2009-05-06 - 8:32 p.m.
What I Did During Golden Week by ELOFTING@HOTMAIL.COM
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1. Sewed stuff.
I finished altering three shirts and took apart and then got stumped as to what to do with another.
The first shirt I finished used to be a hideous, sack-like dress, which I kept because I like the fabric. It's an oversized houndstooth print in which each "tooth" is about five centimeters long. I cleverly concealed the stains on it and transformed it into a cute tunic-like blouse. I like it more than anything else that I've made in a long, long time.
The next two shirts were experiments in a project I'm calling sneaking-t-shirts-into-the-office. On one, I used acrylic paints to create a lady-like scarf design around the neckline. It's like a tuxedo t-shirt, but for girls, and it turned out pretty well. The other t-shirt was probably based around a better idea, but didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It's a plain blue t-shirt with a kind of skirt-like thing to wear overtop of it. I put lots of pleats in it and made it fasten with a bow. My idea was that wearing that over the t-shirt, kind of placing it just below my boobs, would disguise the t-shirt as a blouse. Sadly, pleating is difficult and this layer didn't turn out especially well.
2. Bought an accordion and almost learned how to play three songs.
I'm fairly certain that it's a child's accordion, as it's light and easy to play and I know for certain that grown-up accordions are not.
I was a little worried that our neighbors wouldn't appreciate the noise, but I took it out on the front steps to try to learn Waltzing to Mongolia anyways. As it turns out, elderly Japanese women love accordions. A couple of them came over to tell me about the instruments that their grandchildren play and one of them gave me a tomato plant. I thought that was really nice.
I also think it will be nice (by which I mean, ridiculously amusing) if I can learn to play Depeche Mode on my accordion.
3. Went to Hamamatsu.
I went there for a festival with some people I work with. If this had been my first time at a festival, I would probably have been really excited about it. However, as this wasn't my first festival, my verdict upon it
was that nothing I saw there surprised me.
What did surprise me was that the guy who let us crash at his place had a PS3, which I'd never played before and therefore was pretty excited about. My favorite game was called Flower. In it you are wind and simply blow around pollenating things. He's supposed to be writing a review of this game, towards which end I suggested the following. A) It's completely unlike any game I've ever played before, and you really can't say that about many games. And B) nurture your sense of whimsy with Flower.
4. Met a Tall, Pretty German Girl Named Nela.
I debated whether or not to go to the show almost all day. I didn't want to go by myself, but I also didn't want to stay at home. My decision making process basically became trying to decide what I didn't want to do least. In the end, I went to the show and was glad that I did. I met a delightful girl there who's a little taller than myself and who has a tall, handsome boyfriend from Towada, which is very near to Hachinohe. (For those of you not in the know, I assure you that meeting other tall girls is very exciting to tall girls.) In other words, I met a German version of myself!
5. Tried really hard not to get cranky at Shuhei, and ultimately failed.
For those of you not in the know, Shuhei got a himself a job at a kareoke place. This means that he's working nights, and that our schedules are complete opposites. I'm not at all happy about this, but I wasn't happy when he wasn't working either so, yet again, it becomes a matter of deciding what I don't like least. Anyways, Shuhei requested days off for Golden Week after the deadline to do so had passed and consequently, has had to work every single day I've been on holiday.
I knew this was going to make me cranky. I haven't gone to work in a week, and the only time I've seen Shuhei has been between the hours of four and six o'clock, when he's busy getting ready for work and barely has time to even talk to me.
I knew this was going to make me cranky, which is why I started projects, and made plans, and did everything I could think of to stave off getting grouchy.
I knew it was going to make me even crankier when I started thinking the sort of thoughts that I assume to be endemic in women who read women's magazines. (Thoughts like, I'm too cute to be neglected. My falcon obviously doesn't appreciate me. Which is, of couse, only a hair's breadth away from, my falcon doesn't deserve me, which isn't a very nice way to think about your falcon.) It's embarassing to admit to thinking like this. It's selfish and stupid and, besides that, not true. I know that Shuhei does appreciate me, but simply doesn't have time to fawn over me right now.
Nevertheless, here I am, and the last thing I do during Golden Week will be getting cranky, despite precautions and despite knowing that it's both pointless and wrong.
