I had a bit of a crazy weekend. I was exhausted today after having done more than I have in quite some time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a sad ending to a pretty perfect day on Saturday. With a lot of help from my computer-savvy fella, though, things are going alright.
It all started on Saturday in Sannomiya. Dylan and I were there early as we’ve found ourselves for the last few months. I was hoping to hang out for a bit, maybe get a Starbucks and do some shopping when stores opened. Dylan suggested we sit in the park near the station, being that it was a rather sunny day for this rainy season. I was anxious to move onto my coffee, but I thought sure, why not? There we sat and not five minutes later did I see Lena walking across the street. Hey, there’s Lena. I wonder what she’s doing here so early? Dylan replied with a confusing, “What if I told you you already have plans today?”. Not uh?! What? What’s going on? We walked up to Lena and Dylan proceeded to ask for my keys so he could go home. Ok, now I’m really confused. I don’t like this feeling much, tears may or may not be welling up in my eyes.
Lena and I walked to Starbucks, purchased some of the new seasonal delights and waited for Brenda and Kristine to arrive. The sneaky girls, with help from Dylan, had a whole day of Heather-centered activities planned for my bachelorette party! I was given a bag with slippers and a soon to discover apron. We walked to Junkudo and up we went to a cooking studio I’ve noticed many times before. How well these girls know me! We had a private baking lesson with a teacher and one other baker. We spent the morning making cheesecake souffles, talking and snapping as many pictures as possible. I, of course, didn’t have my camera, so photos will be coming later. We ate our souffles fresh from the oven and they melted in our mouths. It was awesome!
Next up was some impromptu shopping at Gap, where I bought a cute summery outfit. Lena even talked me into getting the bright pink shirt rather than the navy blue one I was leaning towards, saying I was moving to Hawaii soon and I needed some fun colors. Good choice!
We then bought some movie tickets to see The Illusionist. One of a few English movies playing at the Mint building, but the only one I hadn’t seen. We ate at a Spanish restaurant and filled up on all-you-can-eat bread and delicious pasta. Kelly joined us mid-meal to complete our wonderfully dynamic group. Then we shared some fantastic popcorn at the movie, and although some of us nodded off a bit, we enjoyed one of my favorite activities all together. Then we headed to Lena’s, picking Dylan up on our way past Okubo.
Chris joined us, too, and Lena prepared us a perfect homemade yakiniku dinner. We played some games, drank some sparkling wine, and got to know each other a little better than we already do. We were out until just about midnight, which is saying something for me and Dylan. It was such a great day and I’ll never forget it. I never thought I’d make friends like this in Japan, but I am so, so grateful that I have. They have made my time here exciting and all the more memorable. I don’t know how I would have survived without them, and I’ll love them forever! Thanks ladies!! You guys rock it hardcore!
With all the ups that day, unfortunately, there was also a BIG down. When we got home that night, I found my computer unresponsive. I tried restarting it, only to be greeted by a folder icon with a big blinking ? in the middle of the screen. OH NO! We’d seen that before, a number of months ago when the same thing happened to Dylan’s computer. We, or rather Dylan fought courageously to try to get things to work, but no amount of mouth to mouth could bring back my crashed hard drive. I was exhausted and didn’t quite grasp the situation, so we made some plans and went to sleep.
The next morning, Dylan tried one last failed attempt to jump start my precious laptop, but in the end we had to go to Osaka to spend some $$ on a new HD. We made the best of the situation by eating lunch at Kua A’ina, but in the back of my mind, the reality of the situation was becoming clear. A number of times I asked Dylan with my naivete, “Everything is gone? I don’t get it. Where’s my stuff??”. He said it was like telling a kid there was no Santa Claus, because of the look on my face. He even put it into simpler terms: “It’s like if you had all of your stuff in a box and we set the box on fire. It’s gone, honey.” My mind has been slowly getting it, and I actually did start to cry last night. I lost so many pictures and just so much that I’ve been accumulating on this laptop. It’s been my lifeline; my little world. We’ve been thinking about selling one of our laptops and I couldn’t imagine selling mine. It’s ALL my STUFF! Where did it goooooo??? I now where, it’s stuck in this little box thing on my table that now I don’t even know how to dispose of because Japanese trash laws are nuts. It’s in the computer? DAMMIT!
Ugh. Could be so much worse, and I count my lucky stars everyday for all the awesomeness in my life. Great friends, true love, loving family. All I lost was a bunch of zeros and ones, 00001000110. Even if they were some pretty frickin’ cool zeros and ones and MY zeros and ones, it was just that, and I’ll get over it. Next purchase, though, Apple Time Machine. Never again technology, will you make a fool of me…as long as Dylan is around to help, of course 