Four more days!

When I came home Saturday night on the train, this caught my eye.

As the final week before Christmas break begins I’m feeling relief that I’ll have two weeks off and I’m feeling harried because I have a lot to do in the next four days. I’m constantly working on checking items off of my to do list, but I don’t seem to be checking off as fast as I’m adding. I’m getting more and more used to this constant state of busyness, but it will be a great relief when I can come home in February.

This weekend was fairly run-of-the-mill. We had our office Christmas Party where partners, spouses, and kids were invited. Most of the people who went were those with families and I was struck by the number of emerging families we have. There wasn’t a brooding teenager in sight. The children of my coworkers are young. This is to be expected, I suppose, when my department actively recruits people under 35.

After the party, I went with a co-worker and her Japanese boyfriend to the other side of Tokyo to join some kind of party for his work volleyball team. We sat in a cramped bar, drank beer, and watched shakily filmed gymnasium volleyball matches. When it was over, the three of us ducked into a ramen shop to have a pre-train bowl of noodles because somehow the food that was at the party we didn’t much touch. After we started heading back towards Chiba on the train, we realized that I had missed the last train into Makuhari Hongo, so I ended up taking a cab from where the train terminated. Fortunately, it was less than twenty bucks. Tokyo cabs are notoriously expensive and I avoid using them unless absolutely unavoidable. I finally crawled into bed around 2:30 am.

Needless to say, I didn’t do very much Sunday. I paid bills down at the 7-11. I popped in to the grocery store for a few items, and I went into the drugstore for garbage bags. I made cookies, watched a movie, and did a bit of laundry. Hopefully Monday will be more productive.