Dog anyone?

What a fun night this was... I got home the other day and whenever I get home I have to spend forever letting the dog out. He just likes to take his time. So, I come inside and I go upstairs. Well, the bedroom door is open, which is weird cause we just got home and I didn't think Brian had gone upstairs yet. I was right... somehow I did not completely close the bedroom door when I left in the morning. So I turn on the light and it looked like someone had been sleeping in our bed. The pillows were thrown on the floor, the blankets and sheets had been tossed around and what was that? POO! There was poo on my bed! And then I get closer and there was pee too! I could KILL this STUPID DOG!! I wanted to throw him off the balcony. Almost did, but Brian held me back. This bed is brand freakin' new! We bought it about 2 weeks ago and now there are two nasty stains. Ew. We were able to get most of it out, but seriously, what timing, right? I don't even know how he got up on the bed in the first place. He is like 6 inches tall and the bed is about 3 feet high. He has a hard time jumping onto chairs, let alone the bed... stupid stupid dog. Stupid dog! He is a weiner dog so we could make hot dogs out of him and eat him for dinner...

New Hair Cut!

So I chopped my hair! Yikes.... I REALLY chopped my hair! I have never had it so short and I wanted to see what it was like since I felt like it was already sooo short. Well, it turns out my hair wasn't so short before, but it sure is now. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but I really do like it. I am not sure I like so much that I will keep it this way for a while. In fact, I am sure I will let it grow right back, I just wanted to see what it would be like since I have never cut it so short before. Brian is always asking me to cut it short so I figured I would surprise him. He was definitely surprised. When his ship pulled in I was still at work and he came in and didn't recognize me. He walked right by me while I was in the front office.

The only problem with having it short is, I cannot just roll out of bed and go... I wake up looking real crazy, so much so, that I do not even want to exit the front door to take the dog out to pee in fear that I might frighten the neighbors... I am sure this will surprise none of you, but I don't own "hair products" and I need to go buy some gel and stuff so I can "style" my hair.... yikes! What is happening to me! Eh! Is it Japan? Is it my husband being away? Is it a lack of horses and animals in general in my life? Oh dear... what to do, what to do...

Back to school

"Back to school, back to school... to prove to my dad that I'm not a foooolll...I've got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight! Ooohhhh, back to school..." Anyone know where that song comes from? You should.

So, yes, I am going back to school. I NEVER thought I would be interested in getting my Master's degree, but things change and now I really want to. Here in Japan on base the "Navy College" has different educational opportunities for people. Basically, certain schools have contracts with the Navy and they have small campuses on base. The grad programs are very limited, but of the two they have I actually am quite interested in one of them. So, after researching it and thinking about it for a few months I put in my application and will be starting classes soon :)

I am going to the University of Oklahoma to get my master's degree in Human Relations. In this degree I plan to direct my studies more towards working with "at risk" teens. It is an interest I have always had and kind of forgot about for a while. I don't think I want to do counseling exactly, but I have always wanted to work at a horse ranch/rehab center. I know that getting this degree will open more doors for jobs in the future and hopefully it will help me work with teens in some way.

The program is pretty straight forward. It could take as little as 15 months. The class is not set on the normal semester schedule, but I will have regular classroom classes (which was what I absolutely wanted). it won't even cost that much. However, both Brian and I have a lovely mountain of debt from Brooks that we are trying to pay off, so this is going to be all out of pocket. If I have to take a semester off to save up for another class that is what I will do. I do plan to apply for many scholarships so if any of you know of any good ones, pass the info on! Any scholarship information would be VERY much appreciated! Free money always sounds like a good idea to me... so if any of you have any advice I am all ears.

Horses! Yay!

So I had a super fun day today! I went to Tama Hills (an Airforce base about 2 hrs away) and I had a great time! A new friend, Brook, went with me and we both really enjoyed the horses. I was really trying to build some relationships with the people there and I think we did a good job of that. They had a lot to do today because they have some kind of inspection tomorrow so first we helped paint two arenas, had lunch, finished painting and then rode. Not only did the director buy us lunch, but we also got to ride for free. They said they need volunteers to work there so I am sure I will be going at least once a week to get in my riding time. I am not sure that I will always get to ride for free, but it was nice to do it today. 

Basically, on base is the Outdoor Recreation. I met the man in charge of it today, and he is American (and a civilian). Outdoor Rec contracts certain things out so, basically the people running the ranch are Japanese (some speak English, but the main guy in charge does not have such good English). So the ranch is funded in part through the military, but it is totally run by this Japanese man. He gave me a mini lesson today and I gave my friend a mini lesson. It felt SOOOO good to be on a horse again, I cannot even explain. They do ride English so it was interesting riding English for the first time in probably 3 years, and after not even been on a horse in 4 months. Either way, I think I did alright. I know I looked like crap at first, but then I got used to it again and felt better. 

I am very excited to go there regularly. It will be nice having one more place where I can regularly work on learning Japanese and I definitely needed a good place to ride. It is now just one more thing to add to my weekly list of things to do, which seems to be filling up quite quickly... and now Brian will be back soon, what will I do then? Brian is supposed to be back sometime early next week. I am SUPER excited to have him back, and am really hoping that the ships' schedule doesn't change. As much as I try to not get too excited because I know things can always change, I am already excited. He has only been gone four weeks, but it always seems like so much longer here in Japan. Time is going by quickly and yet the time that Brian and I spend apart does seem like forever. Such is life I suppose. He is coming back, and his ship is going into drydock, which means that he will not be going out to sea for a good 3-4 months (no matter what)! So that will be quite nice having him around for such a long time without a break... in fact, I might end up getting sick of him... maybe I will have to live at Tama Hills half the week with the horses.... Ha! Yeah right.

I got lost

So this video has nothing to do with me getting lost, but I figured it is a good story to post it with. This is near my house. They were doing road construction on this sidewalk for a bit and it was kinda weird to see their itty bitty machines (Randy and Jon, you would have appreciated this). This video really doesn't do it all justice. 

So we have our own little craigslist kinda thing out here and I posted an ad on it for pet sitting. This lady only needed me to take her dog for a walk 3 times. I followed her to her house to meet her dog and everything. Well, there are a lot of turns on the way to her house and not as many landmarks so I knew I would need her to give me written directions as well. A week later it is time to go take care of the dog. I get off work at 6pm (it is dark) and I get in the car to realize I left the directions at home. I figure I will be fine cause I had been there before... how hard could it be? I live about a 30 minute drive in the opposite direction and I really didn't want to go home first. So I head out. I did all right, or so I thought. I find myself in Japanese suburbia-land. I drove down every freaking street hoping to find her house (that I knew I would recognize). I thought of going home and getting the directions, but that would take me SO long to do! I could do this... wrong. I spent a good 1 1/2 hrs driving around only to go home to get the directions, and then go back to walk the damn dog. Ugh! By the time I got to the house it was past 8:30pm. The poor dog was so excited to see me. She was so good, no pee in the house :) I felt bad so I took her for a 45 minute walk instead of 30 min (which is what I had agreed to). So after all of that, I got home about 10:30pm. It was SUPER frustrating and in the end, the place I was driving around (when I had no directions) was kinda close... and yet totally not. I definitely would have never found it without the directions... it sucked. One thing I learned is that Japanese road construction at night looks like a freaking amusement park. Lots and lots of colorful signs and flashing lights. 

Heaven... in Japan

So I went and saw horses on Tuesday! It was so stinkin' awesome. I wish I could've rode, but they were busy and they require everyone to take a few lessons first so they can evaluate whether or not you are capable of riding on your own. One of the programmers at my work, Tetsuya, went with me and it was great because he was able to translate for me and I could ask all the questions I wanted. It is VERY expensive. Over $100 per 45 minute lesson. Not to mention the fact that they do not speak English so it wouldn't work out so well. BUT Tetusya is VERY nice and offerred to go back with me so I could take a lesson :) YAY! Not like I want to do it all the time, but it will be quite fun to get a lesson from a Japanese person through a translator.

They all ride English, and luckily I was able to learn English a bit while living in SB so I won't look too bad. I saw one guy riding and he did not look very skilled, but he could have just been some random rider. Hopefully he was not a trainer. Either way though I am SO excited! I know you all think I am crazy, but imagine doing something about 5 days a week for the last six years and then just not doing it at all for 4 months! I went 3 months without even seeing a horse! That is freaking crazy! I LOVED going. The smells, sounds, petting the horses... it was so good. I really look forward to my return:) The video is of one horse who was particularly cuddly and sweet. The stalls are quite small tohugh as you can see...

Recycling in Japan

Wow, ok so Japan Japan is crazy about recylcing. Who doesn't like to take out the trash? Yeah? Well, don't move to Japan. I get to take out the trash just about everyday of the week. First of all, I have no garbage disposal, which isn't so bad. This is not the first place I have lived with no garbage disposal. BUT I live in the city and there is no place to toss nasty chunks of leftover junk, so it goes in the trash to stink it up. 

I have 3 trash cans and that is not enough. Even with my three trash cans I have two piles sitting on the floor. The trash has to be sorted and you take out certain types each day. There is burnable, nonburnable, cans (not just soda cans but bean/veggie cans too), cardboard, pet bottles (that's what they call water bottles), and glass. Sound like fun to you? It IS! Loads of fun :D With all this sorting my trash doesn't quite fill up enough to take out every week, BUT for the burnable stuff... that gets stinky so I can't handle not taking it out every week. 

At first I was very nervous to do something wrong. Our trash goes in a "community cage" at the end of our little driveway, so of course if I screw up they know who's trash it is cause I am the only one with American trash. At first I took my trash on base (which I could totally get in trouble for, but on base they only do burnable and nonburnable, they pay Japanese people to wort the rest). So about a month ago (or maybe more) I put my trash out there and I did something wrong so my neighbors brought it back to me. See, at the time I had no calendar of what goes out when. I would go look at the other trash and try to guess which I should bring out. Apparently, if you bring the wrong trash out they will not take it. So it was a bit embarrassing when my neighbor comes over with his daughter (who speaks better English). They are carrying my trash and a schedule of what goes out when. Then, as if that wasn't enough, he starts to pull some of my trash out of the bag and explain what should go where, ew. I was quite embarrassed. All worked out in the end though. I have yet to screw up like that since. 

Just so you all know, it is difficult at times figuring out what goes in which trash. The Japanese apparently have little signs on their stuff to tell them what kind of trash it is. We Americans do so much recycling *sarcasm* that who knows whether some of it should be considered burnable or not?

A test

So this is our foster dog Dexter... I think I have told you about him. He was my model this morning. I have a photo session set up for next Sunday and I wanted to test out my living room studio. I have some great windows and great light in there so I bought a large piece of fabric to use as a backdrop and this is what I got. Well, the green backdrop is actually a rug, the other is a piece of fabric. I have a photo shoot set up with a woman and her 4 month old baby soon. So this is my studio, let me know what you think! Dex was a great model... he doesn't much like the camera, but I gave him a lot of treats so he was fine :)