point.
Barbara Walters will always be stigmatized by that perhaps mythologized question she has asked of her interviewees: "If you were a tree, which one would you be?" I'm not sure if Walters had ever interviewed Peck but if she had dared asked that question, and if Peck had indeed been gracious enough to answer it, I would guess that Peck would have answered "Oak" or "Sequoia", both solid, grand and American.

June 11

I met up with those people from the Asakusa Incident on Monday. The main guy seemed tired, depressed and somewhat cranky. I'm not sure if he had been still feeling guilty about the other day or the two weeks in town have started to get to him. The other two seemed OK though. We had lunch at an American style bar & grill place beside Shinjuku Station; the food's so-so but since two of the three had a rather major breakfast buffet, I didn't think a real Japanese restaurant would've helped their stomachs any.

Looks like I've gotten myself another customer for my services. That's good to hear since I was rather chagrined to get a payment schedule for citizen taxes, several years after my last schedule, tonight. And I've got my national health insurance to start paying off from next month. Oooh, boy....I could really use a nice-paying group class right now.

Also, came home tonight to a rather powerful stench of rotting garlic and onion in my kitchen after having cooked up something the other day. That's the one problem with garlic; the smell could punch a hole through anything. I ditched the garbage downstairs for pickup tomorrow morning but I'm not sure if the aroma will repel the stray cats and crows in my neighbourhood or actually attract them.

I'm looking at virtually the next two days off outside of one regular night class and my weekly Friday night circle.

June 9

Well, that meeting with friends turned out to be a non-starter due to some screwup in directions. I was quite explicit in telling the folks that I would meet them at Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line and even gave them directions on how to get there from the nearest station to the hotel. For some reason, they ended up waiting at another station completely, so I had to make some relay calls (No, I don't have a cell phone and no, even after this incident, I won't get one...not on my current financial status) and ask them to meet me at another exit. Well, I waited for 45 minutes for them to show up; they never did so I decided that was it. I didn't feel good about leaving them in Asakusa since I recommended the meeting place, but I'm not about to wait ad infinitum either, especially for people who can't take directions well.

I actually got a letter from Grandpa yesterday. He never sends one unless it's New Years (me and the relatives were never that close). However, he found out about the SARS situation in Toronto where my family lives, so he wanted to know how things were going. I had to get a message off to my brother who relayed it to Mom. So, looks like things are resolved although I'll still have to write a letter off to him. My kanji is so rusty.

June 9

Caught the Matrix Reloaded again yesterday with a couple of friends. Looks like the mixed reviews back Stateside didn't scare anyone away. In fact, the movie scored the highest opening of any flick in Japanese history: 2.2 billion yen; sounds like a lot but it's actually about 25 million bucks US. I could understand things better with a second go at it and the FX still manage to thrill but the movie is still nowhere near as good as the first one.

On that update with my ex and the Friday night session. Looks like she'll be coming again; she and the other ladies got along after all despite all I had observed. Go figure! So she will not need my personal lessons. Well, that's fine. I'm meeting friends today anyways.

June 6

Well, I found out my schedule for the next week. Looks like with the testing at my school, I'll just have 4 hours there and the few hours I've got so far for my privates.

My regular Friday nighter received a new third member from tonight...I think. The newbie just happens to be my ex. And I'm not particularly sure if she'll be a good fit for the group. Oh, everyone was cordial enough but the chemistry didn't seem to gel quite well although it's just the first time. She seemed bored at times and didn't hesitate to yawn openly which just struck me as being plain rude. But then again, I've known her for 2 years. She's even asked me to teach her weekly. So I think any hope for a return to a closer relationship has basically gone out the window. I don't think one can love and teach the same person at the same time, and she's made it clear that she wants my teaching self. All I hope is that she'll keep the lines totally clear and that she'll pay me for my services.

June 4

Back from a long day although I only taught one class tonight. First I went over to my school to drop off the Forrest Gump tape for that video class which I hope did OK. Then, I met up with a few friends from Toronto to go dine at the Farm Grill. Not too many people today which suited us just fine. And then we started going through some of the interesting shops in the Ginza which included the big toy store, Hakuhinkan. I was actually somewhat disappointed, though. I had expected the Tokyo version of FAO Schwarz but the stuff they had was considerably less variegated. I did have my latest celeb sighting, a stage actress and frequent guest on the variety show circuit. her claim to fame was a few years ago when she had that huge public feud with the wife of the former Hanshin Tigers manager for several months until that wife was found guilty of tax evasion. Once she was out of the picture, the stage actress also faded from the limelight, too.

Then we went off to the SONY building to check out some of the new doodads. Nothing particularly interesting, but the latest version of the VAIO computer which marries crystal-clear TV and DVD viewing with the regular features of a computer was quite appealing.

I left my friends to teach my first private student, post-full time career. We went off to a Starbucks near Toranomon Station which is usualy very quiet during the mornings. It was also relatively OK in the evenings as well but there was more chatter going on. Happily, though, the lesson went well and the student was very satisfied. I'm tired but it's a good type of tired...the fatigue born of a job well done. Now, the former student who had first recommended me to tonight's private is now considering hiring me as her teacher again. A wonderful thing, this word-of-mouth.

June 4

First, Bob Hope. Now, CNN brought in the cast of "I Dream of Jeannie". I was never a huge fan although I do remember seeing several episodes as a kid. Barbara Eden still looks remarkably good although that "Hollywood Grandma" look is quite obvious. Glad that Larry Hagman is doing well although he acted like a septugenarian from the early 20th-century, not the 21-century. As for Bill Daily, I guess his roles on "Jeannie" and "Bob Newhart" weren't much of a stretch for him. I know that he and Wayne Rogers won't be shaking hands anytime in the future.

Well, we haven't had a major tremor of the week yet...knock on wood.

June 3

Hmmm...I think my paranoia meter may be hitting 11 today. Mind you, it's on a rather minor point but still since it may affect some of my favourite students, I'm not too happy. Since I became a part-timer, I can no longer teach a certain video class which means the onus of that duty has to fall to the coordinator. And it seems as if for the past couple of weeks since departure, the coordinator has neglected to show the video that the students have requested due to various reasons. And now, today, she has told me that the video is now missing.

Now, this coordinator has been quite cordial to me for 5 years, but I am aware that she has a certain amoral or mercenary side to her, and I did actually have a run-in with her some years ago which ended up with me boycotting a party that I was to host. So she is aware that I will do something if I'm wronged.

The paranoid side is telling me that the coordinator may be pulling these stunts to force me back into teaching the kids on Wednesdays, my off day from the school. If that is indeed the case, then she has failed. However, I also have to realize that these students aren't getting the education that they requested, so what I may do is download some scripts from the Net and bring over my tapes of either Forrest Gump or the X-Files and lend them to a couple of my trustworthy students. I really don't want to think this way but considering some of the goings-on in the administrative side of this school for the time I've been there, I can't get it out of my mind either.

June 3

The Angels did make their prerequisite press conference....at Roppongi Hills, the place de jour in Tokyo. The ladies were quite accomodating to the fans. And a local celeb who would make a fine Japanese Angel appeared for a photo op and chat, Norika Fujiwara. I don't think there will be any opportunites in the near future for her if her dip into non-Japanese filmdom is a gauge.

Got a good night's rest...probably the first one in several weeks thanks to my better schedule and that walk through Tokyo yesterday.

Well, Bob Hope turned 100 on Thursday. I mention him because he was probably the very first comedian to make me laugh as a kid, and I remember that he did make me laugh until I cried. That was when I was watching his TV specials, and at the time, I had no idea about his long relationship with Bing Crosby or the Road movies.

In a way, he and Johnny Carson were responsible for how a lot of comedians handle themselves these days (whether they will admit it or not), and also to a large extent, they shaped how I handle my humour: deadpan and the knowing look. It is a consequence of the nature of generations that Bob is now largely seen by the younger folk as a relic from the age of grandfathers and grandmothers; a person who until his slow fade from the spotlight in the 90s was seen as a cornball-and-cheese act relying on the jokes written by others and the celebs deigning to appear with him. I'm no less guilty in that regard; I don't particularly appreciate the hit songs from my parents' generation, and I accept that future generations will probably treat my Billy Joel and Elton John as sappy pop acts. Even with Bob Hope, I largely lost my like for his specials because of the aforementioned corn and cheese. When I can get The Simpsons and Seinfeld back in Canada on a daily basis, the sharp wit and laugh-out-loud gags from those programs can run circles around anything that ol' Ski Nose had done in the waning decades of the 20th century.

However, it is his work in the Road pics that I now look to and that The Simpsons, Seinfeld and even Carson could look to that reveals how much of a master he was. Quicksilver ad-libs and his willful willingness to break the 4th wall made his appearances very welcome and a nice balance to the straightman crooner. Thanks for those memories.

June 2

Good morning, Angels! Well, the next celeb sightings in Tokyo were for Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu who had come in on Saturday. They had a free day so the cameras were keeping tabs on them from a discreet distance as they went on a shopping spree throughout the young and trendy Harajuku district. Strangely enough, noone approached them for an autograph, let alone mob them, although admittedly we only got an edited report. Celebs should be grateful for that much privacy.

Had my private class and then proceeded to walk 6 km. from Shibuya to Ginza. It took me about 90 minutes; not too shabby a time. I hope that took a bit off of my girth.

June 1

Halfway through the year, and sure enough, the warmth and humidity have rolled in like Japanese clockwork. Mind you, that overly muscular high-pressure system managed to give us a taste of the rainy season. Today, however, looks pretty decent for a walk. It's been a quiet weekend so far, and I've got a feeling that perhaps most of the next coming weeks will be mostly quiet ones.

The assistant manager at my school has been trying to contact me. Of course, he won't say anything over the phone, so I just sent him a fax asking him to send me e-mail instead. Another staff member contacted me by e-mail today asking if I could teach a class on Wednesday, which is now my own day. It is probably a class that I enjoy teaching, but I've got to turn it down since I don't want to set a precedent...leave any room open for the staff to exploit. However, the school may be in a bit of a fix since the staff person informed me that there is a rather important government Intensive course being taught next week so the assumption is that a lot of the good teachers will have to be sent out to that...which would also mean that some of the in-house classes would suffer. Ah. what a tangled web we weave. It's too bad, though, the little bit of money would've been nice but it's not worth the cost of remaining beholden to the largely dishonest group of people running things.

May 30

A relaxing day today with little more than a chat fest in the evening to signify any sort of work. I got that haircut but didn't get the shampoo; I'll have to remember to ask for it next time. Mind you, I did save 1400 yen in the bargain. It was a good time to get the cut as well. With the incoming heat, the shorter style will do me well.

Afterwards, I just got back home, made a humoungous pasta lunch and did some cleaning up which included making some major rearrangments to my books and CDs. Things look somewhat neater now.

However, last night, I found myself with an uninvited bedmate. There's nothing like a squirming little larva next to your ear to sit up and take notice. Well, I went out and got myself some insect repellent and proceeded to spray down my bedroom and all of the drawers. I've still yet to experience the annual visit by the cockroach, the deadly enemy of the Japanese. Their fear of nature's most indestructible creature borders on the sociopathic. Sure, I find them annoying but these folks think that the insects must be wearing a goalie mask and wielding a hatchet. In any case, summer is indeed coming up.

Looks like my English circle on Fridays will be livening up. My (ex-?) girlfriend will be joining our little menage a trois from next Friday. One of my regular pair remarked that it will be nice to get a fresh source of topics; she always had a way of being quietly cranky at times. She would make a great Canadian. In any case, I won't be mentioning our connection to the other two; no need for any more complications.

May 30

Forgot to mention that I caught the original Terminator tonight on TV Tokyo. Man, can't believe it's been nearly 20 years since that old sci-fi chestnut came out, and that T3 is slated this summer. It's interesting to watch Arnie in his lone bad-guy role, and Linda Hamilton as a soft and cuddly Sarah Connor before buffing herself out in T2. The FX back then look pretty laughable by today's standards especially when there are several seconds of obvious fake Arnie heads front and center.

May 29

It's always a nice feeling to be wanted. My first two classes were quite happy to see me at the helm again; heck, the second class even applauded. Always nice.

An update on that so-called request by my manager. Well, after I had sent him my "Go to Hell" response, he never contacted me again either in person or phone although I was at the school for all of the morning and most of the afternoon. I don't know how this will play out. Will he actually leave me be or will he plot a bit of sneaky revenge?

Tomorrow is my off day so I'll be getting that long-needed haircut. It'll cost me 5000 yen; not an easy amount to spend considering my current status as a part-timer but the hairstylist there gives the most exquisite scalp massage and shampoo. Plus, I'll have to scour my apartment; it's looking pretty ratty right now.

May 28

The first warm day this year and, as luck would have it, I had on my full suit for that doctor's family. It sure didn't help that I met them at 6:30 p.m. while having an early morning class at 8:30 a.m. My suit will need a night's airing out.

As for what happened in between, I just ended up at the Magazine House and just read my free mags. I will be saving a lot of money that way. Then, I just filled in a few student evaluations.

As for the interview with the doctor's family, it looks I passed muster. We set up the first appointment with the kids for mid-June. The doctor lives in a pretty nice large American-style house...ah, the creature comforts of a good career. Actualy, the doc and his wife had lived for a couple of years in New Orleans back in the early 90s. Some good talk about jambalaya and gumbo there. So it looks like my client list is slowly growing although I'm looking for a few group classes to get that extra income.

Well, it's back to a full day at the school tomorrow. My stupid manager actually had the nerve to summon me to talk with the big prez about my "future". And after my requests for a meeting met with dead air weeks ago. I politely sent a letter which basically can be summarized as "Take a Number."

May 27

Matrix: Unloaded?!

It looks like I'm not the only one with a beef about the former most anticipated movie of 2003. I just read that the second Matrix just dropped 60% in box office, and to add insult to injury, it came in a distant second to Jim Carrey of all people. Mind you, for all patriotic Canadians, it was a win-win situation. A fellow Torontonian lost to another Toronotonian. However, on the absolute side, Matrix Reloaded has reached $200 million...I mean, how many other producers would give their internal organs for that kind of box office? And it's quite likely that it will hit $300 million without breaking too much of a sweat.

However, there is the financial side and then there is the expectations side. And one will come out far lower than the other.

Well, Keanu Reaves did show up for a Matrix preview. He, Larry Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith and Joel Silver showed up at Roppongi Hills last night at the special "invitees only" preview. What's the matter, Keanu? Don't want to mingle with the common people?

Had my regular school day today. Not too bad. I've got my final morning class at that oil company (Yeahhhh!) and then I have an interview of sorts with that doctor about teaching his two young daughters. Dog-and-pony show. Plus, I've got to do some location scouting for a place to teach my semi-regular Wednesday student, and get her a textbook. I'm eyeing an unusually quiet Starbucks near the oil company. I'm just wondering though if it's so quiet that the coffee house decides to close up earlier than usual.

May 26

It's Time To Rock!

Well, I don't know what it is between me and earthquakes. I was just washing my hands in the bathroom at about 6:30 tonight, and my thoughts centered on the Big One, namely a huge tremor. Sure enough, after I toweled off, my apartment started rocking. This is now the third week in a row that Tokyo's been all shook up. Mind you, as soon as I turned on the TV, I found out that the tremor had much deeper and far-ranging roots.

The northern area of Japan got majorly rocked with a Magnitude 7.0 tremor which brings it up to the level of the Kobe quake which laid waste to that city over 8 years ago. What saved cities like Sendai from really bad damage right now is that the epicenter was out in the ocean. CNN has reported the quake but their coverage doesn't match the domestic stuff which had scenes of TV studios shaking (a usual immediate shot whenever a big quake comes) and people in shopping centers running out into the streets.

NHK has been providing live continuous coverage for the past hour while the other commercial stations went back to normal programming a half-hour ago. To me, that signifies that the damage or the casualty reports aren't that bad although there have been reports of buckling streets and houses on fire.

Hmmm....I kinda wonder about that earthquake kit now.

May 24

The Matrix: Re-Bloated

I think this is the first time in my brief blog history that I've ever titled an entry. However, I think this one merits it, and as it suggests, it doesn't bode well.

I had the opportunity to see the year's most anticipated movie (or at least the first half, anyways) tonight at a sneak preview in Roppongi Hills with a few friends (the sequel doesn't start officially in Japan until June 7). And what did I get?

Well, I'd like to preface my review with an analogy. Imagine a budding French chef getting platitudes from a customer over a nicely made salad one day. The chef, then thoroughly smitten, proceeds to whip up an entire 5-course meal based on the energy of that positive review by the next evening. In the same way, Matrix: Reloaded is a victim of its own success. And perhaps, though unfair, that famed Wachowski reticence to grant interviews may now look a bit pretentious to the public.

Special effects do not a movie make. No, this is not a Yoda statement but an unoffiicial warning to directors of blockbusters. In 1999, the original Matrix had some eye-popping visuals, the now-ubiquitious "bullet time", paired with a relatively simple story of one man destined to defeat a great foe. Plot sound familiar? It also describes the original Star Wars and its success.

Though the SFX in the second movie are still impressive, and in a couple of sequences are truly jaw-dropping, the initial buzz of excitement of "bullet time" is now gone, thanks to multiple "homages" in other movies and the Matrix's own DVD sales. We are now accustomed to the 360-degree wraparound; we are now all too used to wirework under the tutelage of Chinese masters. The story should have been first and foremost, and delivered clean and crisp.

Instead, we were saddled with an overly long exposition at the beginning (although it was nice to see veteran actor Anthony Zerbe in a rare good-guy role), too many characters doing too many irrelevent things, a very bulky conversation between Neo and the Architect, and finally, a muddled cliffhanger ending. My feeling was that the Warchowskis tried to stuff a story arc equivalent in length to the first 6 years of the X-Files into one motion picture. Even in the you-can-do-anything world of the Matrix, certain laws of movie physics must still apply, and you just can't cram that much mythos without thoroughly confusing and frustrating the majority of the viewing public. Basically, the story was gasping to catch up with the effects, and the audience was trailing a distant third.

Certain scenes were absolutely unnecessary: Zion's tribute to Studio 54, Neo's so-called test battle with the Oracle's bodyguard (if Neo could just walk through a bunch of kids to see Gloria Foster bake cookies in the first movie, why is this battle needed?), the enitre Merovingian/Persephone sequence, and the Agent Smith hallway battle scene. My opinion is that if a movie is going to be over 2 hours, there had better be a good reason; the above scenes don't justify the length.

Again, my problem with the movie is in story not acting. Keanu Reaves is a poor actor but he fits his role as Neo, the quiet, action type. The other performers such as Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne also carry off their roles competently. I was never expecting any Oscar awards for this movie outside of SFX

As I left the theatre tonight, most of my colleagues (only one of the group of six gave a thumbs-up) were very unimpressed, and I heard mutterings of "terrible" from other viewers. I'd heard that Laurence Fishburne flipped and flipped the bird at the premiere last week when reporters told him of the very mixed reviews. Sorry, Larry...but I think this time, the media may have a point. Keanu Reaves came down to Tokyo yesterday to promote the flick, and I had thought that perhaps he would come down and make an appearance at the sneak preview. He didn't, but in retrospect, I think it was a good thing. He probably would've become the pitiful victim of that classic show of faint praise: polite applause.

Y'know, leaving Matrix: Reloaded tonight reminded me of that time after I had seen The Phantom Menace almost 4 years ago. We saw it and left it trying to gamely justify all the good points of the movie. I couldn't speak for my companions on that night, but I knew that there was a stone of dissatisfaction in the pit of my stomach. However, The Phantom Menace still got a lot of good applause over the end credits and we did try to defend its merits. Tonight, the Matrix sequel couldn't even muster a mother's love from the audience.

Now I look forward to Matrix: Revolutions (or Matrix Resignation) with a sense of some foreboding.

May 22

I've finished another week of part-timing; still doing OK. In fact, I've gotten a couple of tips for potential students, one of which could be quite lucrative. But it looks like I will have to put on the dog-and-pony show for the parents before I get accepted.

Tomorrow I meet up with an old buddy from home for lunch and then I meet up with some former students for dinner. Not a bad way to spend the weekend.