i'm not that eager to make a mistake*
Have been going through a lot of stuff that has been either stuffed away in boxes or just laying around for months/years. I've stopped waffling around and decided to get rid of my "Ultimate Workout Log". I bought it in 2007 when I was motivated to actually be on some sort of exercise regimen. Now, I don't need to record my activity in a log because I have a pretty regular schedule that I adhere to because I enjoy it, rather than loathe it. I'm going to get rid of the workout log so I figured that one or two of my coworkers might be interested in having it. I wrote all of my entries in pencil, so they can easily be erased. As I was flipping through it to make sure there weren't any entries made in pen, I came across a note that I had written above the "By the Numbers" fact that was included on the page. The By the Numbers fact is: "50 mph: Top speed of a lion. 32 mph: Top speed of a giraffe. 30 mph: Top speed of a kangaroo. 27.9 mph: Top speed of a human. 25 mph: Top speed of an elephant." Above it, I wrote: "Why not something more important - like the top speed of an angry bear? I'd like to know my chances..." How apt that is, considering I'm moving to an area of Japan that has one of the largest populations of Japanese Brown Bears... Hopefully I will not find out firsthand.
This weekend was an expensive weekend. I went clothes shopping on Saturday with Nailz, so that really made the cost of the weekend go up. I mostly shopped at Marshalls for some business clothes for teaching. I got 6 items (one being a navy blue 2-piece skirt suit) for $113. The suit was the most expensive at $29. Everything else I got for $20 or under. Pretty good considering they are all nice items...
I also got rid of 3 grocery bags packed full of books. I sold some to Barnes & Noble for store credit and scored the new Mark Bittman food/cookbook and a manga. The books that Barnes & Noble didn't take (which was actually most of them...), I took to Half Price Books and got $50 cash. Fun times. I picked up three new CDs: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, JET - Get Born and one from a group called Hiroshima, album title is "East". The last album was very interesting. It's a group from Japan that mixed Jass, New Age and traditional Japanese sounds in the late 1980s. Very interesting. Something completely different from everything else I have. :)
Sunday, I went shopping at Target for a new purse (the strap on mine was about ready to break - and it did during that shopping trip). While there I picked up a cute, fake-leather tote for work in Japan. It has a spot for my laptop and looks like it will be fairly ideal for taking stuff too and from school in lieu of a briefcase. I also found the best thing since sliced bread.
Behold.If you read the review, it looks like I might need to save my receipt. But the idea of a reversible belt is pretty dang cool. I'm willing to give it a try because if it breaks, I can just take it back to Target.
In other (great) news, I have gotten in contact with my predecessor. She is British and seems absolutely lovely. She has already answered my major questions. Now I just need to pick her brain about the small stuff.
The work day cannot come to a close fast enough. Only a few more minutes, so...
*Bob Dylan - Things Have ChangedLabels: life, shopping, work