Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

Well, I'm dealing with the Jetlag Depression. It really sucks. I dont' want to do anything and when I do, its nerve racking and I dont want to do it. Thinkin about the future is painful. But i went out bike riding with Vinnie, so that helped alot. Then came back and updated this journal and had a nice dinner with the folks. I went out to a couple haunted houses with Vinnie as well tonite.

I thought the country was absolutely beautiful. I had a blast while I was there. Its not as clean as what we as Americans may think. From all we get here is that the country is analretentive about cleanliness. From what I saw, the country is just as clean or dirty as the US. However, I have heard some negative things about hospitals from foreign teachers that are over there. John and I used to tease Yumi and Rumi that all of Japan smelled like a hospital because it was so clean. Not the case. They just like to take their shoes off before going into the living quarters of a house.
I really liked Japan it was quite beautiful. It was very cramped, but pretty. Every city I stayed in, you could see mountains. Lots of green stuff. Unfortunately, I didnt see Godzilla. I wanted to so bad.
The people were great and polite and good to spend time with. However, I hear that they are polite to your face and you don't want to see them when your back is turned. I dont know how true that is, but thats the impression I get from business folk and people who deal with the Japanese alot. I haven't met 2-faced Japanese people that I know of, yet.
I had a blast in Japan and spending time with Yumi was wonderful. I want to go back. So i guess i give it a positive review.
Anywho, its late. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oh boy did I have fun today.
Well, got up, did some Japanese practice. Went to the gym.
When i got back, i started painting/staining the garden house. I got about 1.5 hours in. Just got the first half of the front side down. I got the other front side and then the 2 sides, the back doesn't count. It wasn't too bad.
After that, I headed out to AA to go Swing Dancing. I only got to dance hard once in China, and that was for like 10 minutes. I also taught Yumi some of it, she was good.
But the first couple dances I did were awkward and I had to find myself again. After a few dances and a constant changing of shoes, I finally found it. I was having a blast. Met up with some ol' friends and it was just wonderful. Still, there were some stuck up fellas that didnt' seem to learn their lesson in the past year. Oh well.
During the dance, I felt like i was getting dizzy. Kinda felt like I was getting a little sick. I dunno. All that spinning maybe was making me dizzy. Oh well.
I headed home at about 1125 and fell asleep real quick. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 01:36 AM | Permalink

Lets see. My parents were babysitting their friends' baby and dog. The baby was cute. The dog wasn't. They were both wearing diapers though. The dog has just come down with a brain tumor and isn't the same anymore. So, they got a diaper on the girl so she doesn't make any mistakes in the house.
Today saw me getting my bootie in gear and getting a short term membership at the local gym in Trenton. So, I rode my bike there. It was good. Gonna be sore later.
I practiced a bunch of japanese today.
I started work on scraping all the old paint and dirt off the garden house because my mom keeps bugging me about it. So, after the gym, I grabbed the water bucket and brush and scrapped it down. Got rid of alot of the junk. Tomorrow I will start painting...staining the wood again.
After that, we had dinner with my folks' friends. It was nice. Then after they left and dinner was done, I headed out to Birmingham to meet up with Rose to see Corpse Bride for free at the Uptown Palladium.
The theatre was quite snazzy. It was crammed up in downtown area and they were able to find space for all the movie theatres on the z-axis. I think there were 3-4 floors or something. This place reeked of upscale richness...i mean, hell, its Birmingham. Here, you could buy dinner to eat with your movie viewing experience. Yes, you can get candy as well, but I mean, full blown dinners. I dont know if they are any good though. That just seems like too much. But, if you got the money to waste, I guess do it. Prior to the movie starting, during the commercials, they had a still for an "Affordable Private Jet" company. Rose laughed and said, "Yeah, the difference of this community and my community is that at my local theatre, they don't have commercials for "Affordable Private Jets" but for "Jet's Pizza"." Good call.
Corpse Bride was a good movie. Classic tongue-in-cheek Tim Burton animation. Lots of fun. Its creepy at moments, but nothing bad. Its great kids fun. Good stuff. I can't spoil it.
After that, I spent about 30-45 minutes waiting in the parking garage for all the cars to leave. It was crowded, after not moving for about 5 minutes, I pulled into a parking spot and waited till all the cars had left. I didnt feel like wasting gas considering its sooooo damn expensive. One proof to show that the Iraq war was not about oil...gas prices are the highest they have been in 20 years. ;-)
Upon finally exiting the structure, i headed over to Luna just to stop by. They were having a video nite of some industrial bands. When I showed up they were playing a Cruxshadows video...i laughed. That band blows.
Talked with some people and left about an hour or so later. Headed home and fell asleep. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 01:20 AM | Permalink

Well, i really can't remember what I did today. Worked on some japanese. Rented four movies from the video store that I couldn't find in China: Luther, The Life Aquatic, Beyond the Sea, and Super Sucker. I watched Beyond the Sea and then I watched Luther around 1130pm. So, when it was over and I went to bed, the movie kept playing thru my head. I also went down to the business district of my home town. There were some new things going on, but it was still about the same.

Posted by Phil at 01:17 AM | Permalink

Well, Erock and Jenn are moving out to SLC the day after my birthday on the 28th. Soooo, they were hosting a farewell gathering. It was cool. Lots of people there and we looked at a couple of my chinese DVDs and had lots of food and sweets. It was very nice.
Just chilling.
They woke me up and took me to Taco Bell at 12pm. Fake mexican food, alrite!
I headed home around 1045pm and went to bed. Goodnite!

Posted by Phil at 04:36 AM | Permalink

Aaaah, this day was great.
In the morning, things were normal, just tooling around the house taking care of things. Then I chatted with Yumi online for awhile. We tried doing video chat, but all we finally got was that she was able to see and hear my video but I could only hear her. All I got was a green screen. I am gonna need to talk to AOL about that. Lousy punks!
After she went to bed, I headed out to AA to meet up with the AA Wushu Club, which is quite small, for practice before their Moon Festival performance tonite. I practiced witht hme and they asked me to do Meteor Hammer at their show so i was like ,kool.
Between practice and the time that we needed to be at the performance, we had dinner at Jerusalem Gardens on 5th street. OH MAN! HOMMUS IS SOOOOOO GOOD!!! Yummy! Grape leaves...yummy! Awesome food.
Then we headed out to Saline High School where we did our performance. Man, I got to tell you, even in America, you can't take the china outta chinese people. This performance was covered with all the problems and bs that I endured in China. Everyone was late, no one told us anything till the last moment, and the lies...
After my lackluster performance...i don't know why, it just was, I didnt do well... i headed out to E-rock' place where we chilled for about 30 minutes before J came over and I left for LUNA. I got to Luna in Royal Oak around 1115pm and the place had just started getting a little busy. Some of the same people and friends are still there in the same spots. Kinda funny, good, reliable, and sad. ;-) It was good, though, to see that all the bartenders and all the bouncers that I had known are gone. That was a pleasant sight. I mean they were cool and all, but there is other stuff out there.
So, I med up with Rose and Amanda was there in the parking lot and we got drinks and chatted for awhie. Naas showed up along with Bob and we all hung out, chatted, danced, made fun of other people dancing, and caused trouble. It ruled! So much fun. I was afraid I had forgotten how to dance. Then Deor showed up and we danced more. Deor pretty much is the mainstay folk there, he is always there and it just happens that he knows everyone. Very fun guy. I was around till about 2am when they closed shop. Most of the crew left around 130 and stuck around dancing with other friends and meeting new people. We left the bar around 220 after we were tlaking wtih the bartender people and the owner. We got some free passes to go see Corpse Bride on tuesday with the press junket. So I will hit that up. The only requirement was that we come to Luna afterwards. Sounds good, I may be able to score some free NIN tix.
Then we went across the street to National Coney Island to finish sobering up. That was a blast. There were 4 of us and then a couple of the bar workers joined up with us. One of the bartenders I met last year at one of the Detroit swing functions. A reunion of sorts.
I then headed out around 345 to go back to Erock's where I was gonna crash. And I did...on his couch, then on his floor. I was on the couch, but I just felt too uncomfortable for some odd reason. And then his 15lb cat jump on my stomach and walked around on it before he fell asleep. About an hour later i rolled onto the floor and fell asleep on that. The good thing about china is that I learned how to sleep on hard surfaces.
Goodnite...

Posted by Phil at 04:16 AM | Permalink

Lets see... Most of today was spent unpacking and putting things back into order some more. More things to do. Also, I had to help my folks move the bed because they were having a new one put in tomorrow.
I called a bunch of people, relatives and banks. Then headed out to the credit union to get a new credit card. It was interesting to see what has stayed the same and what hasn't.
After doing whatever for the rest of the day, I headed out around 530 to meet up with Matt, Erin, TA, and B-rye. It was great. It was nice to see familiar faces that I haven't seen in awhile. Just hanging out and doing not much, just chatting, was good. But I did learn that some jackass at Comedy Central gave David Spade a TV Show...oh man is it bad. Its just crap. I also learned that a year in China away from all sort of understandable TV commercials, i don't like them now. At all. And I dont' like much TV. Unless a good show is on. I don't feel comfortable with a TV anymore unless its for DVDs or something. I guess thats a good thing.
It was a fun time. Had some nice cooked hamburgers and got to play with their new dog and just chill. Very nice.
I headed home around 1230. Goodnite all.

Posted by Phil at 04:04 AM | Permalink

Most of today was pretty crappy. I woke up at 530am. Now I had 8 hours, which is good but i was still a bit tired. I fooled around on the computer for a few hours then tried sleeping again and I couldn't. I then got up and had some breakfast. For awhile I was unpacking and trying to put things away in order and find other things that I had shipped home. Man, did this just drag on me. I felt terrible. I just didnt want to do anything. I felt frustrated, sad, and bored. Major crappy. I guess its the jetlag and the missing of Yumi getting me down.
However, the day perked up when i headed out to meet up with some friends in Ann Arbor for gong fu and then for Shorinji Kempo. It was very nice. I had lots of fun. I felt great afterwards.
Lots of things have increased in price since I left. Gas is horrendous and 20oz of pop are now $1.39. I was very surprised but not really. I expected it as I was flying home on the plane, but not when I reached the counter. Man, gas...yikes! I filled up almost just half the tank and it still broke $30. Thats insane. After a year gone, things are either the same or bigger. Strange.
Ok, goodnite, its 2am.

Posted by Phil at 03:56 AM | Permalink