i thought i'd put some pictures up of my states side trip. there are many, and of course i could have put several more. it started off as a whirlwind tour and ended even faster. i felt invicible that tuesday night i hurried from the airplane to the area just past the security checkpoint to see my mom and brother, hank. overwhelmed, exhausted, and discombobulated, i welled up with emotion and tears the moment i set eyes on my family. i knew i would with the hurricane i was feeling in my chest. every moment was filled to the brim with activities, albeit fun, it was a little too rushed and busy for my tastes. i could have stayed happily for another week, taking a vacation from my vacation. before i knew it, i was emotionally overtaken going back to the airport two weeks later in the middle of the night. i got a new camera friday. after i got home. unfortunately, i didn't have one for my first couple of days.

nick and i at yo burrito, a locally owned restaurant in columbia, to eat mexican!!! for dinner. it's not a place i would prioritize on my list of places at which i had to dine while being a glutton for two weeks in america. in fact, i wouldn't have gone at all, but we wanted to catch two of our friends who play there regularly friday nights

you better believe it! there are no frozen daquiris or margaritas where i live in japan. you have to head to the bigger cities, like tokyo. i had several of these at different times during my trip. it's got to be red, no sour lime for me
this is james and kenley, old friends of mine. it was james' last show; he was moving to san fransisco. he should be there now

being a friday night, well what am i talking about, it doesn't have to be a weekend night for me to head to art bar. which i proved night after night through the duration of my vacation. let me rephrase, being nighttime, we headed to art bar, my favorite bar in town. this is jordan, a guy interested in the JET Program (the program i'm in).
heyward and i, late in the evening

not letting hangovers discourage us, we headed for some good american deli sandwiches. this is probably my most missed food in japan. this is my favorite sub sandwich joint, ten times better than any of the rest - i speak with authority - i was a sandwich artist in high school for almost two years

and the next night, gearing up for another night of drunken art bar, at new brookland tavern

mandie and myself

being a saturday night with a disappointing close time of 2am, we headed to our friend, jason's, house. we wanted to play with fireworks. jason, nick, and i

the cops didn't seem so concerned about the noise we were making, although the neighbors were. me, shauna, and mandie

then on sunday, off to my mom's house for some barbecuing and southern homecooking. it just didn't get any better!

my brother, hank, and i

nick and i getting to relax, while my family cooks

my mom, as if you can't tell, and i

heyward and nick showing off their similar space tshirts

of course i had to spend some time in minglewood playing pool and talking to kevin and kelly. kelly, kevin, me, nick, heyward, kate, and geoff

later that night, allston came into town, just getting back from traveling all over the states

i was infatuated with candle shots that evening, heyward

the night started early when greg, an old friend from high school, strolled in from his new hometown, charleston

it ended late involving a hotel room, late night mcdonalds (come on - american fast food! i can justify anything), me taking pictures of myself in boys underwear after the other two had passed out, and allston, greg, and me stuffed into a tiny bed - i ended up crawling to the floor sleeping on that night's clothes rolled under my head. wasn't the best for my headache in the morning

jonathan came to town from where i can't remember, with josh the hammer on the right. the night started at delhi palace, and indian restaurant; this was at the oyster bar in the vista

we tried to keep javed happy, if you look at the bottom of the picture, you'll see his crutches. he broke his foot in drunken antics (sorry javie)

in my old laundry room, now currently heyward's and geoff's house

in light of recent knowledge, i did a little research on the internet. mumps ain’t so old; in fact there are existing, albeit rarer, cases every year. there wasn’t a vaccine until 1967, and up until then there were 200,000 new occurences every year.

i wake up this morning to a beautiful, fall-like day. the sun’s shining bright and clear with a tiny nip in the air. the morning news states the high will be around 31°C, about 88°F, still hot for this area. it’s one of those mornings where you wake up feeling like the day has promise. the sun in conjunction with the nippy, fall feeling gives me a vague memory of old days gone by when there wasn’t a worry in the world. when i was oblivious and happy. well, i’m happy now, but it’s a different kind of happiness – could it be childhood happiness i’m reminded of? one of those ideal days you read about. by 7:45, i’m sitting on the outside stairs of my apartment, waiting yet again for the school nurse to come round to pick me up. i can tell the day is going to be hot because it’s already starting to broil. good thing i’m not doing my normal bike, train, and walk a kilometer 30 minute trip to school; i’d be sticky sweaty by the time i shuffle into the teacher’s room. i don’t want the students to see me like this anyway – with a growth and all. the school nurse, here on out referred to as kasahara, pulls up in the sparkling brilliance of the day. she and i chat about how my swelling hasn’t gone down, do i have a temperature, could i eat breakfast, did i sleep and so on. we chat about inconsequential things such as our families, the weather, and a fall related word in japanese requiring a long explanation because it was nonexistent in the dictionary – kouyou. it’s the process of the leaves changing from green to red, orange, and yellow in the fall. by the way, according to kasahara, it’s happening soon here in joetsu city, and watch out because it’s pretty.

after a brief pitstop at our school, the workplace, we head to the hospital and are there by 9:00. i inwardly sigh with relief as we sign in, we’re here early before the major crowds; it’s going to be a short doctor’s trip!! i can be back at my apartment with some good medicine, having an easy living breezy monday. oh no. oh no no no. by noon, i’ve been through endless pronunciation practice with kasahara of english medical jargon, i’ve started my first reread of the harry potter book one, i’ve stared off into space, letting thoughts drift in and out of my head, i’ve watched the various annoying, screaming kids abuse the tired-looking, washed out moms, i’ve looked up countless words in the dictionary and taken notes for future study sessions, and i ‘ve seen what it seems like a ton of people come and go, disappearing in the doctor’s office and reappear almost just as quickly. maybe they have an appointment, i think to myself, trying to quell any annoyances. finally, after hours of waiting and some blood work, i’m pulled into the straight-backed, uncomfortable patient’s chair to hear the results. with the doctor a foot away, 2 nurses hovering around, and kasahara there as my savoir, he tells me my condition. first he shows me my blood work test results and explains how most things are ok; my white blood cells could be a little higher. what i gather is after my sickness, they should rise on their own. getting a little nervous, my heart beat quickens a tad. my expression morphs to one of alarm. pretty soon, he gets to the jackpot. he starts to write on my test results – m-u-m-p-s v-i-v-u-s, ‘vivus’ meaning virus. i have the mumps. the damn mumps. i thought that disease was extinct!

and here are the doctor’s orders: i must stay enclosed in my apartment until the swelling has gone down; he projected anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. i’m contagious, enough so to keep me cramped up in my hot, little apartment for a miserable week or two. hello movies. hello internet. goodbye fun. goodbye freedom . . .

it ain't fun being sick

tonight is cool and fall-like; last night’s rain grabbed on and held fast until the last moments of sunlight today. i should be nursing a killer hangover with the music notes of last nights’ songs drifting through the memories of the night before’s beach party. snapshots, shrieks of laughter, and slices of time should be swirling through my head as i sort out my soggy-logged brain from alcohol-induced forgetfulness.

but instead, today i woke up in my own bed, not on kashiwazaki beach, with a clear head and good-enough sleep. i nurse myself through a torturous breakfast which makes my head pound and throb with intense pain until, not being able to take it anymore, i stuff 2 pills down my throat. yep, one’s a pain reliever, and not your over the counter pain reliever either, it’s doctor prescribed. the other pill is an antibiotic. i woke up in my own bed for a horrible and unsatisfactory reason. i’m ill; and the worst part about it is that i have no idea what the hell i have. not only have i never experienced this unusual what-the-hell-is-it sickness, but i’m in japan where the doctor’s office is an exam on every word and every minute i’ve ever studied. listening to the doctor, i leaned in anxiously, hanging onto every word, processing his sentences in my head seconds slower than his natural speech rate. i’m not getting it all. shit. i don’t know what’s wrong with me. good thing the school nurse at the school at which i work went with me; good thing she speaks no english. and good thing the japanese have a fantastic knack for diagnosing exactly what’s wrong with you while barely listening to the i’m sitting at death’s door sick customer’s symptoms. good thing i know useful japanese for this trip such as, “wooowww, you’re cute!! wanna sing karaoke?” instead of inflammation, umm, temperature, or i don’t know – growth or tumor. the teachers i work with seemed to take one look at me and think i had a cold. “normal back to school sickness!” they’d say cheerfully. the school nurse pointed out the mumps, measles, and rubella in the big, fat official-looking medical dictionary. what?!?! a cold? mumps?? measles, rubella??? this is not the early 1900s; i thought we conquered those archaic epidemics decades ago! perhaps i’m wrong; perhaps i should research on the trusty internet. so, i’m sitting here; today i’ve watched, between naps, back to the future I and II. forgot how fabulous they were! i’m trying to ignore the huge lump growing out of the right side of my face. i’ve got swollen glands, extremely swollen glands.

it all starts last wednesday when i came home from running tired and strained. thinking i was strained from the recent late nights, i didn’t consider the dire sickness that would soon hit. of course!! what was i thinking?? how could i not realize that within the next 8 hours, i would wake up to a huge, ugly growth surrounding my right ear? the swelling started wednesday night along with a pressure-filled headache. i dismissed it. thursday i woke up, immediately my hand drifting up to my face. what it reminds me of is the scene in drop dead fred where rik mayall’s, drop dead fred of course, character’s face gets flattened somehow until it’s wide as a pizza pie. cut that in half, and that’s what i feel i have. thursday passed with dizziness, the chills, the sweats, the fever, and an above-described trip to the doctor. the diagnosis and medicine was perfect, so perfect in fact, that i’ve still got the SAME SWELL, BUT BIGGER, growing out of my face. ok. so it’s not a huge growth or tumor. it’s not a mountain, and i’m not going to die, from this at least, but it’s ugly and foreign feeling. AND DID I MENTION IT’S ON MY FACE? after another trip to the doctor today and by now several days of mr. ugly swell, i’m going to an ear and nose doctor tomorrow morning. the ideas of a cold, mumps, measles, and rubella have thankfully been dismissed. great! now i don’t have to hear ‘moompsue – the japanese pronunciation of mumps – anymore. i don’t have to teach tomorrow or work at all for that matter. the past few mornings, pre-medicine, have been agonizing pain filled, induced from chewing, swallowing, turning my head, or even talking. it’s felt best to put my head down, close my eyes, and cup my swell with a warm, loving hand.
hopefully this ear and nose doctor can do something about these stubborn glands of mine. today’s doc mentioned tonsillitis - i hope that’s all i’ve got! gimme some more meds; some that treat my problem!! results to come; hopefully the tumor will be gone.

it's about damn time!

LIZ'S TO DO LIST

DATE: late 2004 - now

1. start a blog

if this were my notepad on which i wrote my to do lists starting circa late last year, this is what it would look like. i’ve wanted to create my own blog for quite some time now, but there was always an excuse of why the project couldn’t be started just then. well now, i’ve got some time, and i can’t find any excuse why now’s not the right moment to begin.