Making Excuses... and Going to Concerts!
Recently my archery friend asked me why I haven't been to Kyudo in a while. I told her I was sick for a week, and I often have homework due on the days that practice runs. It has also been too cold to make myself get up and put on my uniform and walk all the way to practice. Since I know that I won't be able to do kyudo for much longer, perhaps I should make the most of it, but I think it has been making me want to stop going because I don't want to practice something that I can't continue. I also started kyudo to make myself get out of the house more, but the weather recently hasn't been encouraging me to do so.
I also want to keep editing my book, but it has been slow going recently. I get home from work and usually want to read or watch a few episodes of a TV show. I have let my procrastination take over recently. Maybe it's because the end of the year is nigh and I am mentally already on vacation.
On weekends, I usually get a lot done because my energy level is much higher than on weekdays after school. It is also hard to concentrate on writing or editing at school, even though I often have down time. I like a quiet, private environment for writing, so sitting in the open teachers' room, there are a lot of distractions. Not to mention, I don't even hear English during the day. It's hard to write in English while listening to Japanese everywhere around me.I went to an Arashi concert last weekend and it was the perfect way to de-stress. My friend and I ate good food at a new Hawaiian restaurant downtown, and then we ran around as I shopped for a bag I have had my eye on online for quite some time. I had to go to three stores, but we finally found the one I wanted. With my prize in hand, we ran off to the concert hall.
I saw Arashi last time they came to Fukuoka and really came to appreciate them more as a group. Before, I was only a Matsumoto Jun fan, and I only occasionally listened to their songs. But they are really great performers, and I had a lot of fun last time. This year, we sat on the edge of the stands, and we were almost at eye-level with the members when they came by. None of the members expressly acknowledged us, but it was amazing to see MatsuJun so close up.
The Digitalian album is a really upbeat and fun album to listen to, and I don't have any song I dislike. I especially love Nino's solo and the song Zero-G. Both songs were amazing to see live. Arashi showed off their hi-tech fashion and danced to amaze. We had a lot of fun dancing and watching the lighted uchiwa change colors all over the dome. Each section would light up a different color, and the lights were held by the fans but remote controlled by the wi-fi. It was probably the most hi-tech concert I have ever been to.
I was invited to tomorrow's SHINee concert, and I have tickets to see Big Bang twice over the first weekend in December. NEWS is also releasing a new single in January! I am holding out hope that they will have a new album and a concert before too long. Concerts and new music really invigorate me, no matter what kind of crap is going on at school.
Lately I have been feeling more useless at work than ever, and we just had our annual Skills Development Conference. This year, none of my teachers came with me, so although I am hoping I can share the information I learned over the past two days, I feel as though the same thing that happened last year will happen again. Last year, even though three of my teachers attended, classes didn't really change, and I didn't feel any more useful or utilized in class.
Today the head of the English teachers at my junior high school came over and told me that she talked to some of the other teachers about using me in class for cultural information and the like. I agree that I should be more of a resource on cultural aspects, but I think my main complaint is not even speaking during class. And by speaking I mean, saying something other than the list of vocabulary or the morning greeting.
Maybe tonight I will have the energy to knock out my grad school paper and still have some left to finish editing Chapter 2 of my novel to send to my beta readers. I finished reading Looking for Alaska and I have a few other books to finish. I only have a few big assignments left in my class before I get a three week break from graduate school classes. I hope to edit more and read more during that time, but I will be in Korea as well, so who knows.
It's almost the weekend, and the new Pokemon game comes out Friday, not to mention Junkyu and his two friends are all coming to Japan from Korea. They will only be here for about 22 hours, but I hope I can be a good host. We are going to walk around to see the Christmas lights and we are eating lots of Japanese food. Maybe a session of karaoke is in my future. Those usually cheer me up.