"Except it's my mind"

So I had a really weird dream last night.

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The beginning part, I was at some kind of bar. I was hanging around with different people and they kept leaving. I thought it was strange, but then I saw Aya's dad sitting at a table and he said that it was understandable that they would leave.

So I started to walk home. While walking, I decided I should run for some reason. I began to run and this poor, tiny old woman thought I was chasing her. So, the old woman took off away from me.

I felt really bad about it. I didn't like this woman thinking I was scary and making her feel like she had to run from me. In my dream, she had also run from me on my way to the bar, too.

But even though I felt bad about her feeling chased, I continued running. I was unintentionally running after this poor old woman for a while, until she hid behind trash cans. I pretended not to see her and ran by.

So I was still running through this city... town... place and I saw some kids that were about middle school aged. They also ran from me.

It was dark and I was hurriedly trying to get back home. I was actually nudging people who just happened to be walking out of the way. I didn't like how I was pushing these people, but I had sort of a sense of urgency. I think I felt kind of chased, too. I think I thought I was going to be arrested for something I didn't do.

I arrive back home- but it's nowhere like anywhere that I've really lived. It's was a very very small place. My room was only big enough for a couch and a mattress on the floor. Two people, the older sister of my childhood friend Charlene and a little girl, were there. One of them said "How are you?" I smiled, stood on the mattress on my room and I said something along the lines of "That's what I wanted all along." Although in my mind, I wasn't sure if that were true.

I consider this next part to be a whole other dream because it doesn't really fit with the other one. It MIGHT have taken place at the bar in the first dream, but I am not sure.

So, I was at a party and someone (I -think- Sam's friend Joe) said he was going to finally call someone. Everyone was really happy because apparently he was due to call this person for a very long time. So, we all got together to take a commemorative photo.

Then, the world became like twitter and I was interacting with everyone around me with a keyboard and typing @ before the names of people I was interacting with.

This next part, I know for sure comes at the end-

Someone, Dan, I think, asked me what my occupation is. I thought for a bit and as I was waking up from the dream I replied jokingly "prostitution, except it's my mind."

And then woke up wondering just what kind of job that would be.

I was startled by this dream for some reason, so I couldn't get back to sleep until I went to the bathroom and read a little.

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I think it's weird that everyone in my dream except for Dan was someone close to someone I know very well.

What do you think brain prostitution is?? (haha)

Idea

So I just had sort of a fun idea while chatting with Bethany.

People are always being asked weird questions, right?

My idea is that whoever wants to can keep a list (on their cell phone or whatever) of the top 5 weirdest questions they are asked between now and a year from now.

In a year, we can compare notes.

I'll put a spiffy countdown thing-y to April 23rd, 2010 on my blog when I get home from work.

Who's in? Comment!

:D

Jon Stewart says it and says it well.

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Ow

I am writing this on one of the school computers. I can't get onto blogger.com from there, so I'm testing an igoogle app.

So, yesterday I was rushing to get out the door to work and I accidentally scraped my elbow on a wall in my room.

(My walls are not exactly friendly to touch.)

It wasn't until halfway into the day when I realized that it was weird that my elbow met the wall in the first place. What -was- I doing?

So basically it was just another day in the life.

This is NOT Hamtaro!

The reason why I put it off was NOT because I didn't want to take care of it.

Arg, no, I had a slightly better excuse than that.

Let me start at the beginning.

About a month or so ago, I began finding little black things on the ground in my room. My first thought was that there was a mouse somewhere.

I asked Bethany over Instant Message if she thinks I have a mouse on my hands. She told me that they scurry about and they're not quiet about it. I heard no scurrying.

Knowing I had guests coming, I decided to keep my place clean as I could and try to put off this issue. Fortunately, I didn't notice any sign of rodents at all during both of the visits except for once just day or so before my father left.

I asked him whether he thought there was a mouse.

He point around the apartment saying basically "If there were a mouse you see (blah blah blah) here and (blah blah blah) here." My apartment showed none of the signs that he spoke of.

I was hesitant to get people involved because, well, I don't like the idea of being the crazy delusional girl who starts a big ruckus for no reason whatsoever. I wanted to be absolutely certain that there is, indeed, a mouse or mice in my apartment.

A few nights after my mom's visit ended was the absolute WORST.

My entire apartment REEKED of rodent. I wanted to at least open the window, but Sakurajima erupted earlier and the air in Ijuin was polluted with ash.

I stood next to my window pondering "rodent smell or ash? rodent smell or ash?" before picking ash. I left the window open until it simply got too cold and I ended up shutting it.

The next day, I told my office. My supervisor and I went and bought a mousetrap.

Mousetraps in Japan are, strangely, not the kind that snap shut and kill the mice very very quickly, instead the Japanese rely on trapping the mouse with stickiness. I bought these little boxes that can be assembled with sticky goo on the inside. I set them up in my apartment and I went out today hoping that they would see it as a chance to come out of hiding.

I came home and no mice in the two traps I set.

I sniffed and smelled no rat smell. I checked the floors in my room and there were no new unpleasant signs of rodents. I wondered at that moment if I were delusional.

I DID leave my window open for my apartment to air out while I was shopping, so now with the window shut, the smell is kind of returning. It's not as overpowering of a smell as it was the other night, but at least it means that there really is a mouse here and I am not insane.

I just want the stupid mouse/mice to get caught already so that I can move on.

I've been playing with the idea of hiring some kind of cleaning service after I get rid of the mice so that I can feel more confident about the sanitation of my apartment again.

Come to think of it, I've never been 100% sure about it, so professional cleaners would probably help that a lot too.

Oh, a random side note (if you've bothered to read all of this).

Adding to my list of electronics that I thought were going to blow up:

My microwave. (a few days ago)

Thanks for working through that one with me on AIM, Danny, if you read this. (haha)

Oh, and tonight I thought my water heater was going to blow up (I know, we've been through this one before!) It was making creepy beeping sounds. I turned off my hot water and then turned it on again and the beeping didn't happen again. Weird.

What is there to say?

Blogs came so much more easily when I was in college.

The desire to blog just hasn't been present. Maybe it's time to give it a break?

I'm not quite ready to give up yet, though.

Part of the reason probably is the fact I've been using twitter. My random daily thoughts usually end up here. I'm pretty good at condensing what I want to say to under 140 characters.

So... what do I post here?

I have some time on my hands, so I'm going to look over some old entries.

Back

So I am back at work now.

I took my mom to where she could get on a bus to Kagoshima airport.

Now I have to come up with something new to look forward to... :)

Anyway, I haven't posted here a lot because I've been busy preparing for, showing around, and cleaning up after guests.

I had a chance to see a lot of really cool places not too far from here and now I feel like I know my town and Kagoshima city a lot better. I used to be really hesitant to use buses in the city, but now I feel like I can do so confidently.

I decided I am going to write about nearby touristy places in my next Julia in Japan blog.

Last night after we ate dinner in Kagoshima city, my mother and I lured Aya over to my apartment with the invitation to eat some cake we bought earlier. We ended up spending about 2 hours (seemed like it!) pondering the earth's orbit, the speed of planes, and the lapse of time.

My mom has been wondering how it is that some people can see the sunrise twice when flying to Japan from the US. It's really, REALLY complicated. The more you think about it, the more it doesn't make sense.

Let me know if you have any ideas. I am going to be posting pictures from our long discussion on facebook and I'll provide explanation of what we got so far. :D

We were laughing a lot, it was a really good time.

Anyway, back to "real life" now.

I've got a dull work week ahead of me, but it's April now and I am looking forward to the fresh new school year.

I felt sad saying good bye to my mom, but really I am feeling energized, happy, and ready to go thanks to her visit.