I know I said my next post would be the Japan pictures...but I lied.

Ugh, just one day back at my unbearably soul-destroying job and my formerly rejuvenated soul has already re-blackened itself with the intense hellfire of one thousand evil winged monkeys which feast on...

...Okay, it's not really that bad, but, man, customers are such bitches sometimes, you know? Ick ick ick. Like, hey, I'm sorry that you have to wait an extra 90 seconds for us to re-download and print a piece of music that came out wrong on the printer, but you throwing a hissy fit because I told you that we cannot just take an original piece of music and copy it on the Xerox machine because that goes completely against federal copyright laws pertaining to published sheet music -- something that I am clearly more knowledgeable of and, not to mention, more apt to be held accountable for -- isn't going to accomplish anything, nor is your smarmy comment made under your stanky breath of, "See? Nobody came and arrested you..." after we quickly and legally reprinted a newly purchased downloaded piece of sheet music for your hateful ass and very politely handed it to you despite every instinct to take the piece of music and give you 10 swift well-deserved paper cuts instead.

*sigh*

Ah well, I guess I'll just have to look at my Japan pictures on Flickr again while sipping a delicious cup of hot green tea and Zen myself back into a more peaceful state. Ommmm...

***

Oh, and P.S. So I leave for a couple of weeks and my triumphant return post garners one measly comment (thank you Joan!) from you ungrateful so-called faithful readers??!!! Unacceptable!!! I expect a much higher level of gratitude from you; otherwise, no Japanese souvenirs for you!! Hahaha, just kidding. I have no souvenirs for you anyway. I'm poor.

And P.P.S Have you gone to see "Blades of Glory" yet? Freaking high-larious. Go see it.

I'm baaaaack!

...Okay okay okay. I've actually been back for an undisclosed number of days. However, seeing as how the privacy of my blog has been somewhat compromised in regards to my workplace (damn you, MySpace!) and seeing as how I have been hiding out from my workplace since my secret return to Seattle an undisclosed number of days ago, I have been holding off on blogging about how FREAKING AWESOME OUR TRIP TO JAPAN WAS AND HOW I AM NOW FULLY CONVINCED THAT I DO NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING WITH MY LIFE BUT PLAY MUSIC, TEACH MUSIC AND TRAVEL THE WORLLLLLD!!!

Step 1: Begin hatching ways in which I can quit my dreary, stress-filled, life-overtaking job and still manage to be able to pay for things such as electricity, food and a roof over my head without sending pathetic emails to the parental units and computer-genius brothers. Check.

Step 2: Determine that the best plan of attack, which I should have started, oh, back in September, is to launch a full-scale attack on the young clarinet-wielding student population in the greater Puget Sound area in order to lure them into taking private lessons with me. Check.

Step 3: Buy some fancy-schmancy resume paper on which to print out 50 thousand copies of my resume. Check.

Step 4: Spend the greater majority of the afternoon online designing and ordering unbelievably cute yet professional business cards, with matching refrigerator magnets and post-it note pads to give to prospective clarinet students. Check!

Step 5: Await arrival of aforementioned unbelievably cute yet professional business cards with matching refrigerator magnets and post-it note in the mail. Meantime, finish off this blissful Week of Hiding Out From My Workplace as I Attempt to Win the Battle Against Jet Lag and go back to work on Monday where I tough it out until I can complete my full-scale attack and build a studio of a target twenty students. And then I can move on to the part of my life where I am actually happy and content doing what I am doing and can feel like an actual musician again. Sigh...check soon?

Anyhoo, speaking of jet lag: it is officially kicking my butt this week. On our way to Japan we met at Sea-Tac at about 10am, departed at 1:30pm and landed in Narita at about dinnertime local time. Then we had to take a 2-hour bus ride across Tokyo to the Haneda airport where we caught another plane that took us to Kobe. From there we took a bus to Osaka. By the time we got to our hotel for the night, it was nearly midnight local time, meaning it was about 8am Seattle-time. Long story short, we were beyond exhausted, and falling asleep right away and, consequently, waking up on schedule the next morning was not a problem.

On the return flight, however, we departed Tokyo at about dinnertime and arrived back in Seattle at 10am. So we were tired when we got home and couldn't resist the urge to take a quick 6-hour "nap" in the middle of they day which, of course, led to not being able to fall asleep at night, staying up til 5 in the morning watching informercials until you finally doze off, and then repeating the entire cycle over again for an undisclosed number of days. Case in point: last night, as I sat on the couch wide-awake cursing the fact that there is no more good television at 4 in the morning, I gave in and popped a couple of ExcedrinPMs. This, unfortunately, resulted in my falling asleep on the couch and sleeping until 2 in the afternoon. Damn! I'll try the snoozy pills again tonight -- perhaps at a more reasonable hour than 4am -- and see if I can get back on schedule sometime this weekend. Because I have to go back to work next week. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm working on getting my photos posted on this blog soon. I've uploaded them on Flickr, so if you've got a Flickr account, let me know and I can add you onto my contacts list. Otherwise, watch out for my next post as it should (hopefully) be pictures of the Japan Tour!

*******

ps. On an unrelated note: Blades of Glory opens tomorrow and I can't wait to see it. Will Ferrell plus Olympic Ice-Skating? Yes please!!

Gah.

Can someone please tell me why I cannot find one freaking fitted, long sleeved, non-hoochie black concert top to bring to Japan??!! Our tour takes us through the more rural areas of Japan, which warrants more conservative concert wear (i.e. I am not allowed to wear pants. Or show my elbows apparently. Boo....) and I spent a good two hours speed-walking through the entire Alderwood Mall and couldn't find anything that wasn't either too hoochie or too granny. Ugh. And seriously, since when is everything made with a 3/4-length sleeve? I just need something that looks semi-decent that has sleeves that go to my wrists and a neckline that doesn't show any bosom. Ich bin sehr frustrated. Don't even ask me how long it took me to find an ankle-length black skirt.

God, I hate shopping.*


* Except for smokehouse almonds and men's socks, that is. Both of which I bought at Target after my anxiety-inducing trip through the mall. Huzzah!

TGI to the F.

Dear God, it's been a while since I've updated. And really, what better time than 9pm on a Friday night for a 26 year old to stay at home, sit on her couch while watching Comedy Central and update her blog...

*sigh*

Anyway, let's see...what random pointless current events can I share wit chu...

Oh yeah: so a few days ago at work, one of the print department underlings came to me for help locating a certain book. As she stood next to my desk looking over my shoulder, I started searching this music search database on my computer. However, instead of typing "Sax" into the search field, I inadvertently typed "SEX." And then before I could backspace it away, I noticed that she was looking at what I had typed and we both kind of just looked at each other for a split second trying to process in our brains what the proper workplace protocol is for a situation such as this, but before I could think of anything non-embarrassing to say, I just blurted out, "WHOOPS! FREUDIAN SLIP!! HAW!!" What a weirdo. Good thing she just went with the flow and laughed along with me.

Oh, and hey, you know what's more fun than Catholic guilt? Filipino guilt. Case in point: On my way home from work tonight I stopped at Rite-Aid to buy some anti-boy-poop candles for the bathroom. I was standing in line at the check-out counter when I heard an older couple speaking with a familiar accent behind me. As I turned around to smile at them, the older man said to me, "You look Filipino." I smiled and said, "I am." After a brief awkward silence that smacked of impending judgement, I added, "I was born in Manila, actually." And then came the inevitable, "You speak Tagalog?" to which I hung my head in shame and replied, "I can understand it, but I can't speak it anymore." And for the next five minutes I had to stand there and nod my head repeatedly in penitence while listening to "1987? You moved here when you were seven and you can no longer speak Tagalog? My niece was seven when she moved here and she speaks Tagalog..." Oy. Thankfully, before any more could commence the post-pubescent Rite-Aid cashier saved me from my guilt-ridden misery and I gave the man one last polite non-Tagalog-speaking smile and went on my merry way with my sweet-smelling anti-poop candles.

And one last thing: Next week Scott and I will be going to Japan for two weeks! Huzzah!! UW Wind Ensemble 6-concert Japan Tour, to answer your question. Wooo!!

Fiscal hangover.

Ugh, I just vomited out about $1000 (i.e. ALL) of my precious tax refund in a tragic assortment of bills, bills and more bills. There was my Mold Mobile payment and my Mold Mobile insurance, then Cingular, then the utilities, then Comcast, and then, as if that wasn't enough to make me want to curl up into a broke little ball in the corner and rock myself into denial-laced sleep, MY STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS HAVE JUST STARTED. Bah. Baaaaah, I say! What is more depressing: Seeing the amount of money you borrowed from the government in order to finance an education which, from examining your present state, clearly did not land you the six-figure income of which your lifestyle has grown accustomed to -- at least in the deluded fantasy world in which I live during every moment of my existence? Or looking at the loan terms and realizing that Dear God I'm going to be two thousand years old when I finish paying off my loans!!!

*sigh*

Could be worse, I guess. And, as much as I would have loved to spend that $1000 on roughly 400 cans of Blue Diamond Smokehouse almonds at Target (Mmm...delicious and nutricious smokehouse almonds. Mmm...Target), it was a wise choice for me to pay off all my bills instead. And vomiting out all my precious expendable income in such a depressing - albeit responsible and adult (gah!) - manner is, I've found, comparable to that of vomiting out the evil from your body after a night of too much refreshing beverage-consuming: Sometimes you really have to force yourself to do it, but once it's over, you feel much better.

Is 26 too young to resign to hermit-dom?orThe post that might get Ysabel in trouble with her co-workers...

So, with Scott being out of town this weekend again (damn you, drum corps!!!), I was fully prepared for a wonderful weekend of ultra-solitary gloriousness, complete with all the things I don't get to enjoy when the other half is around: catch up on "The Hills" and "Gilmore Girls," use the nail clippers (he HATES that sound with a blinding passion), clean the TiVo out of all the stupid Court TV and MSN Investigates shows taking up all the precious hard drive space that should be reserved for only the Food Network and Bravo (...and really bad chick television, as evidenced above), clean the apartment (and have it stay that way for longer than 2 hours -- I'm not kidding), etc. etc. etc. By lunchtime on Saturday, though, I was suddenly hit with this unusual feeling that I had not experienced in a long time: I wanted to go out. And hang. Socially. With other humans. And maybe have some refreshing beverages.

Unfortunately, it's at times like these that you find yourself taking a step back and realizing that you truly have no friends. Not where you reside, anyway. I mean, Scott and I got here in early August last year and spent a good several weeks exploring the greater Seattle area spending all our money on oysters and chowder and Boodles and Tonics. Then all of a sudden, he started school and I miraculously landed a job, both of which subsequently took over our respective lives and, before you know it, it's 6 months later and we haven't gotten around to building any sort of social network.

I mean, he's got colleagues at UW, but the only guy he really likes to hang out with much lives close to Tacoma. And I've made work friends, but, um, how do I put this delicately? They're weird. The one that I'm closest to is 5 years younger than me, and chose to tell me within about 20 minutes of the formation of our acquaintance-ship (is that a word? I'm currently watching "Beauty and the Geek" and the some of the stupid may be rubbing off...) that she has never done the hokey-pokey. The "hokey-pokey" that comes with quotation marks. This, of course, is highly admirable. Very. Just don't tell me about it when I've literally just met you. And then she confided in me again a few weeks later when she told me that she had just done the "hokey-pokey." With one of our co-workers. Yeesh. Plus, she's a vegan. Again, an admirable quality in a human being. It's just that, damn, I love a good hotdog! And I have to feel free to express my love for delicious cooked meats to all my friends.

Anyway, the next co-worker that I'm closest to is like 50 years old with kids my age. I like her because she's funny and bubbly, but whenever we talk about how much we don't want to be at work that day, she says to me, "Well, when Scott gets out of school and gets a job, then you can get married and stay at home while Scott supports you!" And she's not being sarcastic, people.

And don't let me get started on the one that doesn't believe in using microwaves. Damned hippies.

Anyway, the whole point of this story is that, since I wasn't necessarily in the mood to sit at a bar by myself drowning my loneliness in whiskey sours and gin and tonics, I found myself climbing into the Mold Mobile and attempting to do some shopping. I thought, surely I can find a way to pass the afternoon by being around other human beings while spending a good chunk of my tax refund (cha-ching!) at Target and the accompanying shopping mall. Wrong. I got there and promptly came to two realizations:

1. At some point in the last 2 years or so, I have developed a real distaste for shopping. I mean, it always sounds like a good idea at the time. But by the time the actual act of shopping is taking place, I'm all, *sigh* "What's the point, really? I don't really need any new clothes. And I really should just save my money anyway..." When the hell did this happen?? And why did nobody inform me that at some cruel point in my mid-twenties, I would lose the part of me that finds sheer rapture in spending my money in an irresponsible and wreckless fashion? I walked through the mall and walked away with nothing. Not even a pair of socks. Or nice comfy non-thongish underwears that Scott hates.

2. What in the hell's bells was I doing, thinking that going to a shopping mall would placate my desire for jovial companionship? I don't even like people. Specifically, large crowds of people who aren't my family and already-established friends. Even more specifically: large crowds of people packed into a cluster of stores, furiously shoving each other through the crowded walkways in order to needlessly empty their wallets of all the money they had just finished working so hard for during the past week. Yikes. No thanks.

So I got back into the Mold Mobile with the two items I purchased at Target (nasal spray and some moisturizer) and headed home where I promptly watched "The Hills" on MTV while I clipped my nails on the couch. So there you have it.

Anyway, I gots to leave for the airport in a few minutes to pick up Scott, so I better sign off and try to squeeze in some last-minute bad chick television before my wonderful other half comes back and messes up this apartment again. Ha.

Eardrum goes *poof*

Just now I blew my nose so hard that I nearly ruptured my eardrum. Well, maybe not, but it popped hard enough to make me yell out "ow!" as Bela ran away in confusion. I read online that it's not good to blow your nose too hard when you're having sinus problems because the popping noise indicates that some of the icky mucousness might have leaked into your ear canal, causing an ear infection (or something like that, anyway). The good news is that at least now my ears have popped enough that I feel like I can hear clearly for the first time in three days.

Oh, and since I am an expert in letting other people do work for me instead of doing it myself, check out my sister's blog for pictures of their visit to Seattle.