The Bowmans in Okinawa

A Fabulous Dive

2009-10-02T10:45:00.001+09:00

Yep. Absent again. But I came back to show you THIS.

Turn on the sound and enjoy! Gearing up for the kiddo's birthday, I shall post pics from that, promise.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

2009-08-31T09:33:00.005+09:00

My giant kid. Can you believe another year has passed? First day of SECOND grade. The history from left to right:

Feelin' happy in her new sneakers.
"Mom, WHY are you coming to the bus stop with me?"
With a couple of her bus mates. Watching them all grow has been crazy.
Ok, mom.... I'm outta here. Enough with the camera.
I can't wait to hear about it. But I'll probably just get, "It was good!" Until I pry.

Post #2 - IN ONE DAY! BUT IT'S FOR A FREE NECKLACE!

2009-08-30T09:20:00.002+09:00

You really need to click here. I have that necklace. It's amazing. And I love it. And the sale is a worthy reason to go also. Jib & Genoa - and Jen, the designer of the fabulousness - get my big thumb's up happy jump up and down excitement today.

Go forth and BLOG a photo and win a necklace!

Last night.

2009-08-30T08:36:00.002+09:00

Last night I had sushi & other goodness at a fantastic restaurant with my friend Kelly and my new friend Mary. I was so very happy to eat a delicious dinner with friends, and to meet Mary because I LOVE reading her blog. She makes amazing videos too. She said, "I get a little sad when I see your stiletto heels on your blog and you haven't posted anything new." Trust me - I know that as each day passes there are a few (not many, but a FEW) folks who are very disappointed that I'm not blogging.

That's lame of me. Mia returns to school on Monday. I'd like to make it a part of my day - even if it's just to put up a photo or a quick sentence - to blog again. Because I like it. And a few of YOU like it. And I miss it!

Anyway - I did NOT have my camera with me at said fabulous restaurant (a sushi place in Hamby) but I will definitely go back there again.... but I do have a few summer photos, more specifically of the fishies we've been watching because it's so unbearably hot outside we really must be in the water at all times.

Have a great weekend! More on BACK TO SCHOOL for the next post!

Okinawa Hikers & Space A

2009-07-06T17:59:00.004+09:00

This is NOT an unusual sight here. As many friends can attest.

This photo was taken on the rocks at Cape Manzamo:

Let's zoom in for the footwear, shall we? (Not that the guy's flip-flops are the best choice, and not that they were in for a day of hiking or anything - but REALLY? THESE!?)I remember seeing many pairs of spiked heels on the Japanese women at Shuri Castle and other attractions here in Okinawa; attractions where a lot of walking, climbing of stairs, and hiking are happening. And comfortable shoes are a must for me on those types of days. Well - whatever. Bless their little vertically-challenged hearts. I guess they want to make their legs look longer.

In other news. I should be gone right now. Yesterday our family of three sat at the space A terminal for a while, hoping to hop to Hawaii. I have to admit - the terminal is nice (tvs, a snack bar with good unhealthy foods, a kids' room with cartoons playing...) and the wait wasn't torturous, we met nice people and such.

For those who don't know the space A game - a quick lesson. You get on a list via paperwork from hubby's (or spouse's) command when you want to take a space-available flight somewhere. For example, we want to go to Hawaii. There are categories of priority (a basic list, there are other people in these categories - full list here):
Category 1: emergency leave/medical or active duty on orders
Category 2: active duty or DoDDS teachers on leave flying alone or with family members (in our case, he is coming WITH us so we're all there together and we're higher priority to fly because he's coming along)
Category 3: family members of an active duty member who is deployed, or active duty people going to house hunt, etc.
Category 4: family members flying without active duty member (would be Mia & me if Craig wasn't joining us)
Category 5: retirees & family members

We were in great shape. Another factor is that Craig has to be on leave to get on the list, the longer you're on the list, the higher priority you get (so if we showed up and some other active duty member just got on leave on July 5th - the fact that we've been on leave since the 28th bodes very well for us - we'd go first if there were enough seats).

So - seats are a factor, priority/category, and flights. The reason you go through this little dance and play the waiting game and potentially not get on? IT IS FREE. A free flight to Hawaii is totally worth a little dancing.

For all of us it's our first time doing this space A thing. SO...we show up, check in, and they announce there's a big plane leaving soon with 35 available seats. WOO HOO! That's a lot of seats. We were hopeful.

They called up an emergency leave family and a family who was ahead of us via category 2, and then they called us! WOW - amazing. We got boarding passes. We ordered meals. We checked our bags. And we went to the gate. This is awesome! Mia was jumping up and down, and I was right there with her! Then it happened. As they were checking in the family in front of us, we hear, "They're not going to Hawaii anymore." WHAT? In the next few minutes we heard everything from "it's flying to Iwakuni [mainland Japan] and on to Elmendorf, Alaska" to "they just don't feel like going to Hawaii" to "it's landing in Iwakuni as the final destination", but the point was... we got our meal money back and our bags off the plane,and realized we just had the biggest tease of our lives.

I've heard of people getting stuck in places, having a crazy circuitous trip around the world to try to get home, or just not getting to fly out at all - but HAVING BOARDING PASSES IN HAND, BAGS ON PLANE AND THEN - POOF - NADA!? That was a first. We went back to the terminal and another flight was called with very few seats and that category two family in front of us got to go. That was pretty heart-breaking too. Then Mia started to cry when I explained we wouldn't be leaving today. I wanted to cry with her, but I didn't. I just explained we'd try again next time. I sure hope it happens for us because we have a great trip planned. It's going to be really hard not to be disappointed if it doesn't.

But by the evening we were watching So You Think You Can Dance (HOORAY, best show ever!) and enjoying dinner with wonderful friends. As Mia kissed me goodnight she said, "Let's hope we get on the next plane, ok, Mama?" Yes, let's.

Macau Engrish

2009-06-25T12:18:00.003+09:00

My favorite sign on my Hong Kong/Macau journey was at Fernando's in Macau. After quite a bit of wine and sangria, I headed to the bathroom. I went back for my camera to take this photo of the sign on the back of the door.

Apparently incoherent people are common in the bathroom in Macau. Makes sense.

And a quick shot that I've posted on Facebook already of Mia in the pouring rain with the sunset behind her. Typical Okinawa summer. The sunsets are killer once again - but a little more rain would make them even better!

My Photography

2009-06-24T16:02:00.005+09:00

I started this personal blog just before moving to Okinawa two years ago. It served me well.

Now I have a professional photography business, so I have a blog there too. Understandably a separate place for my photography. I also use Facebook and flickr.

So - a little poll....

I can't upload photos to four different places, that's just ridiculous. I barely have time to play with my personal/travel/art photography AS it is, let alone post it to 4+ different sites!

Where should I post those types of photos? Pick one, maximum of two sites please. Comment away or email me.

To satisfy you.... a couple from our Father's Day trip to Onna and north.

A quick stop by the big pigs and bull on the side of 58 in Yomitan.

Which also yielded the answer to the "who's the big papa pig?" question. Yeesh!

Some amazingly bright flowers.
And a gorgeous cape. (Manza-mo: Cape Manza) - see the little teeny people on the cliff? For scale of course.
I love this one of Mia. Even though she's wearing her HS Musical watch from the prize machine at the bowling alley. Yeesh.

I'm Back. I Think.

2009-06-22T16:01:00.004+09:00

HI THERE. Is anyone still here? Anyone? Bueller? (crickets chirping....)

I am. Still here that is. And Craig misses my blogging. So for him, I'm going to make a valiant effort to do more personal blogging this summer. (And hopefully for one or two of YOU, readers.)

First up - a video of something pretty dern cool. From the children's museum next to the Okinawa Zoo. VIDEO.....

And for Mia & Staci (Mia's BEST friend in 1st grade, who just moved back to the states) it was a last day to hang out together. It was super fun for me too, Tiffany!

The girls playing in the costume room...

little chair

BIG CHAIR

giant donut & tea next to giant chairall the kids in the giant chair
learning about air pressure
Mia & Staci's last great hug :(

and all the kids on the koala bears at the zoo entrance.

Amazing father's day shots soon - we took a road trip. It's hot. Super hot. But we're hoping to hit Hawaii this summer via Space A. Cross your fingers! We're dying to go. I've missed this! Back soon....

Mia Quote

2009-02-27T16:02:00.002+09:00

(I know, it's been forever. I'll post some Thailand photos soon. But this one had to be blogged.)

Mia: Today at school was fun. We had a substitute teacher.
Mom: Oh yeah? How'd that go?
Mia: He was cool. His name was kinda funny.
Mom: What was it?
Mia: Mr. Hyman! (grins & giggles) Isn't that FUNNY?
Mom: What's funny about that name? (Stifling a laugh and slightly amazed.)
Mia: Mr. Hyman. Like, "HI, Man!" Haha! Isn't that funny?
Mom: Yes. Very funny. You have no idea how funny.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2008-12-26T13:41:00.001+09:00

Mia at the Yomitan Starbucks

2008-12-18T16:55:00.002+09:00

Photos taken by Craig, edited and compiled by Aviva. Funny faces provided by Mia. (Who also has a very loose top tooth as you might notice due to the much larger gap in her mouth.)

More Mia Goodness...

2008-12-18T13:35:00.003+09:00

About 10 days ago, Mia missed the bus. First time ever. I was convinced it must have left early because I send her outside in plenty of time to get there - the bus leaves at 8:15. She came back in the door at 8:17 and said she had missed the bus. WHAT? That bus must have left early.

"Did you even SEE the bus?" I asked as I pulled on pants and shoes to drive her to school.
"No, it was gone."
"Were there grown-ups still standing at the bus stop? Did they tell you the bus left?"
"Yeah, Pierce's mom told me it was gone."

I was still confused because she was back so soon after the bus should've left - so I guessed it had left early and drove her to school.

This morning Craig was getting ready and Mia was about to eat cereal, and Craig said, "Oh - did Mia tell you why she missed the bus that day??"

You can imagine the expression on my face.

"Yeah - there were some Japanese tourists out there that wanted to take her picture. They asked her and she said, "Hai!" and was busy being a little paparazzi hound for the tourists. That's why." He turns to Mia, "Sorry I dimed ya out, kid."

She looked at me and grinned sheepishly and let a little laugh out.. like, it's all good, right? Bygones....

I admit, it was hard not to laugh. But next time, she's gonna walk to school on her own. Gotta love living in a hotel!

Heard This Past Weekend

2008-12-16T08:48:00.001+09:00

Craig: Mia, why are you such a slow eater?
Mia: Daddy... I'm not a slow eater, you just need to be more patient.

Mia Playing Piano

2008-12-13T22:44:00.002+09:00

I'm quite sure we'll do better, but here is a preliminary short video from the 5D Mark II of Mia playing piano. (Which frankly is just as impressive.)

I miss my blog. I will return...

So Very Thankful

2008-11-28T16:59:00.011+09:00

Hi, gang. I'm hoping you'll let me slide this blog back on like a comfy sweater from last winter.... ok? Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in Oki. And I celebrated with local family, much as we did last year. The Neatherys have left to move back to the states, but life does go on. We celebrated at Val & Cat's house down at the end of our block. No - not two women who live together, two families who live next door to each other and have taken out the glass panel between their balconies so that we can roam freely between TWO apartments! Killer setup for a big party with 4 little kiddos.

First, a shot of our kiddo before we left the house. She's playing on my iPhone - a fishing game. How long-legged and giant is she now? I can't believe this is my kid.
I made stuffing, a home-made (no cans) green bean casserole, and my famous fruit coffee cake. We headed to Val's and as we entered, the smell of the perfectly cooked turkey wafted up my nose and made me giddy. Here she is carving. I don't THINK I drooled on the turkey. Too much.
I looked over and saw Guiness, their dog, watching closely for a dropped morsel.
Kinda brought back memories from 2006 at the Kollegian home in Carmel Valley...

Chris popped open some champagne.... gotta love that.

Sweet nectar...
The hors-douvers spread... and some coconut/butterscotch/chocolate bars. Who says you can't start with dessert?
The ladies...
(Myself, Cat, Val - Val is the one I went to Kyoto with.)

The guys - Craig and Nate (Cat's hubby). And Val in the background grinning while carving.
Maddie (AKA "Wormy") running into Cat's apartment through the open balcony.
The spread...
And THE TURKEY. Mmmmm.... I can still taste the juicy goodness....
Hostess #2, Cat. (She made crazy awesome mashed potatoes, a leg of lamb - she's Australian - and apple pie among other things...) Isn't she a classic beauty?
Her daughter, Victoria, in Tinkerbelle regalia.
And Guinn-Dog. Wearing a St. Patrick's necklace, if you can spot the green. He is a sweet & handsome devil.
After the feast (they made me put down my camera while I ate...), the ladies all grabbed their cameras. There is a REASON the three of us work so well together. HELLO - Canon 5D..
And Canon 40D... (and possibly one of my favorite portraits of you, Val... even though there's a camera in your face)
Some fruits of our after-dinner-shoot-out. George, Cat's other kiddo:
Wormy girl:

And of course, my kid being a goofball with Victoria.
Last one - I felt I had to make up for lost weeks of photos... This is just so sweet!
All the photos are here. Hope your holiday was happy!!

233rd Marine Corps Birthday Ball

2008-11-13T22:53:00.004+09:00

Thanks, Val - for sitting for Mia and for taking a couple of photos. The results were good - I just am not sure when I started growing neck fat. Anyway... the kid hopped in this one, and my hair was a little less crazy due to the tornado-like winds on our roof!

My hubby was oh so handsome and much more comfy in his new mess dress. That made for a better night all around!

Here's a quick shot of my friend Sarah and I getting our groove on. She's good people, and she's leaving me in January. Sniff.

I know. Bad blogger. Very very BAD. I have so much to update here, and never any time. I'm going to Kyoto in a couple of days and hope to share photos with you of the amazing fall foliage and maybe catch a glimpse of a geisha. Here's hoping! (Heck - here's hoping I can post Mia's birthday photos from OCTOBER, hello!)

Commence throwing rotten produce. I still love you.

LOVE this.

2008-11-09T17:17:00.005+09:00

Thank you Creme de la Mode - for this funness...

Make your own MUPPET!

That might even be worth $90...

YES WE DID

2008-11-05T14:09:00.000+09:00

Construction Worker

2008-10-29T07:37:00.004+09:00

Just THINK how much money we'd save if we stopped paying that one guy to wave traffic by. If we just made these guys:
His right arm swings back and forth with a light on the end so that from a little way back you can see there's a lane closure ahead. I'd bet his arm never gets tired!

Thanks to Val for the photograph; I was driving.

Because the Lizaldes Deserve Their Own Post

2008-10-20T15:26:00.001+09:00

I linked this in the last post, but HERE is the post about the event from Edith herself.

We are always thinking about you 3 - MWAH MWAH MWAH!

This blog gets neglected...

2008-10-15T12:38:00.005+09:00

when things get busy. Sorry.

I have photos of a pottery village trip, the incredible Naha tug-of-war, and some amazing dive shots from my trip to the keramas. But right now, I'm working on the stuff I get paid to do - and my paying clients would be less than thrilled if I didn't have their stuff done on time so that I could be posting my personal stuff.

It's coming! Promise! While you wait... 2 stories.

I just had to call the housing agency to have a maintenance person come out. He came today to fix a broken drawer and look at a couple of things. When he was finished, he commented on our piano. I asked, "Do you play?"
"Skoshi..." (a little).
"Please, sit!" I turned on our digital piano - which, I might add, even this guy agreed was pretty good for a digital jobber.

He just played me the most gorgeous song, almost without error. Wow! Now that's not something that would ONLY happen in Okinawa - but it's rather unusual to have a housing maintenance guy sit and play an intricate Japanese song for you on your piano.

The second story - Mia of course. She is miss INDEPENDENT now, and walks to the bus on her own in the morning and then home again in the afternoon. It's about 1 1/2 blocks up the road, and it's really not a big deal - but last week it was raining one day and I went to grab her. She got off the bus with a scowl, and said, "Why are you HERE?" Uh - because I figured I'd bring a raincoat for ya so you wouldn't get soaked. You're welcome! Jeez.

So a couple of nights later, Craig remembered what happened and said, "Mia - why don't you want Mommy to come to the bus stop to pick you up sometimes? You used to love that."

She thought for a minute and said, "Well - because I can do it myself. And I can do stuff I can't do with you when you walk with me."

"Like what?"

"Well.... " long pause, "Like petting the doggies and kitties on the way home." (Dogs, whatever, but the ferile cats out there?! Yikes. But hey, she was honest, right? We got a good laugh out of it.) Thankfully the cats mostly run off before she can reach them anyway.

Ok, I had enough time to edit photos from the dive trip.

And I wanted to share this story on Athena's blog. She's a photographer in Hawaii (a very talented one and you should call her if you're there because she rocks) and she helped us do something very special for a very special friend. I can't wait to hear Edith's take. Thanks, Athena!!

Have a great day - PHOTOS SOON - I'm not going to promise, because I have FOUR shoots to edit for work and my personal stuff comes last - but you know, soon. And I just planned a 3-day trip with a girlfriend to KYOTO in November for changing leaves. I can't WAIT!

Bear With Me - I Must Confess...

2008-10-07T20:58:00.003+09:00

What a night. You get to read the story. Because I feel like it will somehow help (yep, selfish).

Last month at the OIWC meeting, the Japanese side board President invited the group to a concert being held in October. A Russian Orchestra. I was intrigued and interested. I really wanted to take Mia and Craig and also thought of my friend Annya since she is Russian, but it ended up that didn't work out (not really part of the story). Point is - YES YES I WANT TO GO! I signed up for 5 tickets. Besides - they were FREE!

Yesterday was the OIWC monthly luncheon, and a woman came and found me with an envelope with my 5 blue tickets. But Annya and her family had hopped a flight to mainland and I needed to give away two tickets. So I called my friend Elizabeth. She and her hubby are kidless, and that way we could all go without needing another ticket. She & her hubby were into it! YAY! Going to a concert, how fun. So this morning I gave her the tickets, and we talked about what to wear and when to be there - it was down in Naha at 7, so we were going to leave early. As it turns out, it was a really windy & rainy night - so it was a good thing we had that plan.

I gave her directions and we said we'd call when we were close. We left our house a little bit before 6. As we were about to get on the expressway, Ebeth called me. "We passed the exit on the expressway and now we're lost." They had a map, I had a map, and we tried to figure out the situation. But she hadn't eaten and was thinking they might need to stop for food. But they didn't want to be late. At about 6:30 we had gotten off the expressway at our exit and were in parking lot traffic. UGH.

So now Ebeth is calling me with her tales of woe about being lost. And just a little side note folks... being lost in Okinawa at night in the rain is horrendous. You don't know what direction you're going, ALL THE SIGNS ARE IN JAPANESE, and the routes aren't marked and you can't really stop and ask for directions. I took pity on her and held my map as Craig sat in the driver's seat - butt aching from sitting in traffic. Mia had a book and a new book light (thanks, Grandma!) so she was set thank goodness, but now it's 6:45 and she's getting antsy (aren't we all).

Finally things were looking up. I could tell from our map & where we were driving that we were close. Ebeth & Dean had finally FOUND 330 and were headed in almost the right direction - they'd passed their destination but they were going to turn around. We were both STILL in awful traffic, I might add. Now Mia's whining, Craig is squirming and saying things like, "This had better be awesome..." and we FINALLY see what we're looking for! The Naha Civic Hall! Like a beacon in the night.

"TURN HERE, Babe! This is IT!" I'm on the phone with Ebeth when we find it and as we can't see where to go to park, I tell her, "I'll call you back - just turn around and make a left on 222!"

Suddenly I realize. It's dark. NOBODY is driving around the hall. There's lots of traffic, but there are no people at all by this thing... what gives? Then Craig asks, "Are you sure it's tonight?" I pull my tickets from my purse.

"Yeah - tonight's the 6th!"

"It's the 7th."

Wow. I've never been quite so sorry that my daughter was in the car. Maybe it was a blessing because I would've woven a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know would still be hanging in space over Lake Michigan. I picked up my cell phone.

"Yeesssssssss?"
"Ebeth. You're gonna hate me."
"Oh no...what?!?!"
"It was last night."
"No! You're lying! No it wasn't!"
Then Dean starts saying, no, screaming exactly what I wanted to say in the background. They have skipped dinner and spent the last hour and a half LOST for heaven's sake!

I felt awful. Still do. I am filling out an I'm Sorry ecard in addition to the mea culpa here in print. I suck. And the worst part is - besides having to drive HOME in that same traffic - that my husband and kid, dressed nicely and dealing with the forever ride for the payoff and I - we didn't get to see the show. And it's not like it's tomorrow- it's over.

So - don't shed a tear. Go ahead and laugh at me. But I am definitely bummed and sorry. And very happy that this is NOT typical of Aviva. Never ever again!

Don't Vote.

2008-10-03T10:46:00.002+09:00

Ok - I know it's UK YouTube - but I couldn't figure out how to make the stupid thing come up in ENGLISH on my Japanese IP computer.

PLEASE VOTE. This is funny.

We Interrupt This Blog For A Rainbow Photo...

2008-09-25T08:26:00.003+09:00

The NEXT post will have the rest of the photos from our trip up north.

This morning I was on my way home from the gym and saw the biggest brightest rainbow I'd ever seen. It had gotten significantly lamer by the time I ran upstairs and ran back down with my camera, but I felt the need to capture the rainbow - and with it, the amazing mural that Derek painted on the sea wall the day before the Neathery fam PCSed.

Thanks for leaving us with this masterpiece, Derek.... this won't be the last photo I take of your work of art. I already have some creative ideas...

Hi There, I'm Aviva!

2008-09-24T07:46:00.007+09:00

Yeah, I figured you thought I'd forgotten about this blog - but I haven't! Bear with me.

Catch up time - things are good. Busy with work. Craig's fine. Mia's working hard in school and playing piano, I'm thinking she might try out for swim team but not if she isn't into it. We're using weekends to do some exploring despite the fact that it's still hot as blazes outside. But when the typhoon winds aren't blowing, it makes for amazing skies... as you can see from our recent trip up north to Hiro's Coffee Farm!
About 1 1/2 hours' drive north is this little gem. I read about it on Okinawa Hai! and had to see for myself. What a hidden little paradise for the coffee lovers!

What.... I said farm, right? There were chickens. Mia was fascinated. This guy was just hanging out under our table. Very friendly, even when Mia decided to pet it.

Now just MENTIONING Mia petting chickens reminded me of this:

Pardon the quality - they're screen shots from an album on Kodak gallery from October of 2004 at Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center (aka "Nate's Butt Farm"). That is Mia. Carrying a chicken. A poor defenseless small and fuzzy chicken. Who, surprisingly, did NOT peck her eyes out. Many of you reading this blog didn't know Mia when she was 3, so here she was - in all her long-haired cuteness.

Onward to Mia (and BOTH Craig and I!) in the present day! Enjoying our time at Hiro's Coffee Farm. Hiro himself took this shot - he offered, and as he took my camera he lifted it with a surprised face and said, "Whoa, big camera." No kidding.

We got macro tubes. For those who don't know, these are cylinders that attach between the camera body and the lens that extend your focal length. It allows you to focus in to details of things MUCH closer (like flowers, bugs, water droplets...) - so we experimented, and I think these are quite nice.

One of my favorite flowers - particularly for its incredibly delicious smell - the plumeria.

Of course the Hibiscus.

And some bouganvilla.
Here's the kid with her dad. She enjoyed a couple of cookies and an OJ while we downed a fantastic mug of iced coffee. (as you can see here, Craig's is already empty)
The inside ceiling was lined in burlap coffee bags.
Here's the menu. We knew to bring a cooler with lunch food because there's not much food on the menu here... but that was quite alright with us. Mmmmm...

We bought a small bag of freshly roasted beans from Hiro, and he brought it in this cute paper sack. Craig snapped this interesting shot, I'm pointing out a photo in a magazine to Mia in the background.
This is a milk canister as far as I can tell (or cream). I just thought it was cool.
Here are some young seedlings. Hiro told us that the 1000 plants he harvests from on his farm are 20 years old.
Here are some new young beans on a 10-year-old plant:
Neat, huh? And here is Hiro with Mia & Craig. What a sweet man, very appreciative - and definitely doing some good business. By the way, we tried the coffee this morning - and it's fantastic. Though the atmosphere up north while sipping iced java on a hot day is EVEN better.

A few more photos from the nearby beach to come - soon, I promise - more of Mia (for you, Mom) because I know it has been a while!

It's Getting A Little Sad Outside...

2008-09-12T16:49:00.002+09:00

The Neathermove has been happening all day. (Here you go, Kenny - a visual!)

It's all a bit too real. They'd better be seriously ready for me to be using my Vonage line to call them while they're in the states. Hopefully I'll remember the time difference. And yeah, their stuff is filling those trucks. It's amazing watching Japanese movers work. I'm rather bummed I missed them carrying the mammoth dining room table down the stairs.

No typhoon... SIGH. Some wind, some rain. I'm hoping we see more rain.

Off to get some cleaning supplies, not sure what's up tonight. Our plans were canceled because of the possible typhoon. Maybe some Wii bowling is in order....

I Couldn't Forget

2008-09-12T08:28:00.003+09:00

It's 9/12 in Okinawa now. But still 9/11 in the states - most importantly in NY and VA. I recalled my experience on 9/11 with my mother on the phone yesterday and she recalled hers. My folks live in NJ, my father works in NYC.

Seven years ago (wow... seven years) I was 9 months pregnant, living in Escondido, bummed I'd be missing my brother's wedding in NJ because I couldn't fly out for it, and waking up and making breakfast. I turned on the television and for some weird reason it was on Univision, the Spanish channel. So when it came on, I saw the image of a tower on fire - but with Spanish words & subtitles going I thought it was a new movie promo.... sadly, that was not the case.

As I changed the channel and it started to register, my phone rang. It was my mom's best friend calling from Calabasas, CA. "Your mom & dad are fine - but you won't be able to get through on the phone for a while most likely..." and it all started to register as I watched plane #2 go into the second tower live on TV. I'll never forget that moment. Neither will my poor father, who watched it from his workplace window across town in NYC.

I'm thankful that those of the people I know in my home state and in the DC area (my brother-in-law had a meeting at the Pentagon that day) are all well. There are stories, but they have happy endings. Many don't. Nobody can forget that day - that day where we all gathered around our televisions with tears in our eyes with the realization that things would never be the same. Certainly for our military family. And for my then unborn baby.

A lot of memorials and truces are called in the US today, including a day off of campaigning for our Presidential candidates. As my friend Nick aptly put it, "Some might see these yearly memorials as sappy. I sure hope not. I, for one, am still angry. It still pains me. I truly hope that we never forget. I know I never will. "

Wa Wa WAAAAAA....

2008-09-11T08:17:00.002+09:00

(meant to sound like that trumpet of disappointment)

The bad news is we will probably get some wind and rain, but not a direct hit from a typhoon. The GOOD news is, maybe tomorrow's photo shoot is still on! And maybe we won't be locked in our house so I can still have a fun weekend. Maybe.

But seriously, you'd think the worst storm in history was going to hit if you saw the commissary yesterday - dang, people. You might get stuck at home for a day.... not a month. And if you're power goes out it won't be for long. Just charge up the cell phones, the PSPs and DSes and chill - we live in the concrete jungle, we'll be ok.

I'm disappointed. Oh well.

Nothing For A Year

2008-09-09T14:12:00.003+09:00

...and today I get 5 emails and a phone call about this:

Potential category 3 on Friday... HA. Of course, on the weekend. DOH. I can't help but think my "I DON'T THINK..." in this post had something to do with this....

Jon Stewart... My Boyfriend

2008-09-06T07:24:00.002+09:00

BRILLIANT!!!

Hi there, Stranger.

2008-09-04T19:44:00.005+09:00

Well - the biz has launched. And thankfully between that and some other commitments - I'm busy. But I miss blogging, dangit! So here I am. There WILL be photos of a recent trip up waaaaay north with 3 new photog friends. We had a very good time and I'm happy to say that with the 2nd of a few photog friends leaving this week (sniff), and a 3rd on her way in December - I'm VERY happy to find others I'm having fun shooting with.

So. More on that when I get to editing those photos after the paid stuff is done. (My priorities are in the right place.)

I saw something on Jasmine Star's blog that made me want to give it a shot. Humor me. (The stuff in caps is there, but I fill in the rest.)

I AM … a thirty-something mom, wife, daughter, and friend.
I WANT… a healthy family and an endless supply of sushi.
I HAVE … an adoring amazing hubby and a kid, parents, and friends that support me and love me. I'm lucky.
I KEEP … sentimental crap that I should probably throw away. Sigh.
I WISH I COULD … fly. Wouldn't that be cool? Or just put more hours in a day - or make it so that eating everything you wanted wouldn't make you gain a pound. I'm working on that.
I HATE … mean people.
I FEAR … large hairy spiders and death. I don't want to die before I can enjoy every bit of this life.
I HEAR … my husband playing the drums with his fingers and my daughter reading out loud.
I DON’T THINK … we're going to get a typhoon this year. (HA, see? I want one so I figured I'd make that prediction.)
I REGRET … not having more time with my grandparents.
I LOVE …so many things... the smell of Mia's hair and how it feels to hug her, being in my husbands arms, going out to eat with my family or friends and laughing and talking and laughing. And I love taking pictures.
I AM NOT … a reader. I want to be. But I'm a skimmer now - I don't have the patience. I miss books.
I DANCE … when great 80's or 90's music comes on and makes me think of high school and college days.
I SING … in the car. All the time. And every other chance I get.
I NEVER … thought I'd be living in Okinawa!
I RARELY … exercise. But that's about to change (more on that later).
I CRY WHEN I WATCH … ok, this list is very long - any sad movie, long distance commercial, my kid do something grown-up, weddings, babies being born....
I AM NOT ALWAYS … good at being politically correct and sensitive. I have strong opinions.
I HATE THAT … time is going by so fast I feel like it's zooming. Stop!
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … investments. I want to be a grown-up, but I don't know anything about the stock market or mutual funds or any of that. Thankfully Craig does.
I NEED … (technically food, water, sleep and that's it... but, it's ME we're talking about) a Canon fisheye lens, about 5 more hours in a day, more live music, a bigger external hard drive, and a clothes shopping spree.
I SHOULD … spend more time playing with Mia. When I do it - I love it.

Well, that was fun. Try it if you like.

In other news, Craig shaved his head. He said he'll let me take a picture tomorrow. I'm NOT used to it, and I hope he'll grow back what little there was. It's surprising that shaving off a small amount of hair makes that much of a difference in the way he looks.

He told me over the phone, and I didn't tell Mia - so when he walked in the door from work and took off his cover I heard, (........silence) "What happened to your hair, buddy?!?" Who IS this kid?!

Keramas Dive

2008-09-01T21:12:00.004+09:00

What a great holiday weekend topped off with a trip to the Keramas for three dives. WOW. There's really not much more to say.

Just some to SHOW....

There are more, but I MUST SLEEP.

Anne being zen at the bottom of the ocean.

I borrowed my new buddy Val's Canon PowerShot with its dive case, and had a bit of photographer fun under the water today! (I'm SO getting one now. With a flash diffuser - that would've made a huge difference.) Here are some clown fish protecting their anemone. (LOTS of that going on down there...)

Lots of giant clams to see.
How many clown fish do you count?
Do you see it? look closely and you can see its EYE.....
It was a really large octopus! I was rather impressed with myself for spotting this one.

One of my buddies, Kicker, found this little moray and played with him for a moment.
But - on the 3rd and last dive, I had one of my dreams come true. I swam with CRUSH! (aka, a giant sea turtle) Here's Anne having a look and a pet - they were so docile and really didn't care that we were there.

Anne's camera (the new waterproof to 10m Olympus point & shoot with a case that has a flash diffuser) is amazing and she got some mind-blowing shots today!

Not the least of which was this one. Which will definitely be framed on my wall. THANKS, Anne! And thanks for an amaaaaaaazing dive day, Kicker, Snuff, Brandon, Karen, Anne & Derek.

Reader Mailbag!

2008-08-26T07:51:00.004+09:00

So... I'd heard this rumor. There were people saying you could save LOTS of money by living in Okinawa. And today I got a comment on the blog from Ms. Lowe...

"So hey, i'm a marine wife and we are about to have to make a decision about where we wanna be stationed. i found your blog and wanted to ask you some questions. rumor has it that there's mad cash to be made or to be SAVED with cola and housing allowance. just wanna know what you think and if you have any advice bout whether or not we should choose japan. email me...
Thanks!"

I thought this deserved a public answer because she is not the first person to email me asking about being stationed here. And she's not the first person to think there's "mad cash to be made or to be SAVED". Don't believe the hype! But the benefits are a'plenty - so read on for my response if you'd like.

Hi there, Jesslyn!

Just got your comment on my blog, and I'm not sure how the rumor got started - but Japan is very expensive. Coming here you will save money if you're a clothes shopping addict (not much to be found here except online!) or if you live on base and eat mac & cheese all day. However, if you plan to live out in town you do not get the difference between your housing allowance and what you pay for rent (which sure isn't much anyway) and all summer long your electric bills take up all of your utility allowance in this very hot and humid tropical place. COLA isn't nearly enough - and we're still waiting for the latest survey to kick in. (side note: Does ANYONE know when that's supposed to be settled for heaven's sake? We took the survey in March!) Produce is ridiculously expensive and must be bought out in town because the commissary stuff is pretty terrible (and even more expensive than in town).

Also, if you're a dual-income family, likelihood is, unless you're a certified teacher and willing to go through DODDS applications, or a dual active duty family - you (as the spouse) will either not work or make very little money if you do. So you're down one income. (That's what happened to us.)

Also - do you plan to travel? Well- no savings to be had if you want to take flights anywhere from here (that is definitely the most expensive part) unless you do all space A, and that is a hassle. Even then you're still going to pay for hotels, food, etc. - so vacations cost money.

Now - that being said, it DOES depend on your husband's rank. (you could save/make more if he's more senior in the service.) But coming here - the decision shouldn't be made based on "saving mad money". It should be based on the experience.

You learn about foreign cultures, you dive in some of the bluest clearest waters with some of the most incredible sea life, you eat exotic foods and learn to shop in a Japanese grocery store for things like yuzu cha and onigiri. Your children learn Japanese and get to snorkel in those same waters, and they visit WWII battle sites and Ryuku Castle ruins...and it's an incomparable experience for them! You take shorter flights to visit Vietnam, Cambodia, mainland Japan, Thailand, China, and so many other incredible places. You make friends with some of the most interesting and fun people you'll ever meet. You live in a 1950's style neighborhood where everyone knows each other, takes care of each other, and helps each other - and you can let your child go to the restroom or bike to the park with friends or -gasp- ALONE. It's totally what you make of it.

Come to Okinawa for the experience and adventure of a lifetime - not to save money. Honestly, as a military family, the best way to stash cash is for your husband to go to Iraq for 6 months or more. But having been through that three times - it wasn't worth it to us. (Thankfully, my hubby won't deploy from here... knocking like mad on the desk as I type...) Okinawa is priceless.

Hope that helps :) And you know what? I'm going to post this on the blog, because I do get a lot of emails asking about the money situation here.

Thanks for the question, and thanks for reading, Jesslyn!

First Day Of First Grade

2008-08-25T19:38:00.005+09:00

Well, today was the first day of first grade for Mia. She handled it with the independence and general sassiness we expect from her. No, she did NOT need me to drive her to school on the first day because she will take the bus - and she PROMISES to tell me ALL about it, so don't worry. Ok then.

A quick flashback to one year ago. On the left, first day of kindergarten. On the right, well - darned near adulthood.

A much larger and more weighed-down backpack, that's for sure - REAL school supplies. We read and write now. And no more of that extra underwear business (though I still feel I must TELL her to pee when she's dancing).

I picked her up from the bus stop and was eager to hear about her day. She was sitting next to a very nice new girl on the bus (new to Okinawa, anyway) and they seemed to have had a lovely ride home. The bus was quite late, but I would imagine most kids had no clue which bus they belonged on at the end of their first day.

We walked home and I grilled her, and she gave up some good info; she had a Japanese class, and will be having that class once a week. She had reading time, and NO naptime, and recess on a NEW playground with SWINGS and many of her friends from last year.They read a book about the first day of school, and something about toads and lizards, and she's at seat #2 and she handed me her folder that contained a pretty extensive homework calendar among other things.

We were walking in the door and after talking about her day she said, "There was a lot of work. All day was work work work. Even in our free time we have to read or write! I like kindergarten."

Did you hear that? That creak.... the door to REAL SCHOOL has now been opened. Welcome to the world, Mia. It isn't all naptime and playing dress-up. But Mama's here for you - we can still do that stuff at home.

The Okinawa International Women's Club

2008-08-25T15:07:00.003+09:00

I hope you'll check out the post I contributed at Okinawa Hai concerning the amazing local group, the OIWC. Please consider coming to the welcome coffee this Wednesday if you're here and looking for a way to donate a little time and have a lot of fun! I hope to see or meet you there.

Night At Plaza Pool

2008-08-24T14:05:00.005+09:00

I was on my way to join Mia and Craig at the Plaza Housing Pool on base here for a night-time pool party some friends were having. The phone rang.

"Mama!"
"Hi, baby, what's up?"
"Are you coming? You have to go in the POOL with me because I can't go in the big pool without you!"
"What? Why?"
"There's a TEST!"
"So take the test."
"You have to be 10 years old to take the test Dada said!"
"Put your father on the phone...."

I established with him that there's no age limit on the test, and she's perfectly capable of passing it as a level 4 swimmer; ahem.

I arrived at the party with my camera and after saying hi to the adults, I spotted Mia in the pool.
I asked Craig if she got some kind of sympathy vote, and he said, "Nope. She took the test, passed it, and now she's welcome to do whatever she wants in there." My confident kid jumped right in - swam the LENGTH of the pool (not across, the length - this is a big pool.) and floated for a minute and tread water for a minute. Now she has a bracelet to wear at any of the USMC base pools.

You can see her bracelet and her still fantastic diving form here:

It was pitch black outside, the pool itself was lit underwater, but the outside lighting made for some interesting exposures here... so bear with me at ISO 3200 and 50mm at f1.2 for this stuff. (if you care... if not, move along)

I was pretty impressed at the stopped action here.

Much more light when she was under water. Look at my little fishie!

Hello there.... Dara, eat your heart out!

It's too bad she hates swimming. Torture, I tell you. They literally turned off all the lights when it was time to get out and 9 and the kid was STILL whining about having to leave.

Side note - there were a few corpsman on the sidelines of the pool, not swimming. I asked why and they said, "Small pox." They had been vaccinated that day for an upcoming Iraq deployment. Seriously. They STILL think we're going to get small pox in Iraq? Annoying. And just plain unfair. But thanks to you guys - for staying out of the pool and for your service. I appreciate it.

Emerald Beach & Pizza in the Sky

2008-08-23T16:44:00.004+09:00

On a whim last weekend, we trekked up to Emerald Beach. It's just north of the Churaumi Aquarium, and it's a gorgeous and friendly spot. (I blogged about the folks we met on the photography blog - too funny!)

I mean really. It's quiet, secluded - we paid 500¥ to rent a beach umbrella like this one and relaxed all afternoon.

Then we drove up a really big hill, through turns and twists I can't even explain - I think we turned around about 4 times because we said, "There's NO WAY this could be right.... look at this little street!"

Then we spotted some Y-plates and said, "FOLLOW THEM!" At the top of the hill, after parking and then coming around the corner and putting your name in at the front stand, you walk past the outdoor tables and see this.
Sesoko Island is there in the distance with the bridge, if you can see it. Obviously we know why this is referred to as "Pizza in the Sky". Gorgeous.

We sat with some friends and the couples they had arrived with - there were a good bunch of us, with a good bunch of kids. This is the menu:

Don't you just love that? And by the way... it's not kinds of pizza - it's just PIZZA. You get what they give you, in a small or medium pie. Done.

I ordered a guava juice for Mia - and it came in a glass cube.

Mmmm... this is the scrumptious salad. It was GOOD. Though we made the mistake of ordering one each (for Craig & I) and should've shared one!

Now tell me... wouldn't the world be a better place if iced tea were served with a little pinch-pot with tiny flowers and its own bingata place mat on this tray? More examples of Japanese presentation. So lovely (and yes, they laughed at me for taking a photo of it - but I mean really, look at it!).

Pizza. The rounds were somewhere between a hot dog and a sausage. Green pepper, corn (Of course - something about Japan is that pizza has corn on it. It just does.) and delicious sauce and cheese - wow. We ate too much.
In the evening while on our way back the sun began to set. And wow - it was a crying shame we couldn't pull over when we saw it go all the way down behind the silhouette of the hills and the ocean. It was incredible. But we did stop when we saw the amazing golden light in a marina on our way to the expressway.

There were a couple of guys out there fishing. And I'll tell you, there were fish literally JUMPING in this area. Mia, Craig and I were watching in amazement as rather large fish leapt from the water and splashed back down!

Such a pretty spot, isn't it? I've been meaning to take photos of this - so I was happy when we passed it at just the right time.
Hope you enjoyed this! I'm thinking the next photos you might see here are of Mia's first day of 1st grade.... heaven help me.

End Of Summer Fun

2008-08-21T17:07:00.004+09:00

Hi there! A few things to report to you, wonderful readers who I've neglected quite a bit this summer. This post is about the last day of swim, then I'm doing one on Pizza in the Sky and Emerald Beach if I can finish before having to make dinner.

Due to the fact that I only posted a couple of animated gifs in the last post, I figured I'd give you a better look at the photos from the last day of swim class.

Much to our dismay, though she is a very strong swimmer - Mia is no diver.
Yeah, wow. Look at that form. Even Mia saw this and said, "My legs are supposed to be straight." No duh. However, when I saw Tara's daughter dive in, I felt a bit better about it....
It still cracks me up that my kid points her fingertips toward the water as if the perfect dive is going to happen - and then leaps in feet-first.

She WAS, however, very happy to receive her certificate.
Level 4 is a big jump from level 3. It's goes from 25 minutes to 50 minues, for one thing. And now the kids swim in the lanes. Mia was fine with this as long as it was for backstroke or for flirting with the boy students in the class.

The last day of swim was rather sad for the Camp Adventure swim teachers, most of whom were from Iowa and California. Much like others who are new here, they were amazed at the quality of the toenail art to be found at Cocok - so they took the trip just before returning home.

Eight girls, one guy - Prince Charming. Who struck this pose the moment I had the girls lie down on their tummies for this shot!

A bit bigger version fo the sideways swan dive. This was just so priceless - Prince Charming, you're a hoot!

Last Day of Swim!

2008-08-18T17:18:00.003+09:00

The Camp Adventure staff at the pool on the last day of swim...Haha! how cool is this?

Or this (the princesses all pushed Prince Charming in, and this is what the result was):

Just having a little fun on this site. Thanks, Katherine & Shannan!

A few more from the day are very soon to come. I've been busy and your eyes shall benefit. The calm before the storm! (I hope.)

In Response to Ernie

2008-08-16T14:57:00.003+09:00

So I just saw this bit of hilarity and it reminded me to write about something (this coincidence is a pretty good one too by the way... I can't believe I hadn't blogged this yet and Ernie made a parody of this particular song).

So that song, "I Kissed a Girl" (by Katy Perry - not the much more harmless 1995 Jill Sobule version) is popular right now. It's catchy as all heck and once it's in your head you're singing it for days. Here's the problem.... when you have a 6 1/2-year-old DAUGHTER who's singing it for days, it suddenly becomes horrendously inappropriate. HOW do you explain this? "The taste of her cherry Chapstick," grrr..... I do not need Mia singing this to the masses in her new 1st grade class. At least I was in junior high when "Like a Virgin" came out, and I can't imagine how happy the parents were with Madonna's choices.

We just finished watching So You Think You Can Dance (aforementioned big favorite in this house) and on a recent episode, Katy Perry was on the show singing this song. That was the first time Mia had heard it, and she LOVED it. She has a good musical ear, so within minutes she's jumping around the house singing it "I KISSED A GIRL AND I LIKED IT!" AAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Every so often, hubby has a stroke of genius in the parenting department. Suddenly he decided that if they got creative with the lyrics it would be really funny. Thus ensued, "Mommy kissed a horse and she liked it!" And, "Mia ate a cicada and she liked it!" (Yeah, 3 syllables, so what? We made it work.) Whew. Crisis averted. And her creativity is pretty good really.

I think Craig was quite proud of himeslf. Until her retort was, "Daddy kissed a boy and he liked it..."

Reminiscing

2008-08-15T05:35:00.007+09:00

My 20-year-reunion will be next year. I graduated in June of 1989. That is insane. I look in the mirror and SEE that girl, that 18-year-old wanna-be artist or interior designer girl who sang in a band and was voted "Most Musical" and had signatures in her yearbook that said, "Sign your album for me when you're famous!" Seriously. What a long way I've come.

Instead, my artistic side has taken on something different, 20 years later. Photography. It's actually a quite excellent marriage of my techie skills and my artistic skills due to the fact that the camera and all this web stuff requires (or at least benefits from) some geekdom, which I possess.

Anyway, my upcoming reunion has fostered a frenzy of finding the over 700 people I graduated with. That's a lot of people to locate 20 years later in a world where - well, one could be in Okinawa, Japan instead of East Brunswick, NJ! A friend of mine from high school, Kim, has spearheaded the efforts to find our classmates via Facebook. I wasn't a HUGE fan of Facebook until I started finding people. People I really was missing, people I couldn't find in other ways - and it let me find them, message them, share photos with them and see theirs, and despite the silly features where you "poke" or send "flair", it has been REALLY fun! Word games, messages, photos, videos, and friends helping you find other friends - it's GOOD!

So. I have found and stayed in touch with friends I worked with in Georgetown at Sequoia restaurant. I have found college friends galore and lots of other sorority sisters I hadn't contacted in ages. And now, with my 20-year reunion approaching, I've begun to find the OLD friends. The people who I've known since high school, or junior high, or elementary - or before elementary school. Wow.

Now some of you know, I'm a Jersey Girl (well that's not hard to tell). But I'm a Jersey Girl who grew up in the 80's. The hair... oh the hair. Example? Well, MY photos are in storage (ahem) for 3 years or so ... but that girl, Kim - who's organizing our reunion?
(Sorry, Kim... I had to.) This is representative of the day. Oh my, the hair. The sequins. THE MULLET on that guy... poor guy. The fabulous music, "We've Got Tonight" being our prom song. (UGH. Who picked a 1977 song for our prom theme? I liked my semi formal's song from 7th grade, "Forever Young" by Alphaville much better.)

Well, though my photos of this wonderful time are in storage, my mother has class photos from elementary school. And apparently from BEFORE elementary school:
What's crazy is... I can actually NAME some of those people. (whenever anyone thinks our parents are horrible people for dressing us that way, I remind them that it WAS the 70's, and that my mom would say these were my favorite outfits - and my daughter is JUST as stubborn about her very... um, quirky sense of fashion) I've apparently known those people for - gulp - 32 of my 37 years of existence. And I'm now regularly emailing with them, and marveling at THEIR kids. My own is about to start first grade. Oh yes - be afraid. Be very afraid. It happens in a BLINK, people. And before you know it you're staring at the almost-shorty-year-old in the mirror wondering why you still see the college-bound girl who can't fit through the doorway because of her bangs and Aqua-Net nest on her head. And someone puts a picture of it on the INTERNET because isn't it just so nice that we can all find each other again after all these years?

SO this morning, I'm up extra early because my phone rang at 5am. (you can tell because LOOK at the size of this post! I haven't given the blog this much attention since jet lag) I went on Facebook and got a message from Carey, this sweet guy who lived near me and who had the most lovely eyes and was sweet and I'm sure made some girl very happy. He had checked out the blog here and complimented my photography and saw Mia's photo and said how beautiful she was (I get that a lot - Mia will NEVER know.) - so I responded to him because he said, "What have you been up to all these years?" Since, you know, I haven't seen him since 1989. I figured I'd share the better part of the synopsis, for those who care. If you don't - move along. Nothing to see here.

"Hi, Carey! Whew - wow - 20 years almost. Unreal, isn't it? Your kids are adorable, you should put up some more pictures. Thanks so much for the compliment, I finally got back to something artistic when I moved to Okinawa and had the time.

Let's see - quick recap. Went to University of Maryland and lived in the DC area for 9 years. After school did some web development stuff and waited tables (which proved more lucrative at the time). A few friends from college had moved to San Diego and after visiting them I made the decision to move there after falling in love with the area and realizing there wasn't much in Maryland for me besides my friends. (no boyfriend anyway)

In March of 1998 I moved to San Diego and in June I was in a car accident - broke a vertebrae and had 30 staples in my head (yikes).... but my little Honda Del Sol and a seat belt saved my life. I did some work from home for my friend's web development biz and was in chat rooms to stay in touch with long distance friends (the Internet was pretty new in 98, thanks Al, and I didn't have to pay a phone bill that way). In September of 98 I was in a Grateful Dead chat room (yup, went to 25 shows while in college) and met my husband there. Who'd have thought he was a career Marine!? I had found myself the best one. And he had great taste in music too, essential. My friends certainly couldn't believe it, but once they met him they understood.

We were married in May of 2000, had Mia on 10/4/01 (3 weeks after 9/11), I worked in marketing and web development for a credit union for 7 years, and toward the end of his 3rd Iraq deployment (13 months that last time), we were given orders to Okinawa, Japan! You can imagine we didn't think THAT would happen after he'd been in the USMC for 20 years! As soon as I found out he wouldn't deploy to Iraq from here (deal breaker), I thought it'd be an amazing opportunity.

Life sure has changed. I dive, we snorkel together with Mia, I'm starting a photography business, and we have the opportunity to vacation in Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and so many more places it seems 3 years won't be enough (and 1 is gone already!).

So - I've written a novel now. I think I'll put this in my profile somewhere or something! haha.... Tell me about you? What have the past 20 years brought for you? I am truly going to try to make it home for the reunion, but it's very expensive to fly and I like to save the money for the local trips while we're here in Japan (Cambodia might be a bit more exotic than EB... sue me). Will you go?"

So... that's the big question. The reunion will either be July 4th weekend or Thanksgiving Saturday. Both HORRIBLE times to travel, so no - I probably won't do it. But oh my GOSH I do want to. I wish it weren't so far and so expensive and during holiday time, etc. I will stay in touch with many of these folks and maybe have a reunion of our own one day. 25 years? Anyone?

Thanks for listening today. I missed writing here. Hope you enjoyed my LONG ramblings.

This Is So Cool!

2008-08-14T20:46:00.004+09:00

Thanks, Mom.... This is so amazing!

I'm slacking again, I know. The time I get in front of the computer is being used to put together MANY things for the biz. I'll be back soon, I promise!

Mia's last day of swim is tomorrow - sniff - and we're getting haircuts. We'll definitely share some photos of that.

And this week is Obon - a very big deal Okinawan holiday. (you may remember last year's festivities) So I'm certain there will be more interesting things to photograph this year! We will seek it out.

RIP

2008-08-11T08:06:00.004+09:00

We lost two great entertainers this weekend.

Bernie Mac was one very funny guy; I think it's tragic that he died so young at a mere 50 years of age. George Clooney, one of my few boyfriends on the side, was quoted as saying, "The world just got a little less funny. He will be dearly missed."

Isaac Hayes. Wow. 65. Again, too young! I was born in 1971 when Shaft came out; I remember my dad playing that soundtrack on his reel-to-reel TEAC tape player. From the NY Times:
"At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation." (Hey! Bling before bling was COOL!) "TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys."

My memories of Hayes' buttery deep voice go much farther back than his days as Chef on South Park, but what a great comeback that was for him! Rest in peace, Bernie & Isaac. Heaven just got a lot groovier and funnier.

Hi. I LIVE Here.

2008-08-08T22:23:00.005+09:00

First... tonight's lovely rainbow. This is a lousy shot of it - when we got in the car it was the brightest most amazing rainbow I've ever seen. Mia asked what made rainbows... I explained to her about the water droplets and the sun, but realized I should have just said, "It's magic, baby."

Recently I went to Sesoko Island with some girls... It's about an hour & 20 minute drive north, and the whole drive was just so beautiful - I knew it wouldn't disappoint. It WAS hot as blazes out there....and this was taken from the parking spot.

Somehow when you look at THIS:
heat isn't such a huge factor. Besides, my feet were in the water. That felt pretty good (though if it weren't for my camera, I'd have jumped in).

We were walking, and this guy showed up with an octopus ("tako") on a hook! It was still alive, and all of us got to walk up and feel what it was like to have little tentacles suck onto your fingers (it feels rather strange, but very interesting). I like this portrait very much.

On the way back, Anne stopped the van just one more time so I could snap this:
Oh yes - we will be back. In swim suits. With snorkel gear.

This is Mia with her friend (fellow only child and smarty-pants), Grace.

They were swim buds last session, and still will be buddies past the swim class thing as I will be in touch with Grace's mom. Her dad leaves for a YEAR in Afghanistan, and I think we need to be doing girl things together like tea parties and such. Especially since Grace's mom is from England. And I very much enjoy listening to her speak with that crumpets and rubbish accent.

My kid. How did she end up being this cute big girl?
She now swims in the deep end, treads water, "pencil dives" to touch the bottom, and is learning the butterfly stroke, side stroke, and breast stroke. Soon she'll be driving. (NOT)

We love it here. We've been busy, but enjoying our craziness. Friends are leaving, that's not a part we love. But I'm thrilled to have made them and I know we'll see each other very soon. As I live in a time warp on this little island.

Have I mentioned... I'm starting a business? With ITS OWN BLOG too? Yeah. That's insane! I'm excited and petrified all in the same breath. I'm realizing this tiny island grows smaller in the photog community. At Mia's swim lessons I've been speaking to Tara (who is a complete character and I can see that friendship working out very nicely) - and now to other folks who are recognizing me! My 15 minutes has started, everyone! Set your clocks, I hope it can last!

Diving As Of Late

2008-08-04T07:18:00.007+09:00

Thursday I dove with some friends in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. The surf was rough (trust me, my body has the bumps & bruises from the coral to show for it) but oh my was it worth it to go out and see the amazingness! Thanks to Anne for the photos from her awesome Olympus underwater camera! She got a case for it and now the photos are even BETTER (see the last cuttlefish shot - holy cow!).

(I know, these are small - but it's ok - you get the point) Here I am ready to enter the abyss from the Kadena steps:
Here's a photo Derek (Anne's hubby) took the next morning on a dive (this guy is almost neon, isn't he?):

Awesome trigger:
Anne & me - yay!

Flippin' D the birds....
This little clown fish was bathing in the anemone. Cutest thing ever!

Peeking from behind a cool yellow plant.
Under a rock formation, Derek found this HUGE fish (seriously, like 1.5' high) - is it an idol? Does anyone know?

I snapped this one of Derek & Anne with the sunset in the background when we came up. Sweet!
And this masterpiece. Anne took it snorkeling yesterday. Doesn't it just look like this is from a magazine or something? WOW!
Photos of Mia's last day of session 3 swim class to come (she's now in Level IV! She treads water! YAHOO! - first day of level IV is today, so now I'm off to wake her up and make her eat breakfast. Sigh. My big girl!), and also some shots of a trip to Sesoko Island. STUNNING. Can't wait to go back in the water! I'm going to buy a case for my p&s Canon.. over $300, but at least it isn't the $1500 it'd cost for the SLR case. Worth it to have memories of the incredible sea life just outside my door!

Tonight Before Dinner

2008-07-29T19:30:00.004+09:00

Craig was putting away Connect Four after a rousing game with Mia, and saw the Scrabble box in the closet. Some smack-talkin' began, and I asked if he cared to make it interesting. We have a bet going now, and let's just say it's DEFINITELY interesting. We'll see if it happens.

So as I was finishing putting together dinner, and the smack-talking was in full force, he said...

"I will beat you due to my DEVASTATING..... ah....... what's the word......."

"VOCABULARY!"

Spottings In Hawaii In the Small World Category

2008-07-25T07:41:00.002+09:00

So the Turner family moved to Hawaii. As you may know. I'm in touch with Kanoe of course via email as my plan is to go visit. Definitely. More than one family to visit (HI, Edith!)

I got an email from Kanoe yesterday. The house they're renting in Hawaii? It belongs to my neighbor Maggie's aunt.

Kanoe headed to the landlady's house to pay the rent and Maggie happens to be there visiting with Chuck (her hubby) and her two daughters and spotted Ella and recognized her from my photos!

Craig and I about died when we got that email. The world keeps shrinking.

In other news - I'm busy! DUH.

Mia is loving t-ball and swimming, and is also playing piano begrudgingly. I hope she starts getting it soon, I'm tired of being the bad guy when I say, "Time to practice!"

This weekend is full with not one but TWO photo shoots and I can't wait! More to come on that on my photography blog (which I WILL update soon, promise!).

I went snorkeling yesterday with Anne and had such an amazing time we're bringing the kids today! (Wonderful Derek took the kids ALL FIVE OF THEM to t-ball practice, so we had a couple of hours to go play..... oh it was heaven!) Today we'll take their camera that we can use underwater and hopefully I can hook you up with some local snorkeling scenery. Let's just say there were plenty of moorish idols, parrot fish, tangs, clown fish, butterfly fish, wrasses, giant clams, and triggers to name a few. And the coral.... wow.

For The Web Geeks, TV Geeks & Resort Freaks

2008-07-22T12:19:00.008+09:00

If you have no clue what this means, it's ok. I only sort of do. It's our download and upload speeds on fiberoptic cable Internet. Basically... blazin'. Craig said it's yet another reason we're happy to be living here.

I love: So You Think You Can Dance, Swingtown, Mad Men (STARTING UP SOON), and Burn Notice. Please begin watching at least the latter three shows so that they stay on TV. Take my word for it, they're fantastic.

Now - about a 15-minute ride up the road from us starts the "resort" area of Onna. It's gorgeous at this time of year - the sea has jewel tones you never thought existed in nature. But wow, don't get out of the car or you might melt. Unless you're in the water.

We went to the Renaissance Hotel up in Onna this past weekend. Mia and I had been once, we took Craig to show him. he was just as impressed.

In the lobby, there were several resident tropical birds hanging out. This is Pinkie (their names are on plates for us to read in English or Japanese):
Craig calls him the Buckeye Bird now as he is donning Ohio State colors. I think that's cool.

This is Oscar. He has a friend, Charmie who's orange - but I didn't get a good picture of him as he was preening.. very busily. Behind Oscar there's a stairway in the lobby, the bottom is turquoise and has those cool circles underneath it. It's a very pretty and tropical-looking lobby. Occasionally they have a woman on staff making balloon animals for the kids! It's a very happy place.

Mia made a friend, and they insisted in trying to give Pinkie back his feathers. He played along though, it was sweet. The other girl's parents were smiling at them too.... they were cute together.

This is the INDOOR pool. With water slides. Kid heaven. I could just leave Mia there to grow gills, she'd be fine with that.

Outside we wandered around for as long as we could stand it. Those cone-topped buildings sort of reminded me of the Hotel Del...right? To the right of this bridge were enclosures where the dolphins swam. The dolphins you could swim with if you paid enough. They're rescued, and it's an amazing program actually - I hope to do that before I leave Okinawa. (Yes, Mia was going bananas over them.)

We took the glass elevator to the top floor (12th I think?) and at the end of the hall was this. The reflection is unfortunate, but you understand why I'd put this up here. I mean... wow.

Not a postcard. A photo I took from the top floor lounge on the balcony. I hate it here. It's not like being on vacation every day or anything... I mean really. Sigh.
This is the area past the swimming beach where they give sailing lessons, scuba lessons, and they snorkel and dive. It's gorgeous, I'm dying to get out there!

Ok, more soon - I have too many photos and not enough time! nothing new. And many cool stories to share regarding my new friend, Robin. Stay tuned!

Things That Make You Go, "Mmmmm?"

2008-07-18T16:54:00.003+09:00

Every so often (ok, almost every single time) at the grocery stores out in town, you'll pass by a Japanese twist on some American candy creation. As my friend Jen says... the saying in Okinawa is, "Why not?"

Hot soba soup on a 90 degree sticky sub tropical day? Why not?
Garlicky pasta restaurant and an ice cream parlor under one roof? Why not?

Chocolatey KitKat goodness - in watermelon flavor? Why not?

I was intrigued, to say the least. I like chocolate, I like watermelon - how bad could it be? I mean they do have curry-flavored Pringles, and wasabe-flavored Doritos out here.

So I opened the bag, and instantly it smelled of sweet watermelon Jolly Ranchers. These little snacky dudes came out:

What's inside looks like a regular KitKat snack bar, but since there is no smellivison yet - world wide sniff? Monodor... ooh, I like that one - I'll tell you. It's a kit kat that has watermelon flavor in it. I can't describe it, that's just what it is. And it's odd - but yet, still chocolatey enough to be kind of good. Will I buy another bag? Probably not.

Interesting side note - the other day as I was coming upstairs, a homeless man came up to me. He was holding a small bottle of that bright blue Gatorade. He was pointing and asking, "Drinku? Drinku?"

Finally I pieced it together and said, "YES! You drink that, it's ok to drink. Hai."

Honestly - the stuff could be a Windex refill, I mean nothing naturally occurs in that color - and the bottle was in English.

Happy Birthday, Hubby.

2008-07-16T08:57:00.002+09:00

Warning: Mushy post below... if you hate this stuff, move along.

Well, it's still your birthday in the states; as a matter of fact you were born about 15 hours ago, east coast time, at 6am-ish.

It's an age I won't give away here (but most of our friends know what it is.. it rhymes with "shorty") - and I know that for whatever reason this turn of the age odometer has been tough for you. I know the reasons, but I'm in denial because it's only 3 more years away for me and we all know how quickly that will go!

In September of 1998, nearly 10 years ago, we met on the Internet. The www was still quite young at the time, and so were we. You were sweet, funny, had good taste in music, and you were darned good-lookin'. (You still are all of those things and more.)

Since then we've been through a lot, not the least of which were plenty of days enjoying each other in San Diego, San Fransisco, even Mexico...a kick-ass wedding, a delightful honeymoon traveling up the coast of California, the birth of our daughter, three deployments to a war zone for a total of 2 1/2 years spent apart, a couple of fun family vacations, and a move overseas to enjoy our current adventure. We've spent a quarter of our lives together so far. And it has flown by. Except the deployments, of course.

As you eloquently said last night over the birthday carrot cake - I'm "the happiest I've ever been right now". With you, Mia, our amazing time in Okinawa, and the experiences we've had and continue to have.

I'm so happy we're together as a family, and we're all thriving on that. You support and encourage me in so many ways, you've made me a better woman. I love going out and taking photos with you - and even though I whine about it, your opinions and encouragement You are the most amazing man who I respect, admire, learn from, love more than anything - and more each day, and am so lucky and proud to call my husband. My soul mate. The incredible father of our (mostly) perfect child. My better half.

Happy birthday, honey. Here's to at least.. um, shorty more years.

Japanese Shirt

2008-07-16T08:36:00.002+09:00

"Mama.... can I get a Japanese shirt?"

"You mean like you want me to buy you a shirt at a Japanese store, or a shirt with Japanese characters on it?"

"Yeah, one with Japanese writing so that the people can see that I'm saying something nice to them."

(anyone who speaks the language want to come out with me to find a shirt that says something nice in Japanese?)

Buy Me Some Peanuts & Cracker Jack

2008-07-13T16:29:00.005+09:00

Saturday morning, Mia's team - The A's - had their first t-ball game. I had no idea how entertaining and cute this would be. The kids had so much fun.

The rules at this point are a bit more lax; they have about 15 kids on the team, and each kid gets to bat. The ball is on a tee (obviously), and there are no outs counted and no score kept. Until they're 7. At which point, they're back to the regular rules.

What this means is that everyone can bat, which is great. But it also means that every time, the kids in the field are directed to throw the ball they catch to first base. Or home plate, but mostly first base. THAT means all the kids in the outfield and anywhere to the pitcher's right are not seeing any action. At all. In this heat.

So here's Mia at shortstop. Charged to go. Wait a minute.... nothing's coming my way. Ok. Officially bored to yawning.

Mia's first time on base!

Heading in after rounding the bases.

In the dugout cooling off.

Cutest batter EVER.

Hm. Ok. What to do here. (Guy on the left is the head coach - awesome coach. Like him very much.)
We need to work on the power in that swing....
But that girl can RUN.
Hot and sticky in the dugout.

All in all, great game! The kids fielded REALLY well! Mia goes right for the balls - in practice. But yesterday she just didn't get anything coming her way so no chance to practice. Soon enough. She's so happy to be out there.

Dear Swim Program Director...

2008-07-13T14:01:00.003+09:00

My daughter loves her swim lessons. She's happy as a little fish when she gets to swim.

She's made new friends and learned about safety. (This makes Mom & Dad very happy and more confident in her ability to stay safe in the water.)

She got a certificate when she finished level 3, and proudly displayed it at home. Very big accomplishment. It did start to rain really hard during the last day, so the certificate (and the kids) were quite soaked with rain water... but that's ok.

While dancing in the pouring rain, something I love to do as well, I took a few photos as she puddle hopped. How much concern should I have about the fact that there's an electrical wire running through the puddle my child is standing in? Thankfully, she's fine.... but maybe it's time to reconsider the wiring situation near the swimming pool.

(I have to say, I didn't even notice this. I showed these photos to Craig so that he could see that it was pouring cats and dogs because it didn't rain a drop at our house! Craig pointed that out and in hindsight I laughed, but... um, yeah. Wow.)

A Sunset Shot To Tide You Over

2008-07-11T13:11:00.003+09:00

Some great shots from the last swimming day of session II to come... for now, can you even believe this sunset? We sure are lucky.

Did You Feel It???

2008-07-08T17:32:00.001+09:00

6.2 only 100 miles north of us! We were at Mia's soccer practice sitting outside & didn't feel a thing. But Craig had just walked into the house and said the whole building swayed for 15 seconds after the initial BOOM. Kinda bummed I missed it....

Did you feel it?

HAPPY 4TH!

2008-07-05T15:07:00.006+09:00

(This post has been ready for 3 days - but I wanted Craig to approve it so that OPSEC wouldn't get mad at me. Well, he approved.)

We had a great time at the Kadena Air Base AmericaFest! A few from the day (with my point & shoot, so don't go getting all critical. I left the good camera at home. Yes, I was twitching and drooling and heavily made fun of by Kassia and Katherine, fellow photogs I saw there who had their SLRs. But admittedly it felt good to leave it behind and not add another layer of sweat to the camera strap.

The festival was on the flight line, so we drove down the runway to get there. Maybe I'm a big dork, but I thought that was rather cool.
Oh yeah, baby. The Marines were there. (Just look for the old banged-up, I mean - WELL-USED planes and helicopters, and those are Marine planes & helicopters!)

Cool cover for one of the engines.

My golden kid & hubby sitting in the back end of a C-130

Big propeller.

Mia with her best Red Baron face:

One of the Japanese fighter planes:
Mia & I chillin' in the rescue helicopter. Note the killer sky - the colors were beautiful!
Again...hello, sky!

How 'bout those Marines?

Last one - still trying out the seats in the planes - not that exciting. At least not compared to carnival games and fireworks.

Fireworks were good but not fabulous. But we had a great time with lots of friends. Happy 4th to everyone in the states! We're off to the Torii Beach Jazz & Wine Festival tonight; I can't believe when we were there last year we were SO new here!

Now Don't Go Ignoring This Blog...

2008-07-01T21:13:00.002+09:00

...but if you want to see something new, check this out. Stay tuned - can't wait to see what you think!

FYI - before anyone who reads this gets any ideas - I'm launching in September!

I Slack... Therefore I Post.

2008-06-30T08:36:00.009+09:00

Catch-up day folks! I haven't posted personal photos in a while, so bear with me there are a lot here. (Maybe that makes you happy - I'm sure it will for most of you.)

Mia loves swimming. Here she is preparing to dive into the 12-foot-deep water with her classmates. I like this shot. Even the teacher's hand coming up from the deep like she's begging their uninterested souls to pull her out.

Mia going for it. Every other kid was at the least hesitant (at the most petrified) to go head-first into the deep water in this fashion. Mia? Before they got to "three" she was halfway in. She asks to head to the deep end from the start of class.

I know, her life is so terrible. Look at that grin.

Random shot - it was SUPER dark in this little store... (ISO 6400 here for you photogs), but when Mia put on this hat it was cute and as Craig pulled the camera up to capture her she did this. Hm. Mia Ham. As if there wasn't enough pork on this island. Nice jazz hands.

The summer has arrived here and it is oppressively hot and humid. The upside is that my delicious colorful light and gorgeous clouds have returned from their winter slumber. WOW the sunsets have been incredible! This is from a couple of weeks ago; we were walking on the coral during LOW tide in the early evening. I was happy to bring my wide-angle lens along and somehow this gem showed up. Sadly, most of the other photos aren't as cool as this one; might have to do with the subject in the foreground, at least for me.

June means the beginning of PCS season here in Okinawa. (Permanent Change of Station - aka, everyone's moving.) We're busy with lots of stuff, but saying goodbye to some amazing friends is also part of the deal here, and it sucks. We just lost about 4 of our neighbors on this street, and last week the Turners moved to Hawaii. (You might remember them from the Christmas Eve dinner small world story.) Before they left, we got to grab lunch with them at Gordie's (yum yum burger joint near our house) and play at the park for a bit.

While we waited for food, Natalie, Mia & Cole were getting all "Huck Finn" with a palate. I came over to capture it and said, "Keep doing what you're doing, be super serious and concentrate." This is what I got... and I love it.

Then you know they had to break up laughing, especially Mia...

Ella, the 3-year-old of the bunch has the most attitude & character of all it seems.

Mr. Craig has a bit of a crush on her, and she might have one on him too. Look at this gorgeous face! She's so smart, and with a big brother and sister, she's speaking well beyond her 3 years.There was some swashbuckling.

And then I introduced Kanoe & John to Ramune. A wonderful refreshing soda that has an interesting twist. A marble at the top. It's what that thing is known for... well, we were bound & determined to send them home with a Ramune marble souvenir. Two hours later, with much frustration and a dull pocket knife, this was the result:
SIGH... sad. But I think they can find this stuff on Hawaii maybe.

Here's a rare appearance by ME on the blog (thanks, Craig, for snapping a photo) - with beautiful Kanoe - who is a native of Hawaii, so she's going home. I miss you already, Kanoe!!
And here's the whole lot of 'em at the end of the day. That kid under Craig's arm? Yeah. We don't know who she is, I think she just wanted to get in on all the happy lovin' going on.

We'll MISS you, Turner fam!
We are so visiting you in Hawaii... you & Edith aren't far from each other, we have TWO fabulous reasons to check out Oahu. Well... that and some amazing beaches, crazy umbrella cocktails, and the fact that I've never been there before.

I've missed you, blog & blog audience! Sorry for the slacking, I promise to be better.

Calling Local Photogs

2008-06-29T11:02:00.005+09:00

We have 2 extra lens hoods that we don't need, both are for Canon lenses. One is for a 10-22mm (awesome wide-angle) and one is for the 24-70mm f2.8 L (Canon accidentally sent us 2).

If you're interested in buying them on the cheap, comment here please.

**edited to add: The lenses aren't for sale, these are extra hoods I don't need! Sorry about that...**

Poor Piggies

2008-06-26T07:37:00.004+09:00

(I've mentioned a couple of times that pork is kind of a popular thing here in Oki....)

Don't you think this should be on an Okinawan funny page somewhere? If the locals understood this they'd laugh their heads off.

YES, I KNOW

2008-06-23T08:27:00.005+09:00

Who'd have thought that with Mia out of school I'd be MORE BUSY!?

I'm taking lots of photos. Mostly for other people, not so much for my own fun. Getting a business started is craziness. But I'll share soon!

We THOUGHT JCI was due on Craig's car in July. It was June. We have 1 car and now I'm hitching rides this week - it's hard for me to rely on others. And we're preparing to be gouged too... ugh.

Mia has swim, t-ball starts tomorrow (Tuesday), piano lessons, and a desire to be doing fun things 24/7. Yeah, the life of a 6-year-old is good here. When does school start?

Lots more - but now I must wake the child to get ready. I promise - news SOON. Launching the business when she goes back to school at the end of August.

And oh - preparing for potentially our first storm! It just rounded the Philippines bend.... stay tuned! (Frankly, I wouldn't mind a rainy day or two!)

Happy Father's Day, Doody.

2008-06-16T07:46:00.004+09:00

I'm not really sure how it started, but my father is Doody to me. I was at least a teenager when that became the norm. Of course - I was Stinky after that. What a nice family. And of course, when I had a kid - his name became Granddoody. I've read that terms of endearment are good things for kids - I hope they're good things for fathers because I always mean "Doody" with the utmost respect and admiration.

The term "Daddy's Girl" is thrown around quite a bit in our family. In fact - after I gave birth to one and she started growing up to be beautiful and smart and funny and her father was deployed 3 times - I got sad. I know she's going to get to the point where I'm not her favorite person and Daddy can do no wrong. She is his biggest fan that's for sure. So happy slightly belated Father's Day to my hubby too, you're a fantastic father, honey bun.

As for my father - well, he's strong and funny and loving and supportive and always the life of the party. (I do get that from him.) He (acutally, my Mom too) has the most contagious infectious laugh and I LOVE making him do it! He was born and raised in THE City (NYC) and truly loves it and knows it like the back of his hand. He enjoys a good dirty joke, a vodka gimlet now and then, he knows how to spend money to have fun (you deserve it!), plays one mean game of golf, is always up for an incredible meal, if it's dessert - make it TART, and even though he chose to be a Nikon shooter, I'll still keep him! I'm so happy we share photography talk now among so many other loves.

I value your opinion and your praise, Doody - I remember that whenever I felt the worst was when I disappointed you. Thank you for everything, and each year on both Mother's Day and Father's day - and every day - I do know how precious you both are and how hard I work and hope to live up to the amazing parenting examples you have set. Thank you, Doody, and enjoy your day!

Playing In The Rain

2008-06-14T10:45:00.006+09:00

I had so much fun on Thursday. It was Mia's last day of school, and we had plans to go to a Erin's house to take a few pictures of her & her daughters. She's pregnant with #3 - and THIS time it's a boy! I had to post this picture. It's one of my favorites of the day; Erin's older daughter thought of this sign they had upstairs. How perfectly appropriate.

So anyway - of course Mia was with me, and I know she was jealous of the girls having their pictures taken. (although if we go out she's completely over it - ONLY when I'm taking other people's photos does she get jealous)

It started to storm outside, and I love playing in the rain on a warm day. (Something we didn't really get to do in San Diego.)

And I guess I got to show off her cute new layered bob - EVEN shorter this time for the hot sticky summer. Anyway... more soon. I'm hoping to hear from friends of ours that are leaving for Hawaii, I'd love to get to see them one more time. The amount of moving trucks around here is getting downright depressing.

THANK YOU, TV, and Holy Photos....

2008-06-12T10:34:00.009+09:00

First of all - Edith - you nut - you gave me an award for my blog, and that's pretty dang sweet.
(click on the photo to link to the arte y pico site)

I accept with tears in my eyes and a hug that would squeeze out all your juices. It will go in a place of honor in my home.

Ok. So TV. Seriously - I am STILL thinking about the Lost season finale. Anyone? Wow. Amazing and satisfying season, bravo JJ.

I'm excited for Mad Men, Weeds, and Californication to return. And when is Dexter coming back? I LOVE CABLE SHOWS. We've been watching Carrier, the PBS series about the USS Nimitz and loving it. I highly recommend it, even if you aren't some freaky military buff person. And I did just finally get to the season finale of the guilty pleasure, Grey's Anatomy and cried like a baby. I'm going to dig in to The Mole (which is BACK after a 4-year hiatus), and I'm heavily into So You Think You Can Dance, which in my opinion, is better than Idol. Heck yeah. What else should I be watching this summer?

Lastly - I have photos of the following to finish sifting through and will be sharing a few highlights:

a trip to Hamahiga Island
my friend Katie's new baby, Jackson Austin
a recent very nice sunset, but by no means the best I've seen
photos of friends at a recent party - even, perhaps, a photo of ME
yesterday's trip to Naha with beautiful and talented and super cool nice & fun Annya
Mia's new summer haircut (well, I haven't taken photos of that yet, but I promise I will!)

Tide you over? Well... OK.

A cool awning in Naha:

Some lovely flowers:

Sorry if this offends, but it was just out there at the mall off Kokusai...

This is one of many pig heads I saw at the market. And there were actually a lot of ...interesting things. I will post more soon.

These are not wooden boomerangs. They are smoked fish. The locals buy them and shave of pieces and then use the result to top all kinds of dishes. The resulting shavings are called bonito flakes.
I saw this adorable poster for sale at a shop and had to take a photo...
Here is Matt with new baby Jackson. Born on the same day as my new Niece, Brooke! He, however, was 2 weeks late.

Some mahi in a cooler. A guy at the Kadena Marina caught these and was giving them away. If I had any clue what to do with 20 lbs of mahi I'd have taken one.

Cool boat from our trip to Hamahiga Island
More boats.
As we were crossing the bridge toward the islands, we looked to the left and saw that the tide was not just low - it was non-existent. We pulled to the side of the road and got out, went down the steps, and squished our toes around in the biggest sand bar I've ever seen in my life. This picture doesn't really even convey how cool this was....
Ok, gotta go - kid gets home in 40 minutes from her last day of kindergarten. I know. Shut up. I'm not dealing with that yet. Just starting to grasp that I won't have days to myself anymore.

Unbelievable Coincidence

2008-06-10T08:29:00.004+09:00

I have blogged about this tiny tiny island and how everyone seems to know each other. So much so that we end up spending holidays with folks we meet randomly at lunch several weeks prior.

But the coincidence thing is just getting out of hand. Ever mention something totally random and weird, like say - fried Twinkies - and then it comes up in a couple of other ways? That happens to Craig & I on a very VERY regular basis. I could cite examples, but this most recent one takes the freaking cake.

This past Sunday afternoon, as we were driving, we saw cars stopped in the middle of a road on base. As it turns out, there was a kitten out there and they were trying to grab him to get him out of the busy street. (I DO hope he made it out ok) It made me recall and tell a story about saving a turtle. I was in Maryland in the mid-90's and was driving probably to my friend Julie's house in Gaithersburg, and I saw a turtle in the middle of a rural road. He (or she) was going so slowly, I figured some speeding maniac would hit the little guy. So I pulled to the side and lifted him up and placed him in the grass on the side of the road. Small victory for an animal lover.

This morning as I was about to wake Mia for her 3rd-to-last day of school, my cell phone rang. It was Craig. And he states with a smile in his voice that he just got back into the car on route 26 after moving a turtle he saw in the middle of the road. We laughed a bit and then I had to go get the kid up. (I also referred to the ongoing joke of, "we should buy a lottery ticket".)

Funny coincidence - but not done yet. Hold on to your shorts, people.

I dropped off Mia at the bus stop, and returned home to read up on my Google Reader (it is how I keep up with the photography blogs, mommy blogs, and friend blogs - it just lists them and puts up the new posts), and I came to Elizabeth's blog. E, a fabulous photog from gorgeous upstate NY, found me through another photographer's blog I follow, super duper Marine wife and talented photog Deb Schwedhelm's. (You put your link in the comments, and voila - you've found someone else to blurk. blog+lurk=blurk.) I digress.

Today's post had some beautiful family photos and scenery around the area, and almost as an aside, ended with this:

It's just totally random weird life kinda stuff, but I mean really - WHO is trying to tell me WHAT about flippin' TURTLE SAVING!?

I'M AN AUNT!

2008-06-08T08:15:00.003+09:00

Well, I was already an aunt - to my gorgeous nephew.

But as if today I'm an aunt to beautiful Brooke Morgan - my sister-in-law's baby girl. (Is she not GORGEOUS!?) She was born today/yesterday (depending on if you're in Japan) 6/7/8 (nice!) at 12:57 pm. She's 4.3 lbs and 5 weeks early, but thankfully doing great so far. I couldn't be happier today! Congrats Mommy Court & Daddy Jake! We already love her!

I'm feeling the distance - they're in Seattle and I want SO badly to come with gifts and lasagna. Send all the love and quick-to-be-out-of-the-hospital prayers & vibes their way! And Jake - good luck on those finals. I hope after they're over you have a couple of days to enjoy your new little girl.

Worthy Checklist & Shout Out To Teens or Teen Parents

2008-06-07T15:39:00.003+09:00

Seth Godin's Email Checklist
A good read for folks who feel the need to forward things. Or to reply to forwarded things. Anyway, you get the point.

On a completely DIFFERENT note - I know there are a bunch of local Okinawa-stationed peoples who read this. If you're one of them and you are going into your senior year in high school, or if you're a parent of a son or daughter graduating in '09, (or know someone in that category) I want to take some senior photos.

I'd like for my photography portrait business to focus on Okinawa's seniors, to give them a choice other than what they're given. I need to build that portfolio a bit. I have a great deal if you are a/have a teenager whose pictures need to be taken. Put a comment in this post with your email address if you're interested - I have to approve before posting comments, and will NOT post your email address here for all to see.

(Ok, did I just write graduating in '09? ACK! Next year it will have been 20 YEARS since my graduation. Too bad I'm not in the states for the reunion. Or is it?)

ME!

2008-06-02T09:59:00.006+09:00

I know, hard to believe - but OCCASIONALLY I let others snap a shot or two of yours truly. I don't like being on that side of the camera nearly as much, but during the aforementioned fini flight shoot I was even more willing. How can I not document my presence at such an event?

So - after takeoff, one of the crew guys that was out on the flight line, Justin, came to our van and admired my camera. So I handed it over and came home with the following fisheye shots which I think are not half bad! (Especially since I was fully working the drowned rat look from dashing around in the pouring rain for the last 2 hours.)

Note the pants soaked up to the knees, and the completely wet hair. The shirt was soaked too and I was very happy I decided to wear dark grey that day. On the left is Serena, on the right is Spider - I don't know his real name, nor do I need to. He was our wonderful driver and general go-fer that day, and I think he's just the bee's knees. Not too hard on the eyes either.

Justin (who took these pictures) was looking at me and said, "Gosh you look familiar - do I know you?"

"I don't think so.. I guess I just have a really hot Doppleganger."

Nobody else in that van knew the term Doppleganger (and yes, spelling/grammar/language afficionados, it IS supposed to have and umlaut over the a). So here's the Wikki definition for you, everyone. I love when someone uses a ten-cent word I haven't heard. What's your favorite?

One last cool shot - as the skies started clearing and you can see the F-15 to the right taking off:

MEA CULPA

2008-05-30T20:09:00.005+09:00

Reasons I haven't posted in 10 days:

- Some PCSing friends have asked me to do photo shoots and I've obliged.
- Some very nice people here compliment me on my photography and want to pay me to do it; so I'm in the process of making that happen. (Starting a business is time consuming; ok, cat's out of the bag. More about this REALLY soon - suffice it to say right now I'm buried in test prints, merchant info and website building!)
- My very nice friend and former employer, Serena, had asked me to second shoot with her for a fini flight (which is an Air Force pilot's final flight before either retiring or just retiring from flying - which was the case for Dawg). What an amazing honor this was and I'm so happy she asked and I did it - because it was quite an experience! First day of the ceremony was his flight alone (well, with his crew and fellow pilots). Here are a few from that day... which was, um. Rainy.

This was actually after he returned, a shot with a fisheye from the back of the F-15. That machine is just amazing! Most don't get to be on the flightline like this unless they're pilots or family of pilots... so this was extra exciting!

This was him taxiing toward me. This was taken out the back doors of a panel van because it was raining so hard my gear would've been as soaked as I already was at this point. MAN was it pouring!

This was a shot of Dawg (aka Barry) during his pre-flight check. Serena said this was her favorite that I shot, and I really have to agree. He's looking at that plane as if to say, "I'm going to miss you." Um yeah - how cute is he by the way? TOTALLY. His whole family is gorgeous.
Here he is going by me giving the "hang loose" sign. Sweet! Yes. Still. Raining.
Formation flying overhead... incredible.
Ok - more of those from the 2nd day (Change of Command) when I have 'em. And have time to edit 'em!
- There are 2 more weeks of school. TWO MORE WEEKS, and then I have a kid at my hip for the summer. Not like I can send her off to full-day camp here, I'll be trekking her to swim lessons, t-ball, piano, snorkeling, etc. Which is fun & great, but I am definitely trying to enjoy the last days of having my daytimes to do ME stuff.
- There is a group here called OIWC (Okinawa International Women's Club). I have been asked to be on the board as their historian. (really great for me because we are very involved in the Okinawa community, culture, and charities)
- I've also been taking pictures for my own personal fun. Haven't even GOTTEN to those lately! I can't wait though ... SOON.

I miss you, readers and friends! More soon. Off to bed. I miss my hubby too.

My Meeting With A Japanese Producer

2008-05-20T14:33:00.005+09:00

Yesterday I went out on a shooting expedition with my new friend Katherine. Shooting as in with the camera. I'm sure you knew that. Kat's way cool. I met her at a photography show Suwanee was doing at Foster Library a while back and as it turns out she said she was a "blog stalker" of mine. She treated me like some kind of celebrity which was a very new and strange feeling for me... I'm so NOT. I am very flattered by this, but I mean come on ... let's keep it in perspective. So we exchanged emails and a while later when I got in touch with her we didn't make plans right away, and then Craig & I ran into Kat and her hubby at the PX and liked them a whole bunch and then I called her to make plans.

So yesterday we bummed around American Village with our cameras for the morning. We played with light and metering and a couple of lenses and apertures and stuff. As we wandered by the Okinawa Beach Hotel, we were taking pictures of the shells, flowers, and anatomically correct shiisa (I will spare you that image), and an older Japanese gentleman was helping a couple of people into a white BMW SUV. He was wearing a suit, and as we walked by he asked Kat where she was from. We like being friendly, so since we both moved here after having lived in San Diego, we said, "San Diego."

"Oh! Go Padres!"
"Haha, right! How about you, sir? Where are you from?"
"I'm from Japan, from Tokyo," he answered in perfect English with an accent. He commented on our nice cameras, and asked if we were photographers, and Katherine said, "SHE is!" and I shot her the quick "oh gimme a break, stop it" look.

"Are you in Okinawa on vacation?"
"Yes, vacation and work."
"Ah, what do you do?"
"I am a producer - of music. I have a studio here, and several on mainland."
"Oh - what kind of music?"
"Hip-hop - Japanese artists. Right now a record I produced has the #1 hip-hop single in Japan. over 6 million downloads."

Ok. Wow. So you're filthy rich. No, we didn't say that.

"Wow! Congratulations, that's fantastic!" I held up my camera and asked him if I could take his picture.

"Oh sure! Here..." and he leaned over and opened the back seat door of the SUV and helped out 2 pretty young women. "These are my massage therapists, I bring them with me when I travel."

AAhhhhhhh yes.... your personal "massage therapists" that you bring WITH you when you travel. Nice.

The girls smiled and made motions with their hands like they were giving a massage. They're good.

They stepped out of the car and posed for a couple of shots with the man they accompanied here. I showed them the pictures on the back of the camera and they were all quite tickled.

"Do you have a business card? I can email you the photos if you like."
He smiled and said, "Yes, sure!" and handed me his card. I'm not giving up his name in case he has some folks scouring the net for information about him, but let's just say I got home and Googled him and he is most definitely a major record producer. Since the mid-70's. And his email has the year 1941 in it so that puts him at 67 years old. He was one of the coolest guys I've met and I would happily party with him.

As we walked away, Kat and I joked that maybe after sending him the photos I took maybe he'd hire me to take pictures of some hip-hop artist for an album cover or something. I guess that would make me "huge in Japan" in yet another whole new way.

Hajimemashite, Shoro-San!

I'm Not Sure Where To Begin With This One...

2008-05-20T13:52:00.002+09:00

Would That I Could Have My Daughter's Life

2008-05-19T12:54:00.004+09:00

I know... "Would that I could..." that's a real expression, right? It doesn't seem like it's current. Possibly some kind of Shakespearean quote, but there it is. I AM JEALOUS OF MY KID.

She snorkels.
She swims.
She runs amok with not one, but TWO boyfriends.
She spends 100¥ coins happily after losing teeth and buys toys that are worth oh so much more than 100¥ of fun.
She takes a Cessna flight around the island.
(insert at least 50 more things here that anyone would be jealous of)
She paints shiisa (at a recent trip to Murasaki Mura):

(She's smiling like her new shiisa in this one - since her mouth is shut, she's a girl shiisa - I know, didn't make sense to me either - but something about holding on to the good spirits and not letting go.)
She goes to the beach with said boyfriends....
Oh that? Around her neck? Yeah - that's a life jacket. Because after this, she went TUBING BEHIND THE NEATHERYS' JET SKI.

Yeah. Exactly. Next time I'm donning my suit & such and going with 'em. She was SO excited when she got in, but after the experience she wasn't thrilled about it - I hadn't taken into account the amount of salt water spray, and we'll need to remember some goggles next time. She was scared of going fast because of that. She rode back in with Derek on the jet ski, and that seemed better - though loud & fast. She'll get used to it. And promptly become addicted.

I have lots of amazing shots from Kadena Marina that day, but this one of the kids is just awesome. She's one lucky kid. For so many reasons.
SOOOOOOoooo many pictures I'm going through to share with you. But I'm also working on a project. A big one. More info soon. But the hint is that all this equipment and effort might actually end up working for me here soon. We shall see. Another thanks to all the supportive and willing participants in front of my camera!

My Condolences For China

2008-05-14T06:34:00.004+09:00

As many of the Marines and other service members stationed here on Okinawa are participating in Cobra Gold in Thailand or floating on ships near Thailand (some of our friends included), awaiting word that they can help the people of Myanmar, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 slams Sichuan, China.

"To understand the power of this 7.9 quake: one of the worst natural disasters in recent American history, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California measured 6.7. The scale is logarithmic, meaning -- for instance -- that a 5.0 quake is fully 10 times more powerful than one measuring 4.0." -MSNBC.com

I know that some of the people reading this were in or very close to Northridge in the '94 quake. It's so much more devastating that I can even wrap my mind around. The same article quoted above reminded me that 9/11 happened a few months before the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics in Utah. The tattered flag from the WTC was raised at that event. Though none of the Olympic facilities in China were affected, according to the news, this will definitely change the celebration and ceremony, understandably.

My thoughts are with the millions of citizens affected by this quake. I think this planet needs some good news soon.

Koinobori - Children's Day

2008-05-13T20:25:00.003+09:00

May 5th is Children's Day in Okinawa. A holiday celebrating children. Right there during Golden Week. We went to the Hija River, not too far up the road from us, to check out the Koinobori. Koi are carp, "no" is possessive in Japanese, and bori is banner, so it's a carp banner. It USED to be Boy's day, but they changed it to include all children.

Mia asked for it - as recently as Sunday when it was mother's day (mind you, AFTER we celebrated Children's Day with icees and a boat ride!) - "When's kids' day?"
"It just happened, Mia. Not to mention, EVERY day is Mia day!"
The response was pouting. We're hard at work on a plan to get the selfish out of this only child.

Anyway - here's the view as we walked from where we parked toward the small festival.

The koinobori swayed in the breeze.... and Craig and I wondered aloud, "How do they get those things up there?"

We spent a few yen, donned some life jackets, and hopped a quick little boat ride out the river mouth and into the China Sea. Mia is one boat-lovin' sea-farin' kiddo. She was smiling like this the whole time! (Note the still very loose other bottom tooth that hadn't yet been pulled out by yours truly for a rope of licorice. Yes, I know. The irony. I offered licorice if she let me pull out her tooth. And let's have more teeth falling out. Shush.)

This was the view looking up at the flags from the boat.

And this is a zoomed in view from the shoreline. It wasn't really that windy.... sometimes those things were horizontal.
A gorgeous day. I find myself wishing the weather would stay like this. Feels like San Diego out here right now. Alas, I know the scary sub-tropical stickies are headed this way, sooner than I'd like. For now I'm enjoying amazing weather and the last weeks of Mia being in school for 7 hours a day.

Why Are We Here?

2008-05-12T08:45:00.006+09:00

Well, not here, like Okinawa - but here like in existence? MOMS! That's why!
On the left, that's my mom, aka Grammy to one pint-sized bottom-toothless wonder. (and also to my adorable nephew, Ben) Mom & Dad drove out to Ohio in April when we were there for my father-in-law's funeral. I was lucky enough to spend some time with her (and my dad) and Mia was gloriously happy to share her reading skills and her loose teeth and giggles with her Grammy.

As any mom will tell you, women don't fully understand what it is to be a mother until we become one. It's a crazy thing, but it's also so amazing how suddenly you appreciate all that woman did for you EVEN more - exponentially more. (And we all know I don't only mean childbirth or diapers...) So thanks, Mom. Especially for mac & cheese when I was sick, carting me around everywhere when I couldn't drive, putting up with my sassy mouth (oh yeah- THAT is coming back to me in spades with my kid), always being there to cry on, and for letting me be me - actually for encouraging me to be me most times - even if you were holding on to those strings a bit. I know why you did. And Craig thanks you too because without you there wouldn't have been one heck of an awesome wedding, which you planned pretty much single-handedly, and you've been there for us for so many things in so many ways. Never enough thanks, mother's day should be every day.

Aine - Craig's mom (pictured on the right) is the dynamo who raised 3 children, Craig being the oldest. She worked to support them during most of their childhood, and I'm amazed at what she was able to do. Craig remembers amazing holidays (she is one fantastic cook), and times when any other woman would've broken raising him and his 16-month-younger brother. (This I could not imagine.) He has so much love and respect for his mom helping him become the man he is today, and because he's my hubby I thank you and love you as well. You raised 3 incredible kids who I'm lucky to call family. Ya done good, Mom!

We love you! Hope you had an incredible day.

Hello Again!

2008-05-11T12:33:00.003+09:00

Recently we went to the Seaside Inn, the restaurant at Kadena Marina, for one of the dinners during my birthday weekend. The food was good. The view was even better. And wow did that sunset cooperate....

Then we arrived home and indulged in the cake that Sena made for me - it was red velvet, and trust me when I tell you that these are the only shots of it because we gobbled it up so fast there were just some reddish brown crumbs left soon afterward. YUM.

This past Friday, I was lucky enough to go shoot this lovely lady again....
along with 4 other talented and fun to be around photogs and 2 other models besides R (pictured above). It was a great day!

Soon I'll have some shots on flickr (more Dragon Boat shots, model shots, sunset shots). Now we're off to do other mother's day type things I guess. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Mommies!

Tooth #2 - OUT

2008-05-09T07:44:00.002+09:00

Fascinating...

2008-05-08T18:41:00.004+09:00

I added some code to my site so that Google Analytics could tell me a bit about how many visits I get, where they come from, etc. Holy mackerel - there are a LOT of people reading and looking at my lil' old blog. And from countries like Egypt and Mongolia and Colombia! WHAT? In the last month, 1750 visits from 36 countries! I'm blown away.
HI THERE VISITORS!! It's flattering that you visit my site, and thank you so much for stopping by! *waving and grinning* Have a great day!

2008 Naha Dragon Boat Races

2008-05-08T17:40:00.008+09:00

Don't know where to start - a bit overwhelmed. So let me go in backwards order because otherwise I might get a headache. I had to finish working on the dragon boat race photos, so here are some highlights. I was lucky enough to know a participant on the Army women's team, so I got my huge camera-gear-haulin' self on the bus thanks to her. Official photographer anyone? Press pass?

I didn't have a press pass... so I used my charms to excuse myself and ask (via holding up large camera with 100-400mm lens attached and pointing at the front & center part of the dock) to move up to the prime space. It worked! I can't believe I was right down front. It was cloudy (as you can see from the photos) but thankfully not pouring. Highlights:

This is a really cute dog. Not at the races, from a few days prior - I just happened to have my camera and I thought he was really cute.

Here's a young Marine (I am pretty sure) holding a couple of green chicks. One of the booths at the festival (of which there were many - carnival-style, like throw darts at balloons to win a giant inflatable Hello Kitty and stuff like that) was giving away live chicks as prizes; and they were painted red, green, and some other unnatural color. I really did a double-take - I have no clue how they colored the chicks, or what this guy (or anyone who won the things) was going to do with them. I just have to hold some hope that the coloring process was humane.

Once I got my way up front, this was what the view was for each race. 3 boats raced at a time. This was Army men (far yellow boat), Marine men (middle black boat) and a Japanese men's team (closest green boat). During the day, there were many races, the teams with the top 3 fastest times raced each other for the title.

I brought my 100-400mm, as mentioned. It got in pretty close, as you can see. This group was mid-race! Weren't they having fun? Some teams were much more intense, these folks were having a great time.

So this bunch was definitely intense. They ended up winning. Next to me on the dock there was a big bunch who were chanting at them. It was really exciting.

Here's the Army women's team backing up out of the dock and going toward their starting point. That's my buddy Anne - the blond right up front. She's hard core and kicks major booty.
This was right after the shotgun went off. They lost to the Navy women's team, but not by much (about 25 seconds). I thought it was great that the military had men's & women's teams participating. They all did great.

At the festival there were some stages besides the booths & jumpies & a big trampoline/bungee thing. This beautiful woman was doing a warrior dance of some sort. Her makeup was so incredible my friend thought it was a mask.

This coach was chanting - not in Japanese, but just in "HO" rhythms and then the team would repeat what he chanted while they all clapped and got psyched up for their race. They were fun to watch, and really into it. I asked some nearby Marines if they were learning some new cadences.

Well, this will surprise you. There was a TON of food. As you can see, these happy food vendors were proud to pose for me. I love this shot!

In front of the KFC booth was the Colonel himself. Dressed in a blue dragon boat kimono outfit & bandana!

What would any festival be with out BIRU! Kampai!
If you can't tell by the amazing smiles the locals are giving me, I learned how to ask if I could take their picture in Japanese. Unless it's an older woman (who usually giggles and covers her face) they get a kick out of my attempt at Japanese, like the big camera, and indulge me.

It was a GREAT time!

Kitone Festival At Murasaki Mura

2008-05-04T13:38:00.006+09:00

Good afternoon! I've been out & about a lot this week - it was a holiday week here in Japan. I like how they do this here - they don't have many holidays, but when they do - they sure party.

This week is "Golden Week" in Japan. Probably only behind Eisa/Obon and New Year's here in Okinawa's holiday hugeness scale.

During Golden week, which is made up of several different celebrations, there is sort of an Earth Day type thing called "Nature Day" or "Greenery Day". I think this might be what this festival (Kitone Ichi) closely relates to because there were lots of handmade natural cotton things there, organic foods & drinks, and friendly "hippie" culture types all around. Those who know me realize I was REALLY at home here. Friendly vibe, awesome sangria, and a gorgeous day outside (of SHOPPING - hello) made for one heck of a lot of fun. Some of the sights of the day:
(anyone know what kind of flower this is?)
handmade truffles.
hi, peeing shiisa

happy lady selling handmade dolls
love these!

ICEE TIME! Sebastian, Eli & Henry (L to R) enjoyed some colorful icee drinks. Too fun to resist lots of pictures.More from my next trip to Murasaki Mura with Kassia in the next post. And some killer sunset shots and maybe some stuff from Children's Day on the Hija River.

A Different Sort Of Birthday Gift

2008-05-02T08:18:00.005+09:00

It happened. Well... it didn't just happen, but I helped it finish happening.
My little baby lost her first tooth! (On what happens to be my twenty-seventeenth birthday.)

She woke up, she said her tooth "hurt", and so I looked. That sucker was BARELY hangin' on by a thread. She was scared. She ate her cereal, and then I washed my hands, grabbed a piece of dental floss to help - and when that didn't work I just took my thumb and index finger (at a moment when her mouth was open and both hands weren't clapped on there tightly) and *snap* it was done!

The look on her face at the moment it happened was priceless. Like "Oh my gosh, WHAT?!?" A bit tearful from the worry about pain, and then just pure excitement, joy, and lots of tongue movement into the lower front quadrant of her mouth.

So it begins. I told her I thought the tooth fairy was Japanese here... there might be yen. She's ok with that.

Off to change my oil. I know, exciting right? More fun things and definitely some treats later.

**updated to add: HI, Heather! Nice to meet you. I think the tooth fairy is paying out about 300¥ per tooth these days. (Craig thought $5 per tooth and I almost fainted! DANG, that girl is gonna make $100 on her teeth?! That should go to the orthodontics fund.)**

Isaac & Rachel Sitting In A Tree

2008-04-30T16:08:00.004+09:00

Like I said - STILL working on Ohio pictures (I took a LOT - and there are a lot of family members, and a lot of GOOD ones!). Allow me to share.

This is Isaac (one of Craig's first cousins) and Rachel, his lovely wife. (Doesn't she TOTALLY have a Kiera Knightley thing going on? She totally does.) They're so sweet, and they have never had any portraits or anything done - and Rachel requested I take a few photos and I happily obliged. This little pose? This was Rachel's doing. I love the look on her face when Isaac is kissing her cheek! That's why they call it "cheeky".

And THIS is Violet. Their daughter. Who was almost exactly one year old in this picture. With her eight teeth. What a smile, huh?
More of those - with aunts & uncles & such - SOON. I PROMISE, Rachel & Carol and everyone. Almost done.

Monday Night Randomness

2008-04-28T20:40:00.004+09:00

So glad we have TiVo. We're having a Kentucky Derby Sunday Brunch Party with Mint Juleps! Derby starts at 5am, but I can fix that! AND fast forward commercials. Yay!

Ok, Ernie - what is this drink? It's soda - I realize - but why the marble in the pinched top? (That thing that's covered in bubbles at the lower part of the neck of the bottle.) Fascinating packaging.
Sign from outside Magnolia, Ohio. Just found it in photos I forgot to post.

Sea wall jacks. I know some of you are familiar with this particular warning....

STILL editing photos, mostly for personal friends. A recent baby shower (I'll post a couple for you here - but hopefully with BABY pictures too! Very exciting stuff.), a birthday party (Sena of the Jew porn - her daughter - so you KNOW there was some kinda amazing cake!) and still Ohio pictures. Yes. Still.

Hope this will tide you over for a few. Still having fun taking and editing pictures, and planning for future picture taking! And other things.

I Done Been TAGGED!

2008-04-27T21:39:00.002+09:00

You know, I've read about this in photography blogs - but never did I imagine, even in this tiny little universe that someone would tag me! I'm so flattered... blush.

Elizabeth Pellette tagged me. She's amazing, and she found me through another blog I read (someone who's already been tagged, I'm sure). The rules. Ahem.

1. Link the person who tagged you. (check)

2. Mention the rules in your blog. (check)

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. (6? That's it? I suppose I'll narrow it down.)

4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. (will do)

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blogs letting them know they've been tagged. (will do too.)

Quirks:

1. I'm awful about reading directions. I'm kind of a guy that way - I'd much rather figure things out myself. And then I get annoyed when I can't and I have to take the time to read the stupid directions.

2. I am a food pack rat. I love cooking, and I do cook what I buy - but often my eyes are bigger than our 3 stomachs (hubby, daughter & myself) and I end up with stuff that I would love to eat but there just aren't enough meals in the day.

3. I'd happily leave the house with a cap on my unshowered head, but I'd never leave without a stitch of makeup on. Even just a little mascara and something for the circles under my eyes. And maybe a bit of blush....

4. I'm a bit of a video game junkie. I have a DS, a PS3, a PSP, and a Wii. Hubby bought them, but I admit. I definitely play more than he & Mia put together.

5. I used to read a lot - now I really don't anymore. I am an ADD kind of reader - magazines, websites, blogs, newspapers - not so much novels anymore, and that makes me sad. It's really not because I don't find it interesting or fun - my eyes start closing too soon and it takes me too long to finish a book.

6. I hate mayonnaise. Anyone who knows me, knows this about me. I'm phobic. Really. Can't smell it, can't touch it, and if it comes on my sandwich despite the fact that I ordered it without, I will either send it back or not eat it. **shudder, gag**

Gosh, six other bloggers. HERE WE GO:

Kassia, at Our Life is an Open Blog

Jen, at Sumeba Miyako

Edith, at SENIORITA MOMMY

Ayelet, at Ayelet Like It Is (HA! I will force you to post!)

Ernie, at Ernie Budo's Lab

and Pamela, at her UKreal blog

Sorry if you've been tagged before. Deal with it.

Photos coming OH so soon!

I Haven't Mentioned How Lucky I Am.

2008-04-23T14:53:00.003+09:00

When we entered this adventure that is our 3 years in Okinawa, I knew I'd be in for some cultural education, definitely new sights, sounds, foods, and people, but I have to say I'm consistently surprised. I didn't ever dream of meeting the incredibly smart, fun, talented, and amazing people that I've been meeting.

We're all sort of in the same boat here - either military families or State Department or whatever - somehow put here by America or our choice to educate the Americans who are here. It's a strange sort of existence - just about everyone is only here temporarily. This spring and summer, I'm going to lose some of the friends I've made - they're going to head back to the states, or on to their next duty station wherever that may be. It's a sad part of the way it is, and we all know it.

But that being said, with the Internet, email, blogs, websites, Vonage - BLESS VONAGE!!! - etc., we'll all be in touch. If we want to be. I've gotten into photography quite a bit since I've been here, as all of you that read this little blog know. The support, comments, encouragement - they have had a profound effect on me.

At the commissary a few months ago, someone called me by name and told me she loved my photographs - and I had never met her before! She knew someone whose family I'd shot, and had subsequently followed my blog. Whether I've made these friends through my photography (like Suwanee or Annya) or through the blogosphere (like e or Ernie or Pam or even more people who are on their way to Oki and found me before they came!), or just by fate (you know who you are - Mere, Anne, Jen, Katherine, Ebeth, Casey, Sena, too many to NAME I must say...) - I thank you. I deeply appreciate your amazing words and encouragement and I really feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to do what I'm doing. Even if I am horrible about emailing back - realize that if I could take the time to sit down for coffee once a week with all of you - I WOULD!

Lots of amazing things are to come in my life. I can't wait to hold your hand through my journey... thank you for joining me!

Neglectful. Again.

2008-04-21T19:21:00.004+09:00

No excuse. None. Except that I have lots of plans and not much time to just play with the camera - and things are happening, but not really in a bloggish sort of way.... quite. Here's what I have for you. A couple more Ohio pictures - yet more to come, for those who care.

Left: Terri (old old friend of Craig's and his brother Ridge's). Middle: my father, eyeballing Terri's Muffaletta sandwich at Crave restaurant in Akron, Ohio. Right: Valerie - Terri's wife. Who I guarantee has taken better pictures.
Ridge (Craig's brother) leaning up against that awesome old Ford up on the hill by the farm. I think this is a great shot. Though I do rather wish I'd had him take off the sunglasses.

Uncle Ridgie with Mia, in the Ford.
A REALLY cool shot of Craig & Ridge leaning on some kind of farm equipment. And yes, the moment he reads this he'll remind me what this thingamabobber is called, but I'm a city girl and I don't need to remember that sort of thing. I just know the picture makes them both look pretty darned cool.

I just love this picture of Mom with her sons... that's Aine, my mom-in-law, beautiful inside & out. Not sure how I got lucky enough to get TWO amazing moms (and grandmoms) in this life, but I did. And Craig & Ridge really love their mom too, if you can't tell.
Ok - that's it for sharing today.... talk to you soon!

Farm Shots

2008-04-17T11:26:00.004+09:00

I'm somewhat back on local time here in Okinawa. I've been editing and working on photos I took in Ohio, both of the Bowman Family Farm and the family members themselves.

Craig's grandparents had a cattle farm in the outskirts of rural Magnolia, Ohio. It has been in the family for nearly 200 years. I said "had" because next week there will be an auction, and the farm has been sold. Most of it, anyway. Craig's uncles and aunt who are still around inherited some land and a couple of them live there in homes now. But the main farmhouse and the working part of the farm will no longer be in the family.

In a way, I'm happy Craig, Mia & I got to visit one last time. This will not be a gathering place for the family anymore. Craig and his brother and sister grew up on this farm, helping to sell Christmas trees, raise the cattle, and of course play and enjoy the amazing time that is outdoor farm life in Ohio. It's a piece of them. And I was glad to take photographs of this keystone in Bowman family history. Below are a few, the full set is here on my flickr site if you care to see it. I obviously didn't put it in any Okinawa groups because the subject matter is different. Family pictures are still to come - these had to be done first so that I could mail out a photo book to the uncles, aunt, and siblings as soon as I could put it together. The pictures in the flickr set are in the book which I purchased from the reliable Apple company.

My favorite pages of the book are two facing pages that have smaller pictures of the details. Here are a couple of my favorites.
I also LOVED this old Ford truck they had on the grounds. This color is amazing, isn't it?

As for Okinawa happenings, well- let's see. Mia's in school and very happy about it. I'll be signing Mia up for some piano lessons soon at the Sunset Music School. Craig went back to work today. We're hopefully going to unload an Air Asia voucher we have for about $275 to someone who might want it (anyone? I'll give you a deal!). And we'll also hopefully plan some kind of family getaway for fun since we had to cancel our Thailand trip.

Summer's comin' - it's getting a little warmer here for sure. At least it's more gradual this time. When we arrived in June last year it was like a smack in the face! Ok - more soon, photos & otherwise. I missed you!

home. sleep. wiggle.

2008-04-13T08:36:00.004+09:00

After over 24 hours of travel time we are back in Okinawa. Long trip. More soon - even pictures, but suffice it to say I'm happy to have my bed again. Even though thanks to jet lag I'm already out of bed since 6:30am.

Mia has 2 loose teeth - the bottom middle ones. She's very excited about this and blames the apple she ate one morning for loosening them. I will have to figure out how to get her hands out of her mouth on a regular basis now. And what the tooth fairy gives up these days...

Nee Poo

2008-04-07T09:57:00.004+09:00

We were walking in historic Zoar Village in Ohio with Mia, Craig, my brother-in-law Ridge, and his girlfriend Jaime. Mia is a great reader now. She takes every opportunity to practice her new skill and shows off as well. As we were walking down the main street of the tiny town on a gorgeous spring day, Mia proclaimed:

"That sign says NEE POO!"

We were in the middle of a conversation, so the others didn't really hear her or give it much thought, but I was thinking to myself... nee poo? How on earth would she mispronounce something that would end up sounding like that. Nee poo. Neh po. No. Doesn't make sense. She said it again, which prompted me to turn around, and I saw one of these.

We were still walking up to it from behind when she read the flag as that bright sun shined right on through.

The word "nee poo" has now been inducted into the Bowman vernacular. And we may have to test her for dyslexia.

Rest In Peace.

2008-03-30T16:46:00.003+09:00

The phone rang this morning, and it was Craig's brother. I could tell by the crackle in his voice that I needed to get him out of the shower immediately.

We got the news that Craig's father was in a car crash today and passed away. We are quickly planning a trip home as we speak.

Mia's doing amazingly well - when we told her, she started crying with us and said, "I want to go HOME, I want to go HOME!" - she meant to San Diego. Poor thing. We all want to go home when something awful happens.

I'm very happy she got to spend the time she did with her Grandpa before we came to Okinawa. I'm also glad he didn't suffer. We should be on our way to Ohio tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

I also have to mention how very lucky we are to have the family we do - both at home and here in Okinawa. I can feel your amazing vibes and prayers, and not one person who found out hasn't offered their help or anything at all we need. Thank you, from all of us.

I Shot A Model!

2008-03-29T12:14:00.004+09:00

I was fortunate enough to shoot with Suwanee this past week and have been literally ANGRY every time I have to leave my computer because I'm enjoying getting to play with these shots. The light at this location was delightful and the model - well, you can see. She's just a knockout. Thanks, R - you were so fun to be around and chat with in addition to photographing! And thanks, Suwanee- I can't wait to do it again.

More soon! Off to a soccer game.

A Few To Tide Ya' Over

2008-03-25T14:51:00.005+09:00

An adorable pair of siblings on Kokusai playing with bubbles.

Cool textured buildings in an alley.

A pineapple photo I played with a bit.

CoCo Curry House - Good smell. Good curry. How true.
More photos on my flickr site, if you're interested.

Purim was last week. Jewish holiday consisting of a bad guy with a 3-cornered hat. Cookies called hamentaschen are made - 3-cornered cookies filled with fruit butter. I had a bit of a cooking party with the kids in the annex kitchen! It was such fun. The kids were a blast.
I'm quite sure I'll have video of this soon, but since acquiring the game Rock Band for the PS3 we have formed a band. Craig on drums, Aviva on guitar, and Mia - a really excellent vocalist. She's getting to know songs by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ramones, Rolling Stones, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, and Radiohead to name a few.

Back when she first started getting into the soundtrack of Once (last summer), she would sing "Falling Slowly" at the top of her lungs - the lyrics are:

"Take this sinking boat
and point it home
we've still got time..."

One day I noticed she was singing quite soulfully... "Take this sinking goat and point it home..."

Our band name in Rock Band is now: sinking goat. Coolest. Band. Ever.

The Bunny Cookie

2008-03-22T22:47:00.002+09:00

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. SO many more photos to post, but this must tide you over until I get some time to myself with my Mac....

Heard This Morning

2008-03-20T11:44:00.002+09:00

Mia's at the table eating cereal. Craig was still here because he had to stop on a closer base before going to work.

"Mia's hair looks like Bon Jovi's hair first thing in the morning." (It kinda does... now that it's shorter, it actually sticks up in the morning after she's slept on it.)

I grabbed a little water spray bottle to fix it, and Mia pouts and whines. "Mooooooooommmmmm! I don't like it when you wet my hair to do that. Because then I go to school, and my friends all say, 'Eeeeeewww, you got all naked and took a shower!'"

I'm laughing and she's crying at this point.

"Mia, just tell them 'eeeeww... you don't shower?' and they'll be quiet." Although I'm pretty sure she made that up anyway because her hair will be dry by the time she gets on the bus. Just another excuse to complain. Sometimes the arguments are just ....creative.

The Fam

2008-03-18T12:10:00.005+09:00

I have a bunch of fun pictures from the weekend, we went to Kokusai Street in Naha and to Comprehensive Park too. Though I have some interesting "stuff" pictures, I also have some family shots - this post is about that. I know you've gotten to know our crazy kid through this blog, here are a few more shots of her, one of Craig and (gasp!) even myself in some of these for a change.

Here I am with Mia, ready to enjoy a gorgeous day.

Loving my 20 chins in this one... but whatever. I think I got the pose right.

These phone booths are too cool... and I love that bright green color of the phone!

Craig bought a Pepsi from a street vendor because "Pepsi from a glass bottle tastes better" - not sure I disagree, it's pretty darn good.

After Kokusai Street we went to Comprehensive Park where Mia played on this crazy jungle gym.

The kids love it.

And then the ever popular tire swing.

As the sun was setting it was low tide and we snapped a couple by the tide pools.

More pictures in the next day or two.

Random Thought...

2008-03-18T12:06:00.002+09:00

What kind of gifts do you think Dr. Phil gives to Oprah? What exactly says, "Thank you for giving me a life!"

What's Left In This World If We Can't Embarass Our Children?

2008-03-14T19:40:00.002+09:00

Tonight we went upstairs to the restaurant on the top floor for a going away party for our neighbors (with young Aubrey with the gorgeous eyes) who PCS tomorrow back to the states. Tons of kids there - mostly 2-3 years old - and Mia, the big kid. It's the end of the night, and she comes up to me dancing -

"I have to go pee!"
Ok.. I walk her over and point out the ladies room.

I come back into the room full of parents (probably 5 sets of parents) with little ones who barely ever even make it to the potty on time and proudly announce, "THAT is the bonus of a six-year-old! THERE'S the bathroom - be sure to wash your hands, and I'll see you when you come back - SO nice!"

All of a sudden they're all pointing out the window (the bathroom is separate from the restaurant, and you can see the doors from where we were). She didn't shut the door and was sittin' on the pot in front of God and everyone taking a piss. Yep - that's the beauty of a 6-year-old with NO shame and NO ability to close the friggin' DOOR! Too bad it was night time and I would've gotten a reflection from the flash if I'd tried to take a picture of it - by the time I ran outside, she was done. So this is the shot I DID get.

Random Photo Happiness

2008-03-14T14:55:00.009+09:00

Hi again! It's been a while since I posted a photo that wasn't taken in our living room, so here we go. Last week I went to Cafe Unizon with LWILIO - pronounced 'luh-WIL-lee-oh' - Ladies Who Lunch In Okinawa - a small group of adventurous eaters who are currently scouring the island for new and delicious lunch opportunities). Yes, I'm a 100% dork and coined that term myself. What of it?

Below Cafe Unizon is a home store called Mix Life-Style. They have fun European-style housewares and furniture - and mind you, it is NOT cheap. However, nobody's holding a gun to your head to buy anything, and browsing is FUN. Check out this fantastic idea:

The menu is felt with iron-on transfer pictures of the food. And see the embroidery of the categories on the right? There's coffee drinks, food, and sweets. I loved this idea!
(More Unizon & Mix shots on my flickr page.)

This month is "Read Across America" month. Last week on Friday there was a literature character parade. Basically, all the kids at Mia's school dressed up like their favorite literary character (or just put on their Halloween costume again and found some book with that character in it - let's just say there were LOTS of superheroes and princesses...). Well, I didn't really want to do that - I took this seriously, and as Mia is now reading, I wanted her to be a real character in a real book she actually liked.

I didn't realize this was going to be happening until the morning before the parade, so I was a little stumped. Finally, I thought about it the other way around - what are her favorite books? GOT IT! The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. She loves that book. I can pick up a green shirt. She can wear brown pants for the trunk. And I happen to have a headdress I made for my Halloween costume when I went to Vegoose back in 2005 (I went with 3 friends, we were the seasons, and I was springtime, of course - Aviva means springtime in Hebrew, FYI). Thank you pack rat instincts. When I told Mia about my (I thought) great idea, she winced. "I wanna be a CAT or a PRINCESS..."
"Well, everyone's going to be that stuff, you really LOVE this book, Mia. And look at the pretty hat - this blue bird here, they even exist here on Okinawa! Cool..." (Ryan, I knew you'd be proud of her thrush.) She hesitantly gave in as I gushed about how beautiful she'd look.

So the night before, I drew some apples that Mia colored in and we put those and the "branch hat" into a bag. I arrived at school early to help assemble the outfit. I even got a green eyeliner and drew leaves on her arms. (she did NOT want anything on her face - please let it stay that way!) Everyone in kindergarten is familiar with this book, and the teachers gushed about her (my) costume and idea. She was very proud, as was I, and she looked great!
After school we got rid of the paper apples, and as I was talking to my friend Ilisa I caught this shot of Ellie & Mia. The two "Nice Jewish Girls" at Bob Hope! (at least that I know of) Ellie's a doll - I'm so happy they're friends.

Ok, last topic - OIWC Luncheon in Naha. Okinawa International Women's Club (I teased this in a prior post) holds monthly meetings, every other one is on base, and the others are out in town. This was still during lockdown, so I had to get a permission slip signed by Craig's commander before I could go.

The luncheon was at the Naha Terrace Hotel, there were lots of women there, I was impressed. The food was delicious (as large group food goes) and the company was fantastic. So many sweet & wonderful women, willing to gesture and describe to conquer the language barrier. I met a lovely woman, Tomo, who literally offered to come with us to Kyoto and show us around! And she also finally taught me how to say, "May I take your picture?" in Japanese! (Shashim o to temo desu ka?)

Here is what the centerpieces looked like:
And this during this month, there's a holiday called "Girl Day". There were dolls on display which are apparently REALLY expensive, and over time it became popular belief that the dolls protected the daughters of the family. Girl Day, or Hina Matsuri, is a festival held throughout Japan to pray for daughters' happiness. Here are some of the dolls on display on stage at the luncheon:

There were even some sakura branches there - yes, they're still in bloom!
Lastly there were dances, one in honor of the sakura:
One woman who danced with a fan:

And another that was a warrior with a spear:

Well, that's it for now. We're off to dinner with some friends who are PCSing tomorrow... we'll miss them.

On The Way Home From Soccer

2008-03-14T06:34:00.003+09:00

(Mia whining in the back seat, lots of "ow ow ow".)

Craig asks, "Mia, what's going on?"
"I tripped on the field."
"Well, that happens a lot, you're gonna trip on the field."
"It hurts."
"Well, it's ok, it's good to trip now and then, ya get right back up."

(DRIPPING with sarcasm - I don't know that you can imagine enough of it as you read this.) "Oh, so it's GOOD that I fall. Your HAPPY that I trip and fall. That's a GOOD thing, huh? That I get hurt, that's GREAT."

Craig and I stifled hysterical laughter - but I think I let out a snort.

I think the sarcasm we use has rubbed off. And I think the sense of humor of our 6-year-old has surpassed a whole lot of our friends'.

She's Reading

2008-03-13T08:47:00.003+09:00

After a lot of frustration and general malaise, Mia has begun to read. Much in the same way she's done everything - all at once. One day she was whining that she didn't WANT to try and squirming and complaining (not that she still doesn't do that when the reading isn't HER choice, it's ours...) and the next she's reading a book to her father. A first grade level book. And staying true to Craig Bowman's bribery ways, he promised her an iPod when she read him a book of his choosing (this way we knew she wouldn't memorize it).

Last week, it happened. Oh boy howdy did it happen. That kid tore through a book like a champ. The reward was hot pink - and immediately synced up with:

Music: The soundtrack of the movie Once, Amy Winehouse, Peter and the Wolf, the Nutcracker, the Fratellis, a couple of Beatles albums, and some kid music.

Videos: A couple of videos made with her dad on our iMac before he deployed, a Jetsons episode (seen in the pictures below - you'd think we never let her watch cartoons on our 55" tv!), a Flintstones episode, and a couple of other music videos to include Feist's "1,2,3,4".

Also a couple of audio books and photos.

She's one lucky kid... and she loves her new iPod.

More local news (as in, not pictures taken on our living room couch) in the very near future.