A post with a variety of topics.....I'm on a roll tonight, babies!!!

First....thanks to Ginaagainandagain (see my blogroll) I am joining another challenge. So many bloggers out there are doing that Blog 365 thing....blogging every single day for a year. Weeelllll.....I really don't see myself doing that...but....the month of February...I might be able to do! So...am joining her and some of her friends to see if we can blog every day, for this month. She has broken it down into a 'week-by-week' kind of thing to make it a little easier.
SooOOooooo....let the daily blogging begin!!! Will do my damndest to make sure my posts are worth reading.....so ya'll come on back now, y'hear!!! (Yowza!! I just channeled one of the Sweet Potato Queens!!)

Second...this next topic, I'm hoping that the bitches who left me my very good friends, Lila, Kim and Lauren will read.
This weekend, our shower is getting some new tiles and the "utitlity" part of the room got a new floor...which means we are without a shower for the next couple of days. So....tonight after dinner, the family went to an "onsen" that is very near our house. An "onsen" is a public bathing place, but the one we go to is actually 'hot springs'. (If you want to read a better example, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen and you can learn all about it....and possibly get very very jealous too!!! Except at the part where everyone is completely nude...nope nope nope no swimming suits!! Just you and 5-30 women you don't know, buck-ass naked, walking around from bath to bath trying to cover your girly-bits with a very small hand towel they give you!!)

Anyway....so there I was...sitting in the rotenburo (outside bath), all by myself, in the misty rain, the steam from the water rising up around me....and something came over me....and I just started crying. So many times, all of us would go to the hot springs together...especially Lila and Kim and I....and I just missed you all so much. I sometimes forget just how much I do miss you...with the internet, blogs, e-mail and cheaper than ever international calling, it's so easy to just reach out and there you are. But, tonight.....*sigh*.

Then....to make the whole experience just a bit more interesting, there was an older lady that came out and when she sat down in the water....seriously, the look on her face was like "oh shit. a gaijin (foreigner) and she's crying...what do I do?" Which in itself, made me giggle......I said "sumimasen" ("sorry") and then she asked me if I was okay....I told her that being in the onsen reminded me of friends who had returned to the States....she smiled and said that she understood as going to the hotsprings always made her think of her husband. Thinking that she meant he had passed away, I, in really bad Japanese, I'm sure, said I was sorry that he was gone...."Oh no no no no.....he's at home watching the sports channel"...they used to go all the time most evenings, but now that they have the extra cable channels, he never goes with her!!!" She and I both got a great laugh out of that!!! I thanked her and let her enjoy the outside bath, alone, for a bit.
The onsen is great....not only for the body, but also the spirit!

and finally.....there has been quite the buzz in the blogging world about how society views growing older....how "we" are dealing with it...and especially the beauty industry and what they keep telling us about how we should look, dress, and especially how much we should (or should NOT) weigh.
Tonight at the onsen.... I noticed as I was walking in, a 35-ish lady in the dressing area. She was dressed very well and looked very thin and was what society would say as "acceptable".

And then....I met her again IN the bath...and I have to tell you....I will take a zaftig (full, shapely) figure, such as mine, anyday over her body type! Yes, she was quite lovely with her clothes on , but underneath that...oh...my...god...no boobs, skinny arms, bones sticking out that looked almost painful, very little behind....she was proof that "clothes do make the person" .

So...I think that the next time we see sa woman that the media has said "has the perfect body", we should request to see that person with very little on and not "touched up" as they do in most photos. Me thinks most of the girls on the catwalks would prefer to have something covering them!!

I read somewhere a quote by someone....canNOT remember who or where I read this but...the guy said...."I'd rather go to bed with a nice sofa than a lawn chair anytime."
I like that and am hoping it was George Clooney or Antonio Banderas that said that!!!
(I doubt it, but a girl can dream, can't she?!?!)

And with that.....#2 of 2 posts is finished!!
You all have a great day...and I'll see YOU...tomorrow!!!
oyasumi nasai!!
("good night")