July 7th and 8th Yamasaki, Tanabata, Whole Lotta Nothing in 2016

Yamasaki was fun, but, then again, Yamasaki is almost always fun.
I had a class with the 3rd graders. I think maybe it was my first class with them because I don’t remember having taught 7 kids there before. However, my memory is pretty lousy when it comes to where and when and whom I teach. They were great, and we had a ton of fun. The fourth graders were also enjoyable. The fifth graders, while not quite at eat-a-dick level of suckocity are pretty close. However, there is one fifth grade girl who is so amazing that she pretty much makes up for the rest of them being, at best, slightly below average.
I didn’t teach the second graders, but I did get to have lunch with them. To call them adorable does a disservice to just how amazingly sweet they were. However, they’ve got NOTHING on my first graders.
I keep getting kidnapped and rekidnapped by the first graders, especially one whose name constantly escapes me. She insists on kidnapping me, climbing on me, jumping on me, riding me, making me tell her stories, and making me watch her show off her playground skills. She tends to get very protective, because, if she doesn’t, then somebody else kidnaps me and does the same. I ended up carrying around two kids at a time a decent portion of yesterday’s recess, and likely would have had more on me if not for the fact that they couldn’t quite get their arms into a position to support themselves on me. Yeah. It was that kind of day. That kind of adorable day. They first graders also kept chanting, “Ai shiteru,” which was more than slightly odd. I’m used to the occasional “daisuki”, but . . . this was a bit intense. They’re just so cute, though.
While there, I discovered an add for the Tanabata festival. So, I figured that I’d go. And I did.
I went home, did laundry, and played some Civ to kill time. When it was finally time, I put on my yukata, loaded my laundry, and drove off to the distant park. I’d have left slightly sooner if I’d known how far it was. At the same time, it would have been a waste.
The park itself is intensely beautiful. There was a lovely bridge crossing the river (not sure which one) that had its own river in the center (seriously meta bridge, there). Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.
You enter through this beautiful . . . castle gate thing and then walk down a hill. The whole walkway was lined with sliced pieces of bamboo with electric candles in it. There’s a bend after the gate and they’d set up various designs down there, but they were hard to make out in the daylight (you could see them, but it was too boring to bother discerning). Then, you wind around a bit more and find yourself between two pretty wood, glass, and stone foundationed buildings. This leads to the bridge, the one with the river in it, that goes across to a few staircases and pavilions. Just at the far side of the bridge were the stems of bamboo that already had a few wishes on them.
Well, there wasn’t much food (which disappointed) and the food that was there was only so-so. Making it worse, there was a cotton candy machine, but not enough people to justify them turning it on. I went in my yukata, thinking that others would, but the closest thing was several kids in their jimbes. That was a bit sad, but, of course, I don’t generally mind standing out. It was no exception.
The sunset was beautiful beyond belief. The whole sky was a surreal orange as the atmosphere battled with itself to determine its weather for the next few moments. For a short time, a complete rainbow (if a bit weak in the center) crossed the sky. I hoped that the celestial lovers would be able to cross that bridge, at least, since they wouldn’t be able to have a clear night.
My wish was either idiotic or very sweet depending on mood. We’ll see if it comes true.
Eventually, it was clear (about thirty minutes before the end) that the night was as interesting as it was going to get. Which wasn’t terribly interesting, but was more interesting than anything that I would have done otherwise. So, I went home. Well, I went to the laundromat, called mum, went back to pick up the drying, and then went back home. Talked to mum a bit. Unpleasant but necessary. She’s getting super needy as my approach gets closer, but, as I actually need her to do stuff, it’s better to play nice. Ugh.
Slept moderately well last night, though I woke up too early today and couldn’t get back to sleep. A big storm hit last night, but, thankfully the segue was slow enough (and I had Excedrin) so everything’s pretty much fine today. Due to a scheduling error, I’m at Miyachu, but they forgot to give me any classes. Naturally, I ended up in Tateishi’s classes as a result. First through third, back to back. I was so bored by the end of third period that I thought I’d go mad. However, a lot of that was due to caffeine. I forgot to get more teabags yesterday, so, last night, when I went to make tea, there was no tea. So I had to buy some at 7-11. I also bought a new umbrella, and that meant that I spent enough money to win two rewards tickets. I got bottled water and a Starbucks Espresso. So, espresso plus Excedrin. Yeah. Plus boredom is a problem.
It’s pouring today, as mentioned, and while it’s not hot, the humidity is intense. Though the breezes are great when they come through. Terrified of more leg chafing, so, I’m not walking. Also enjoying having a real computer. I can’t even being to explain how much I prefer typing on my laptop to typing on the tablet.
I found out that I don’t have to go to Aira this weekend. I have to go on the 21st. So, that’ll be interesting. I need to call Take Sensei and un-cancel our lesson for tomorrow. I also found out that tomorrow, during Pathfinder, there’s a singing contest. But . . . they didn’t tell me until there was a flyer on my desk, and that didn’t even have the time. So . . . doing Pathfinder instead. I only like the 1st years anyway. Tomorrow . . . hopefully I clean. Tonight . . . don’t know. No big plans for the weekend.
In news, it seems that the dominant story right now is about the two police shootings and then the mass shooting of police.
I’ll wait until I get more and better information before weighing in. I wrote about half a page just now, but deleted it. Probably best for my future presidential campaign/biographers if nobody reads these thoughts now.