Tag: driving

Travel

Well, we drove three+ hours each way today instead of flying half as much to go visit my grandmother for Mother’s Day weekend. The weather was just too spotty and unreliable, so we drove. The up side is that we got to bring the dog with us. The down side is that my man didn’t get the extra three hours of cross-country flight time he would have gotten if we’d flown. But it was also cheaper driving…

Nonetheless, plans changed, but it still worked out well. We got to stop at Costco for flowers and a hot dog and slice of pizza. Always a good thing on our list. And then we had a great lunch out with my mom and grandma (and the dog), a good time just the two of us with the dog waking around town a bit, and then a good time relaxing st my grandma’s before we all headed back out to go home. All in all, it was a very good day, and I am grateful for it.

Thank you, God, for the family and the love and the safety of today. Please, keep us always safe, that we pursue and fulfill your will by being our best selves. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Zoom-zoom

Today, we had about an hour to spare before heading from one place to the next. We were heading home, and decided suddenly to go ahead and stop at the go-kart place we pass all the time. We pulled into the packed parking lot – cars were lining the street, too – and it was by divine agreement that someone was leaving right as we pulled into the lot, giving us a space to park (and right by the entrance door).

Tickets were for a five-minute ride. There were regular, fast, and really-fast karts. The fastest ones require a valid driver license, though they only go about 20 miles per hour at top speed (the girl guessed 30, and was sorely mistaken). We went ahead and bought two tickets and got in line for the super fast ones. No one was ahead of or behind us, as most people were younger folks, we’ll say, or their parents who weren’t interested in driving the fastest ones.

I tell you what: we had a great time. It was a safe space for us to race and be slightly reckless and goofy and crazy and to take risks, and I have a blast. Genuinely, as soon as we started our onto the track, and I was working to block my man from passing me while I adjusted my seatbelt straps – I’d out them on properly, but then my arms weren’t long enough to reach the steering wheel, which I discovered as I took off 😛 – I felt like we were in a real-life version of Mario Kart. I even imagined shooting tortoise shells out my kart’s butt and dropping banana peels to keep him from passing me… as though that were an option. 😛

It was great. I got to practice crazy turns and get very good at them. You know, the whole hitting the break suddenly while turning the wheels quickly, so the back end swings around the sharp curve but the driver seat barely moves over the ground, just rotating almost in place, and then flooring it and taking off straight on the other side of the turn. It was way cool. I finally perfected the turn, and thought I’d broken the thing with the turn, but it was just that the timer had just run out right then, disabling the high speed of the fast karts and reminding us to exit at the end of the circuit (which I had Just started, and so had to do slowly like the normal people for most of the rest of it [only the back straight-away was disconnected from the sensor, and so we got to speed there again before hitting the sensor wall again to finish out the lap at a slow chug]).

Also, fun fact: it seems that weight plays a role in the kart’s speed success. The fact that I weigh a good portion less than my man meant that I had less traction and less speed on my kart. Even when we were on even scores on the back straightaway, both giving them full gas, his kart would leave mine behind before the end of the straightaway. (Perhaps it wasn’t weight, but that explanation made the most sense to us, versus that my kart just wasn’t as good as his. They all seemed to be the same age and quality and all, so it was unlikely that his would perform so differently like that just on its own.)

Anyway, it was such a great time, and I was smiling basically the whole time – big, toothy, open-mouthed grin smiling, it was so much fun for me.

And it was only five minutes. But I’m really glad we did it.

Thank you for that blessing today, God. Please, continue to keep us both safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Stateside!

Y’all, he is officially in Texas. He has stopped twice already to nap at rest stops, and I don’t know how many times he has had to stop to release bodily stuff from one end or the other (or both!). He somehow ended up vomiting and with diarrhea last night, and so got a start hours later than intended this morning. My guess is that he ended up drinking some bad water… I hope it clears through him quickly, and he can heal by tomorrow.

Nonetheless, he is almost home.

Dear God, thank you for his safe travels so far. Please, continue to bless his travel with safety, and help heal his body, that he return home to Houston healthy and safe. Then, please, grant us both blissful sleep tonight, that we awaken refreshed and ready to enjoy the holiday together tomorrow, pursuing and fulfilling your will by being our best selves together. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Happy New Year!

It’s just nearly 9:30pm, and I am beyond wiped, wishing I could have been in bed already an hour ago. Today has been good overall, but I am exhausted. We started with watching the first sunrise of the year, as is custom in my family – because, you know, we’re part Japanese now. Then we drove to a nearby city to have brunch with my stepdad’s sister and her husband – wonderful time(!), but tiring drive. I’m so glad I have a man who can handle long, tiring drives and stay fully awake. I struggle to stay awake even as a driver on those, so I tend to stay away from them as a whole.

Anyway, we then meandered back to the city where we’re staying, took a way-too-long nap – well, he did, anyway, and I hung out next to him – and then finally went to dinner. I was super hungry and, so, ate too much. It was delicious food, but also food that doesn’t exactly leave me feeling very healthy or whole, thought definitely quite at home.

Hopefully, tomorrow starts getting some things checked off our list for the house. Fingers crossed that it goes well!

Post-a-day 2023

(Huh… I guess it is 2023 now. 😛 )

Max

It looks like three hours is my max drive time for what I can consider ‘an easy trip’. Going back to Houston last night, then turning to come right back tonight was tough, especially with most of the driving being done at night, and a good chunk of it past my regular bedtime.

Anyway, I’m here now, alive and well. So, that’s good and I am grateful. However, I shall sleep hard core now.

Thank you for the safe travels . Please, bless me tonight and tomorrow that I might be your love. Amen.

Post-a-day 2021

Turning insignificant into loved

I started working at a clothing store as a part-time job recently. And kind of ‘just because I wanted to do it’. I had never worked in retail before this, and I had often felt that I might be well-suited to being paid to organize and fold stuff (something I already do when I go into stores as a customer, anyway, but, of course, not for pay). So, I am giving it a go.

Walking to the store today to work, I had geared up for the pouring rain: Waterproof boots, a long raincoat, backpack waterproof cover, and an umbrella. The only thing not covered directly by waterproof material was my sweatpants – odd how that is singular yet not…. a single item of clothing, yet referenced as a plural for its two legs… yet we do not reference a shirt as plural for its two arms/sleeves…

Anyway, so, I am being very careful as I walk on the sidewalk. It is placed directly beside the road, with no buffer – genius, I know (meaning What idiotic brain fart planned this sidewalk?). Whenever I come up to a spot where there is a puddle in the road, I quickly run a large arc away from it, before joining back with the sidewalk, doing my best to avoid any possibility of being splashed by passing cars.

Just after I cross the train tracks, when there is nowhere to arc , and I am just running in a straight line to pass a puddle, a single car comes speeding up from behind me. There are no other cars around, and the car easily can move into the left lane and avoid hitting the massive puddle on the right lane… and the bright yellow individual who cannot be considered invisible right now.

The car does not move over. I notice just in time to jump forward and pull up my legs as best I can in front of me.

Almost my entire left pant leg, and some of my right, is suddenly soaked, completely through to my skin. My leg is actually dripping wet on the left.

I curse in an outraged yell, as I continue on my way, somehow embarrassed.

After setting everything down in the back at work, I change into my regular shoes, and head out to check in, eyes already beginning to burn. The moment she asks me how I’m doing – the standard check-in – I starts to cry. I cannot help myself.

I’m okay, but I’m not okay right now, I manage to say a couple times. I explain briefly what happened and that my pants are currently soaked through, and that, as I am now seeing with clarity, I am not only physically uncomfortable, but I am living in the experience of having been unworthy of being noticed. Insignificant out on the street, thus completely missed by the driver. That was my experience, no matter what logic told me, and I was still processing that experience and all the emotions that went with it.

She got it completely. Do I want to go change? she offers. I don’t have anything to change into, I reply, still in active tears.

“Okay, do you want to go pick out some pants?” I hesitate, considering how it doesn’t work for me to go buy something for myself right now.

“I’ll get you some pants,” she clarifies at my hesitation to respond. “Go pick something out from the sales rack, and come check back in with me, and I’ll get them for you. And then you can go change.”

And so I did. And she did. And I changed into dry, fancy, brand new pants. And the world was suddenly a lot easier to take in when I was no longer soaking wet and mentally preparing how to survive the next five hours as such, and somehow be in a good mood and help people and walk around with ease.

I checked back in with her once I was changed, expressed clear and direct gratitude for handling the situation so well – so immediately and so effectively – and for creating a space for me to clear things up for myself by removing the strong physical discomfort aspect of the situation. (Think how we are miserable and can’t function properly when we are super hungry, and then our brains suddenly work again after we’ve gotten the needed nutrition. Better yet, think about how a bull or horse will buck and buck like crazy, even after the cowboy is off its back, until that miserably tight burr strap is loosed off its hindquarters.) It has been a no-brainer for her, and she was glad to have been able to help clear it all up for me. After all – and she didn’t say this, but we both know it – I can serve the store and its customers best when I am at my best… and wet and miserable is certainly not my best. So, it was beneficial to the store for me to have the new pants, more so than just the cost of the pants, but for the cost of all the customers with whom I would come in contact the rest of the day.

I don’t know if she bought them herself, or if there is a budget for the store to be used for such odd, here-and-there occasions. And I’m okay with it either way. I am nonetheless grateful that this person considered such a solution, whatever the details of it, and made it happen. And immediately. It made a world of a difference for me, and I was and still am extremely grateful.

Plus, I actually really like the pants. They were comfy to wear, and they are a really pretty color. Thank you, K. You turned a terrible experience into a lovely and loving one. And I am grateful.

Post-a-day 2020

Mother-daughter

“I really want that dental tool… and I need underwear.”

What was that?, you wonder. It was something I said tonight on our way home, which was the catalyst for a several-minute cry-fest for my mom and me.

We could not speak. Only the occasional partial word exited our mouths, and none of it comprehensible, even to each of our own ears. Our eyes were pouring water. Our cheeks ached. Our bellies convulsed in silent, intense laughter.

Eventually, we both began to gasp for air, and slowly traded our silent laughter for loud coughing, tears still pouring down our faces.

So, why did this all happen, then?

My mom and I joke regularly about how our brains work on this family. We change topics very easily, but we always return to any topic we have set aside, no matter the reason for doing so. So, it is completely normal that we throw out a complete non-sequitur…. and also normal that the conversation continue with ease and without hesitation or judgement. Oftentimes, the original conversation will continue by one person, while the other person shares a few comments on a non-sequitur before returning back to the original conversation (the one that was continued by the other person).

Example: We are talking about cheese, say.

‘I think Brie would be better, because it’ll work with the crackers.’

‘I’m really glad they banned smoking in bars and restaurants in France.’

‘But a good smoked Gouda is always amazing.’

‘It just would have been miserable for me, if everyone had been smoking all the time.’

‘And a nice Swiss, too.’

‘Like in Japan… ugh. You always just go explore the cheese section at the grocer, and find fancy cheeses all at once there, so just have some in mind, but don’t bother settling on what cheeses ahead of time.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. I always do like doing that.’

See how two conversations kind of just happened at once? Well, we do that.

And we are fine with it.

However, we have, in recent years, begun to notice how it might appear to an outsider, whenever we have any sort of odd or atypical conversation. Therefore, such conversations usually end up with us laughing at some point in the middle of them, as we both realize one another realizing the outside-view-crazy conversation we are having.

Tonight, when, out of nowhere, I mentioned my desire for a dental tool, that was already a bit odd. That I continued with the, “I need underwear,” statement, that sent my mother out of it completely. I, naturally, could not contain myself with her laughing so hard. As I began to laugh, I asked for clarity on why specifically she was laughing, whether at the randomness of the conversation then itself or st the specific combination of those two comments. It was the latter, because she was immediately imagining how the two might go together somehow, like ‘I need bread and milk from the store’. But it was a dental tool and underwear, as though one had to do with the other.

I explained that I had gone to the store recently, but I had forgotten to look for the tool, and they had been out of the underwear I had wanted, so those were the only two items on my list that hadn’t gotten purchased.

That didn’t make it any better, though. 😛

We laughed so hard, it was ridiculous. And it was spectacular.

I love these ridiculous times with my mom, and I am extremely grateful for them.

Post-a-day 2020

Motorcycles and memory

There’s a guy at work who is getting a motorcycle next week, apparently.  When he talks about ‘getting his motorcycle license’ and motorcycle, there’s a part of me that reacts with envious awe, “Woah… a motorcycle license… that’s cool… motorcycle,” placing the man temporarily on a shining white pedestal with a glowing golden spotlight on him.

But then, as I mentally gaze up at this god-like figure of a person (who is thus due to the motorcycle status, of course – nothing to do with his actual body or anything) surrounded by shining lights, another part of me slowly wakes up and says, “Uh… hello… it’s actually called a motorcycle endorsement, not a license…. And, heLLO, Banana: you have one of those… and you drive a motorcycle… derr… you dope.”

And then I just feel silly and giddy all at the same time, laughing at my odd forgetful moment and delighted in the recovery of the relevant memories and information.

I guess I am really cool still.  And I still just keep forgetting how cool.  B.A., really…  in many ways, I am that shining person up on that pedestal.  And that is totally baller.  I am ever grateful for such beautiful blessings and opportunities in my life.

Thanks, bruh… I love you.  😉

Post-a-day 2020