Shower Power

I need to have either a personal assistant of sorts or a recording device in the bathroom for myself.  Practically every single day, when in the shower, I have loads of fabulous ideas (and not just about writing, but about various parts of life).  And, by the time I turn off the water, – and yes, this is even if it is the shortest shower ever – I have forgotten almost all of it.  Then, whatever meager bits remain in the front regions of my memory at that point decide to taunt me after I rush to paper or a computer to jot them down.  So, almost every night, I have this fabulous and effortless brainstorming activity which produces innumerable magnificent ideas, all of which I promptly forget.

The feeling of loss is real, in an odd way.  And yet, it is somehow utterly ridiculous, as well.  Just plain laughable.  I mean, who has their best ideas in the shower, anyway?

Then again, who doesn’t?

I’ve really got to do something about this one… really.  😛

 

Post-a-day 2017

Singapore at a glance

Things I noticed almost immediately about Singapore:

  • The toilets try to attack me (the sensor goes off at the slightest movement to either side, and the power of the water is impressive)
  • Toilet seats I crossed were mostly old and cracked-like all along the edges
  • There was always soap in the bathrooms
  • Fruit is fresh and local and almost never above about one US dollar
  • The technology is noticeable, as is the advanced architecture (literally almost everywhere)
  • Even the old places are beautiful and creative
  • I can’t always understand the accent, despite the fact that English is the language being spoken most of the time (official language since around the 60s, I believe)
  • Taxis are affordable (like actually)
  • The rain is a nice refresher in the afternoon (January, anyway), making life seem magical with the cool yet warm rain
  • People look content with life (as opposed to the stressed look of so many here)
  • People are happy in general
  • Street art is beautiful and passion-filled
  • Architecture might as well be considered street art, with its intense personality and shock factor as you turn the corner
  • You can walk all over
  • Public transit is good and completely affordable
  • There is a huge mix of cultures, with no noticeable dominating population – they’re just Singaporean now, although there are so many ancestral countries represented  (I get that I did not word that quite correctly, but I like how it sounds, so I’m leaving it as-is)
  • Bring an umbrella and tissues everywhere, and you will be safe from any concern
  • I want to be there more often  🙂

 

P.S.  I didn’t notice this one until it was pointed out to me, but I agree with it:

  • It is clean.  Except for the odd bathroom that some owner doesn’t manage too well (like that wretched bathroom at the restaurant in Little India), everywhere I went was clean.  The streets were all clean.  And I think I didn’t notice, because it was just so natural for me to have streets that way.

 

Post-a-day 2017

And Unexpected Story From… Somewhere

Tonight, for whatever reason (aside from the part where one thought links loosely to the next, those tiny threads of ideas drawing you quickly along the ever-unexpected path with them, until you eventually find yourself miles from the original thought, wondering how on Earth you got there), I was reminded of something I wrote a while back.  As I mentioned to my friend when I sent it to her, it is rather messy, and it just kind of came out of me.  One day, the words were just in my head, as though urging me to write them down, and so I did really quickly… It was almost like an ‘I have to do it now’ experience.

I have various theories as to how the story came to me, as well as to why my mind wanted me to write it down on paper (yes, the original is with paper and pen, not computer), but I find them unnecessary to include here, as none of them was present when I actually had the story pouring out of me that odd morning (odd, due to this near-overwhelming necessity to write this story, which had never quite happened to me in such a way until that day).

Anyway, it is sad – dreadfully sad to me, anyway – and it is terrible, and it is a miniature story that asked me to write it down, and somehow got back into my head tonight to get me to share it with the world (well, whatever portion of it will cross this weblog posting, at least).  Enjoy… or whatever… you know…

 

“No,” declared Jessica, exasperated, “I’m not going to call him.”

Yet, even as she spoke, she knew deep down that she would be with him again.  So she wouldn’t call him…, but she’d said nothing about texting.  Or his calling her.

Soon enough, perhaps in a matter of hours, she’d be with him again.  And then, in a matter of minutes, she’d be lying there alone, feeling gross, almost wanting to hurl.  Or else hurl something… he wouldn’t hold her, no matter how she wished it.  He never did…  But, for a few moments, she would feel the pressure of him resting on her chest, and it almost would feel as though it were intentional, as though there were someone – right here and now – who wanted to be with her, who cared for her, who loved her.

Though she knew it wasn’t so.

“This is so messed up,” she would say to him…  And she would mean it.

And yet she couldn’t stop herself.

He was in need, and she could help.  Besides, she had been curious in the first place.  Now she knew.  Perhaps that was a good thing.  If nothing else.  And an icy feeling told her there was nothing else good about it all.

Jessica wouldn’t see how he only appeared to be in need – she was too trusting of him and his word; she had looked up to him for too long to question what he expressed to her.  And so, in her time of extreme need for love, she would leave the love of her friends to go to him, and be robbed of what little she still had, knowingly sacrificing her own happiness and love to help, to serve, to please another.

 

Post-a-day 2017

Round Something

I don’t really want to write tonight, because I’m incredibly tired and somewhat nervous.  I fly out much earlier than I had remembered, and so my bedtime is hours overdue at this point.  Also, my easy and cheap train ride to the airport has turned into a necessary cab ride.  Fortunately this country is actually rather awesome, so the can ride is quite affordable.
I just always get nervous about flying for various reasons, so here I am, once again, nervous.  Add my exhaustion and mental avoidance of thinking about how sad I actually am about leaving here, and you’ve got a good package of not wanting to type up something fancy on my phone.  😛
Post-a-day 2017

Blessings

Today, I got even more medicine from this beautiful place and its beautiful people.  And I didn’t even her close to tears, I had already been so healed by the previous day and a half… after months of depression, I’m not sure I could have been more relieved to discover this fact today.  🙂

Here’s to dancing and marriage and goofy, cross-cultural blunders and friends and fun drinks and silly things and the unplanned and lots and lots of colors and fresh fruit.  😀

Post-a-day 2017

Colorful Medicine

Singapore has brought color to my life and tears to my eyes.  I never knew I could be so moved, touched, and inspired by fresh fruit, warm, humid air, and an incredibly varied mix of people around me.  All I had for lunch was freshly squeezed fruit juices, lychee, dragon fruit, and an avocado smoothie; I have never been more moved by a meal, I actually had tears brimming at the acquisition of each part of the meal.

Oh, and the extra-exciting part about it?  It didn’t even cost me $5.  

Add in how architecture is unreasonably, though beautifully varied, and that buildings are not only multicolored, but are any given pretty color you could imagine and in almost any direction you look, it is safe to say that this place is [insert the word that means a boatload more times] more my kind of place to spend a year than Japan.

But that’s okay.  It just gets to be my revival and medicine for the start of this last semester, and I get to appreciate it that much more for its being exactly that, in addition to its initial high ranking on the scale of my likes.  🙂
Post-a-day 2017

The Panic of Packing

In the morning, I’m going to a friend’s wedding.  The wedding isn’t until Saturday, but I’m going early, so that I can be sure to make the wedding, and so that I can have some time to play around the town/island.  I’ve never been to Singapore, so this is an exciting adventure for me, in mini form.  (I wonder if they have Minis there…  Also, on which side of the road do they drive?  I don’t remember…)

However, this means that, inevitably, I am up late tonight.  I am always up late the night before a trip – be it packing or just general this-and-thats, I am always up late, and usually much later than usual for that given night of the week (this time being a Wednesday night).

Aaaand, along with that being up late, is that ever-present (when prepping for a trip) sensation that I am forgetting something, something vital.  I have my passport, phone, and boarding pass, so I technically will be able to survive…, but that doesn’t ease my mind off this feeling.  As I was making final touches, I realized that I still hadn’t packed the two pair of shoes I’d needed to pack (for the dance party one night and for the wedding outfit)… things which had been on my mind every day for the past week… thereby giving me evidence that my experiencing this feeling of having forgotten something important is not falsely or without sufficient evidence created – it is not every time that something like that happens, but it is every time that the trip is somehow important that I feel this panic.

Yikes, yikes, yikes, I say!  (Well, I didn’t actually say it at first, but then I read aloud the sentence I’d written, so I did, in fact, say that sentence…, but I’m going to leave it as the italicized thought, because that’s more how it originally occurred as a feeling and all.)

 

Anyway, I’m hoping for the best!

 

P.S.  Does Singapore have beaches??

 

Post-a-day 2017

The impossible and a new look at time

Last night, as I was thinking on how the impossible had happened for me that day, and then hula classes I’d just asked two friends about helping me do, I got onto wondering about new beginnings and fresh starts.  I started to think about the idea of treating today as the beginning of my time in Japan.  Like how I’ve visited other countries, and then gone there later for several months to study, I can see Japan in that same sort of timeframe.

Yes, I came and did a semester in Japan before.  And, now, I’m back in Japan, but just for a semester.  In six months and a week, I’ll be finished, my semester over.  I only just arrived, and so have to get going with the things I want to do and see, and the relationships I’d like to build.  But, since I’ve been to Japan before (when I studied (read “worked”) here the last time), it should be easy to settle into place, and to start picking up the language again.

Sure, I remember that there were things that were really rough when I was here before, and I suspect things will be hard again.  However, it is only a single semester, and I’ll be so busy doing this and that (to make sure I get it all in, since I definitely didn’t last time), it’ll zoom by me quite quickly.  (So, I’d better get started, eh?)

Huh… I’m actually quite excited about my brief visit to Japan this semester.

Who’d’a thunk?

Who says we have to relate to time as directly sequential?

I thank my most recent audiobook for this beautiful thought idea – The Time Traveler’s Wife.

 

P.S.  I actually wrote this last night, as I just didn’t want to forget it for today’s post.  😛

Post-a-day 2017

Glee

Can I just have GLEE for my life?  I mean it.  Real life Glee Club.

Get together with friends, say once a week, and each prepare a little song to perform for the group.  We can do themes, and even mashups, and maybe even just copy themes from the show at times (the ones we like, anyway).

I can only see this as a beautiful idea – it will help boost our confidence in performing in front of others (as well as being vulnerable in front of them), improve our musical skills, keep our creativity working in various ways (song selection, how specifically to perform the song in terms of instrumentation and speed and key, how to express ourselves through it, music (duh), etc.), bring more music into our lives, get a taste of music that our close friends like, get to know one another better, build beautiful bonds of trust between one another, and just plain bring joy to us all via music and welcoming camaraderie.  It’s fabulous.  And it’s totally terrifying.  But I still want to do it!  Yes, I do.

…I was thinking that I only wanted to start it once back home, when with friends with whom it is easy to communicate (my ideas in general, as well as just speaking the same language fluently), but I am now thinking that this might be something worth attempting here.  Even if it is only with one friend (I have one in particular in mind for it), I think it would be a good step for me, both on the I want to go home level and the musical creativity and confidence level.  : )

I’m not decided yet, but I think I want to do it with her.  I know for sure that I am creating this club once back in the US.  However, I’m leaning towards trying it out here first…  Maybe I’ll be able to work out some kinks over these next six months, making it all the better in the Fall.  😀

 

Post-a-day 2017