obviously...random worked....let's do it again, shall we?

the hula festival is over.

despite the nervousness,

(really! i do get more than slightly nervous!!  butterflies? nope. try bats...they're that big!!)

and that first little bit, where i'm standing there, on the front row and i'm like,

"wait. do you hear music? was i supposed to start dancing now??",

 it was all fine.

actually....it was more than fine.

it was great!!!

i don't think we made any major mistakes (i know i didn't!!) and by the smiles on everyone's faces when we got off stage, i'm thinking everyone thought the same way.

either that, or we were all just soooo relieved it was over!!

it always amazes me that we work so freakin' hard for such a long time and then...

in 3 minutes...it's over.

(okay...i have to stop for just a bit here because my mind just went totally into the gutter after that last thought and it's hard to type while chuckling!! heh heh heh)

i will try to get some hula pictures this week....some of the ladies took some and when we meet for class next, i'm sure i'll get copies.  for some strange reason, i didn't have my cell phone with me...which, had i been thinking earlier, i would have thought that was a jinx and refused to go on stage.

i'm NEVER without my cell phone (and it's incredibly awesome camera!!).

see.  i told you.

nervous.

i did take one shot, the night before, when i was trying on my dress....so, just to give you an idea of what it all looked like.....

oh...and by the way....

the rubber bands in the hair worked and the flowers (and those humongous clips!) stayed in just fine.

~~whew~

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

koji and i went to a hamburger place today....

i was thinking that a 'happy set' would be just what we both needed, but,

he informed me that there would be no 'happy set' for him today.

(the ones here don't even come in those really cool boxes either...that's kind of lame, we think)

he declared that he is too old for that size of burger and he was going to order a much bigger one today.

this is all fine and dandy by me (i really don't like that little "prizes" that come with the set, anyway)....

but really...

could someone explain to me how a boy, who is too big for a "kids' meal"

is not too big to do this........

....and to ask me to take his picture???

sheesh.

kids.

they are sometimes really kind of funny.

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

just for the record....

let me perfectly truthful when i say that,

this summer gift giving thing the japanese got going on?

yeah.

i'm lovin' it!!

(usually a box like this will have beer AND a variety of fruit juices.  the students who gave me this? yeah. she loves me and wants me to be happy. i love her! )

***********

koji and i went to the grocery store the other day.

at the register, i noticed that, as the lady was checking our basket of stuff, koji was standing at the end of the counter, just grinning like some kind of little fiend....he might have even giggled maniacally for just a bit.

shaking my head and writing it off as "him just being a 9-year-old weirdo" (which happens more often than what one might think) we finished up and i took the basket to the table to put everything in our bag (which, yes, i had, as always, brought from home).  as i was in a hurry, i didn't really pay attention to the items...i just really needed to get home.  i was running oh so very late.

then....when i got home and was taking the things i bought out of the bag, i realized why koji was being such a goofball...

yeah. see that container of 'cup of noodles'???

sorry... not on my shopping list.

(and really....why would i buy only one??)

now i understand the grinning and slightly crazy giggling.

koji...1.  momma....0.

(^-^)

did you ever, when you were younger, have a contest with your friends to see what was the funniest things you could secretly slide into other peoples' shopping carts without them knowing it?

yeah.

me, either.

i just heard about people doing that.

heh heh heh.

 i think i'll go now as i have my mother's voice in my head saying,

"what goes around, comes around" and i need to do something, like listen to music or something,

to make it stop!!

*and just for the record....issei IS still around...he's just being your basic 13-year-old and way to cool to go with his mom and little brother, you know....in public...where his friends could possibly see.

whatever.

(^-^)