Entries this day: Dream Orientation onsen_with_Kentaro phil's_birthday_party

Dream

6:31am JST Tuesday 20 December 2005

I was not smoking, but holding a lit cigarette as I went over to see Genki Man Dan, who was driving a small red sports car and had called me over to it. He was like, "can you see me?" and I ducked my head into the passenger's side window and looked at the interior of the car.. "where are you?" and he was like "here" and fogged up tieh driver's side window with his breath.

I climbed into the car and put my lunch down on the floorboard and crushed out the cigarette on the carpet, well before it was 'finished' but I was finished with it, and I could feel its heat on my fingers.

To Dan I was like, "Wow! No I literally cannot see you at all, but I can see tfog from your breath." It was so literally true! I didn't ask him how he had done it; he had found a neat trick or talent and I enjoyed haveing the challenge of determining how it was possibly.

I left my lunch in the car as I started to walk away, went back to where I had been talking to my boss, and realized I forgot the lunch. Ran back and flagged Dan down to stop him, and ran up, joking accusing him of having made my sandwich invisible too, keeping me from finding it. Dan was still invisible, but on his cell phone, though it was on the dashboard on speakerphone, not apparently floating in midair.

- - - -

I was riding TJ Bike to my umfriend's house, with the understanding I could keep him there. It became apparent from her reaction that she was less than pleased witih it, so I asked specifically, "can TJ Bike stay on your porch?" and she goes, "are you going to come to my office with me, too?" in a snotty way. I was like, "I'm not going to stay here," and I rode off without another word. I rode back up the hill wondering where I could stay for the night.

Quickly recognized I could likely find a place in a parking garage next to a building exhaust vent for warmth.

then my alarm went off

Orientation

11:43pm JST Tuesday 20 December 2005

Orientation was great today; we met the CCs for the first time. I fell asleep during Stacy's presentation. Yoshioka's was great.

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable and confident about sailing on this voyage.

onsen with Kentaro

11:44pm JST Tuesday 20 December 2005

Just got back from the onsen with Ken; we both hit the 45 degree baths and then the 17 degree baths (Celcius), and I felt a sorta bone-chilling shock that melted into a vague sorta relaxation based on the knowledge that at any point, I could get out and submerge in the warm baths again.

Ken asked me if I knew about Vipassana meditation, which I didn't. He said it's a pay-what-you-like 10 day silent retreat thing in various places around the world. First three days are spent focusing on the breath. The other days are spent focusing on other things. Maybe. He said there is a center in Kyoto. The price is right; I'd like to ride TJ Bike there after the voyage, perhaps.

phil's birthday party

11:43pm JST Tuesday 20 December 2005

Actually it was the GET and CC dinner at Forchetta's near 高田馬場駅, but today is Phil's birthday so we sang to him like three times, once with cake after I had jumped on his back.

I flitted around the room unlike I usually do, and met a bunch of different people. I can see a difference this time vs last time; I'm *way* more comfortable this time, and am trusting the voyage will be super fantastic!

Drank a lot of orange juice, chowed a lot of salad and stuff. I mostly chatted with staff and CCs because I know the names of all the GETs. Maiko, Masae, Joel, Petra, Yuki, and Yuuka are all repeating from the 49th voyage.

I learned れい's kanji (玲) and りえ's name... ゆき、けん、エリカ、 のそ、とじん、etc etc, names, but I'm a bit tired now to recall them all from scratch.

Bigtime fun carrying Phil's bag out the door to find out whose it was, and having him come out after looking for it while we had it, and me trying to keep it from him as he shouted stuff about Yuuka and Daniel's birthdays (tomorrow) and someone was like, "your birthday is over! [we won't listen to any more of your speeches..]"

Big fun overall.