This weekend was to the max. Let me explain:
Saturday, I finally got over being single. Let me explain. When I move from one stage of life to the next (I've found), it takes me a little while to not want to go back to the prior stage. This happened when I graduated high school, moved to Japan, and got married. It takes me about ten months usually to get over whatever I used to be, but the marriage coupled with the baby made this transition a little bit longer. But on Saturday night, I was over it. Let me explain.
A guy that I know was playing records at a bar downtown. He asked me to come see him and I thought, Well, I should support this guy because I would want to be supported if I was spinning records downtown. It was late so I had to go without the wife and baby (although I fulfilled my baby-care duties of sleepytime and bath time before I went), and when I got to the bar, I felt incredibly out of place. It was filled with English teachers, all awkwardly boozing and mingling. I didn't know anyone, so I ended up drinking coffee at the end of the bar, watching everyone and thinking, I think I'm over this. And I was.
On Sunday, we had a church function that I went to out of some sense of duty and actually had a good time because E was there, and the baby was pretty crazy and I got to tell my friend Kenji (who's about to have his first baby) a little bit about the birthing experience. I said, Just when you're watching the contraction monitor and the next one is coming on wicked strong, don't say, 'Hold on, baby--this one is huge'. He and his wife are very, very cute.
After that, E and I went out to the riverbank (after babycare duty) to see Mr. Neal and his friends camping. This was also great fun and I ate chicken heart for the first time, while enjoying all the wonder of God's or someone else's creation.
Monday, we really hit the proverbial bottle, having lunch with S, T, and baby E, then going with big E to a tea ceremony hosted by his girlfriend's grandmother. Don't worry if you didn't follow that, I didn't really follow it either. Although I was dreading it, it turned out to be a lot of fun, and my plan of holding the baby to fend off the old women worked splendidly. Plus, I got to practice my polite Japanese.
After that, we had dinner with my friend Rudy from the Philippines who came back to Niigata out of the blue and had coffee. Really, a banner weekend.