this post is brought to you by the letters L, W, M-R-and-I, of course....F

**I started this particular post a couple of weeks few days ago....got sidetracked by life and now, I'm back, thinking that I need to get this finished or it'll be lost forever.**

Happy Valentine's Day!!

If you celebrate it, I hope it is a wonderful one for you.

Here in Japan, we do things a bit wonky.

To make a long story short:

girls give boys chocolates;

if a boy likes you, he'll give you something white a month later;

sometimes girls give chocolates because they are obligated to...they don't mean anything, really.

No flowers.

No heart shaped boxes of chocolates for girls.

No balloons declaring feelings of love.

Pretty much sucks.

But...in my one-person crusade to change all that, I made some Valentines for the little girls I teach.

They weren't anything too terribly whoop-de-doo, but....

I put them in really cute envelopes.

I delivered them to their mailboxes.

Nine little girls love me.

(And one little boy...I gave him a small box of chocolate...he said "This is cool."

I know.  I rock.)

And yes....I did give chocolates to the hub and sons.  Of course, I did.

I know I'll get something really nice on March 14 (White Day).

I also threw together a spongecake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries....

Oh! and  I bought myself some flowers.

Happy Valentine's Day, Debbie.

And to you, too, of course!!!

....and now...back to our regularly scheduled blog post.....

is for....

LILA.

i'm thinking of heR so often....she had heR suRgeRy on thuRsday (last week)...and the message fRom heR dad lateR in the day was that she had come thRough the suRgeRy and was sleeping.

**update....she is home, resting, hanging out with her mom and some very good meds....she is in a bit more pain that what she expected and is taking advantage of the pain relief she was given.

Rest my fRiend.

let youR otheR fRiends and family take caRe of you.

heal, my fRiend.

be stRong.

And on a related note...

is for

WTH?

Lila had her surgery on Thursday....a double mastectomy, my friends...and by Saturday evening....she was home.

Now....I know a hospital is noisy and the food is terrible and Lila laughed at me and said "oh Deb, you've been in Japan too long."

But, really?

Two...2 days???

Here.  In Japan....that surgery would require, at least, a 3-week hospital stay.
(I asked many students and "3 weeks" was pretty much the minimum they came up with.)

Maybe, doctors here do tend to keep patients a bit longer than what is truly necessary...but as the K-Man said, "What happens if a patient goes home too early and something bad happens?"

Well...there is that.

But....2 days???

~~sigh~~

A long time ago, there was a list of "You know you've been in Japan too long when......"'s going around...some were really funny, and yes, I've been in Japan too long.

  I think this would have been a good one:

You know you've been in Japan too long when you think nothing of going into the hospital to have a baby and not being able to leave for 6 days.

But, that's how we do it here.

**********

So, last Wednesday,

 I'm wearing my very cool American-made shoes...

...minding my own business, on my way to hula class, when suddenly....

unbenownst to me, there was some water on the sidewalk on which I was walking...

and in what I'm sure took only a few seconds, but seemed much longer since I was doing that whole slow-motion kind of thing....

my left foot?

went

My right knee went

It was not pretty.

It was, though, pretty damn painful.

Also...a bit embarrassing as it happened in the afternoon at a place where many people are milling about.

Again with the long story short---

Big swelling...went to doctor...doctor drained said knee

(ew. That was  totally gross.)

Doctor gave me a knee brace that, when I put it on, I'm referred to by the men in the house as

"Bionic Debbie".

Tomorrow,

I have a date

with this bad boy

Yes....

Some other letters, having to do with my knee, were tossed around by the doctor, but until we get the results back, I'm not going to say them.  I believe that we sometimes tempt the Gods and this is something I don't wanna mess with!

Okay...I just realized that most of my post today has dealt with medical stuff and complaining about aches, pains and medical procedures.

I apologize.

I'm obviously channeling my grandmother at the moment and this will pass soon....really, it will.

*********

Finally....

is for...

Have a great Valentine's Day, my friends!!!

*************

Dear friends,

I want to say an extra special "thank you"  for all your kind words in your comments from my last post.

No, I haven't found my R, but....

it's in my heaRt....Lila knows it.  I know it.

I'll find it someday...hopefully, I won't need it then.

Much to YOU, my fRiends.