Never a dull moment

Damian and I got our Japanese cell phones about a month ago... and I've only charged it once... if that gives you any idea how much I use it (never). We basically got them for emergencies and so we could call each other or if we are out and need to call a taxi or anything, definitely a far cry from how much we use our cell phones in the U.S. Anyway, barely anyone has the number for this phone and I never get calls and I'm sitting on the couch last night watching something on Hulu when my phone starts making this really weird ringing/alarming sound... I pick it up to see what is says and it is a message saying "Earthquake" exactly what you see to the left! I looked at the phone and then at my glass of water to see if it was shaking (and it wasn't) and then I didn't really know what to do... do I get in the doorway, do I cover with pillows, do I brace myself for the BIG one, I don't know! About a minute later there was the slightest shake in my apartment and that was it... when I looked online to see what this was all about I saw there was a 5.6 earthquake in the northern part of Japan which would explain why it was pretty much nothing here... Now these warning are automatic on all cell phones here in Japan so you can't "unsubscribe" or anything like that, but I have decided that I would much rather not know that an earthquake is coming, than know and have a minute to freak out about it... all for nothing! Sometimes I stop and think is this really my life?

The next thing I am going to complain about is the ridiculous advertisements they come up with here on base... for things that shouldn't have to be said... The fact that they actually spend money on these ads to post them all over the place makes me think there are really people that need these and wouldn't be able to survive in this world without them... such as this advertisement to the right about returning the shopping cart... if people just returned them there would be no need for this ad, but obviously there are a lot of people out there taking the carts home with them... I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about the high rate of petty theft at the exchange here on base... apparently it's a big problem... really people?!?!

This is turning into one big bitch blog but bare with me, this is the last one for today... They (and by "they" I mean the military) control my A/C and heat and get to decide when it's hot and when it's cold enough out to have these luxuries on/off. Like they don't control enough of my life already... they needed to have just one more thing...So no matter how HOT it is next week the A/C gets turned off and I have no choice in the matter! This doesn't worry me as much as them turning the heat ON. I may have grown up in New England and spent most of my life growing up dealing with cold weather, but these past few years in San Diego have turned me into one big baby with poor circulation and cold feet.... literally cold feet (I'm not nervous)! I hear that the winters get very cold here and I am worried they won't turn the heat on when it starts to get a little chilly! Hopefully all my blankets and cold weather clothes get here before I have to worry about this!

I attended Shabbat Service here on base tonight at the Chapel of Hope... there were a whopping 8 people in attendance! I was a generation younger than everyone else there so I guess that won't be the place I make friends to hang out with but it was a very nice service and everyone was very welcoming. We did a lot of the prayers that I was used to and some new ones too, but going to synagogue is like riding a bike... kind of... anyway, I still can read Hebrew so I was able to keep up and act like I knew what I was doing. Even though we didn't have a minyan (this is 10 people for my non-Jewish readers) we still did the Mourner's Kaddish because we are at a military base so they called it a Military Kaddish and we say it for everyone we've lost... I liked that. It was a very relaxed service, pretty much what I was used to way back when... The Kiddush was nice... grape juice instead of wine because if you even have a sip of wine on this base you get a DUI, and they even had fresh Challah that the Officer's club makes every week. It is a really nice group of people, I will definitely go back in a few weeks.

Japanese words of the day:
Migi: Right
Hidari:Left