Entries this day: Dream Ja-ne,_Natalia Post_ATE_workshop

Dream

6:23am JST Sunday 3 August 2008 (day 14011)

Was playing at Dude and Veronica's house and Veronica paid me 1000 yen because i had parked TJ Bike outside and not brought him inside because Bailey was inside instead. But the 1000 yen note was actually a 2000 yen note, one I had given her a long time ago. But when I had sent the 2000 yen note to her, it had been devalued on its way out of Japan; it was literally marked on the bill with a note that said it was now 1972 yen. But then it had an extra note, "If the married man states such, the note becomes 2000 yen value."

Ja ne, Natalia

7:34am JST Sunday 3 August 2008 (day 14011)

Nice if brief breakfast with Natalia this morning. I'm thankful that she woke up early to spend the time with me. We had a nice chat with Fatima last night, sharing ice cream and a lovely little private byebye party in a way. Fatima didn't go in to work last night, but she had gone to work the night before and so couldn't join the official byebye party for Natalia.

Anyway, last night was great, and this morning felt quite blessed for me to get a moment to chat with a sleepy Natalia who had plenty plenty to do today.

We talked about getting a fly2.nu animal to her, but didn't / don't really have time to do it. Ami has Marcus Lion in Kyushu and won't really be back until after Natalia heads off to Narita. We could conceivably do it tonight, but I doubt it will happen. (*)

8:49pm JST Sunday 3 August 2008 (day 14011)

(*) It didn't happen. Maybe I can ship U-Cow over to Spain while Natalia is there. Would have to send him express so he'd get there in plenty of time before she comes back. Maybe Kris will get back to Canadia and I can have her send Go-Rilla to Natalia instead of me. (I actually intend to give Go-Rilla to Natalia when he gets to me, so might as well just send him to her directly.)

Post ATE workshop

8:26pm JST Sunday 3 August 2008 (day 14011)

The workshop was super great. I mostly enjoyed meeting Brett and listening to 美亜's translations. I learned some new words: 南北, and いしき (I think). I could have sorted out the meaning of Namboku had I really looked at the kanji, but I had never used the train line (until today) (Mia used the word when she was basically trying to describe longitude and latitude lines (the grid of Earth lines)). Ishiki means conscious / consciousness. That word was used about a million times during the weekend, and Mia translated it the same way each time.

Doing the meditations was equally great; seeing Helma and Brett's interaction was great; doing the eye contact exercises was great. I'm looking forward to a new infusion of energy into our weekly ongoing meditation meetings.

After the workshop, Mia, Brett, Helma, and I hung out at Tea Time near 後楽園 and chat chat chatted for a long time. I was surprised at how much effort had gone into making the workshop a reality. Could I do all that?

I think for now I'll just stick with painting and meditating and takin' care of my own biznass.

A man named Yoda spoke pretty good English; he's been doing Buddhist meditation stuff for some 10 years or so. Robert is from Poland, and has lived in Japan for a while; he asked lots of questions, which was great when others seemed too shy to ask. Kumi and Tenko were the last to leave each day; I imagine I'll be seeing them at the ongoing meditation group. I chatted with Kumi more than with Tenko, and even gave her my URL after I mentioned I had my journal online. I barely spoke with Tenko, but I hope her kanji is 天子 and that she and Kumi will both join the meditation group and ISIS intensive in October.

But I mostly mostly wish 亜美 could have been there. I realllllllllly want to do this type of work with my partner.