tsubame

A Day in the Life...

My life is chaos with intermittent attempts at creating order. Realizing that making continuous efforts to control things in my life might give me the upper hand more often, I decided to make a plan to get myself more organized. This plan does not constitute any huge changes, just small adjustments in various areas of my life. Each night before going to bed I write down a list of things to take care of the next day. Sunday night I did the same. It all looked easy and manageable.

First task this morning was to find my flashdrive, which has mysteriously gone missing. I save documents typed on my laptop at home on the flashdrive and take it to school to post things on the Net using the school computer. I carry it in my bag usually and when I get home I put it next to the computer on the computer desk. It was not there on Sunday and I stopped in at the school Sunday night to check if I wasn’t on my shelf or in my drawer. I didn’t see it so I figured it must be at home around the computer somewhere. Alas, a thorough search this morning moving books, magazines and papers, revealed no sign of the flashdrive. I returned to the school tonight to double check my shelf and drawer but it is not there.

Next task was to test install a program that would allow me to view photos I had scanned on a disk a couple of years ago. I tried to install the program before but it’s all in Japanese and my computer just shows the instructions as “??????????”. I managed to install correctly software from a disk K has so I thought I should try again with mine. Both the software disk and the photo disk were not with my other computer disks. I checked my CD shelf but nothing turned up there. I double checked both locations and found the software disk but after three attempts to locate the photo disk its location still remains a mystery. This reminds me of the concept that until an object is observed it exists in all possible states. Literally, my flashdrive and photo disk could be anywhere. They are however, at least most probably in my living room somewhere. The flashdrive may have been dropped outside somewhere though.

I had one more disk to locate but found it easily. Now I had to run a few errands. I was twenty minutes behind schedule but I had given myself lots of time and I was going to use the bicycle I borrowed. I went out and found the chain had come off again. I tried to get it to go back on but my fingers were getting dirty and I was not getting any results. I gave up. I have used this bike three times and twice the chain came off, once a tire was flat. The bike shop guy fixed the chain for free but it seems that the chain has its own ideas. I kicked the bike, called it a piece of crap, and locked it up again. I washed the grease off my hands and decided to cut one of my errands from my list.

I went to the post office to mail a letter and pay my electricity bill. The letter was taken care of quickly but even with only two people in the post office waiting, I waited five minutes and still no teller was ready. I decided to pay later and rushed off to the bank to deposit some money in my savings. Again, only two other customers but I spent nearly eight minutes watching a documentary about a rice farmer on TV before someone finally took my money.

I stopped quickly at a shop that was on my way to the station to check the price of TVs and then rushed to catch the train, which I missed by one minute. I had to wait 13 minutes for the next one. At Omiya Station the connection was not as bad as usual and I only had to wait eight minutes for my connection train.

I arrived in Kumagaya 25 minutes later than K and I planned to meet. From there we drove in her car to a post office where I had opened an account a couple of years ago and which I now wanted to close. Only two other customers but we had to wait over ten minutes. I first asked to pay my electric bill and was asked to fill in the payment form, which I had forgotten to do. My brain was a little scattered by now and I made two mistakes while writing my address. Then I asked about closing the account and after a long silence, during which the teller went and consulted a book and made a photocopy of a page, I was told I needed my name stamp to close the account. Not having considered that I had left my name stamp at home. Looks like I would have to come back again sometime.

We had planned to watch X-Men 3 at 14:40 and had to rush a bit by now. We had just enough time to use the washroom and buy some sweets to eat in the theatre when an ex-student of mine saw us and started chatting with us. We didn’t want to be rude but time was running out.

We made it on time and enjoyed the movie very much. Afterwards we checked out a home supply store for kitchen tables and I found exactly the shelf with glass doors I wanted for my plates and glasses (my kitchen cupboards are way too high for K), and it was on sale. I decided to get it, though it would mean dragging the darn thing around at the stations. There was one kitchen table that was alright but a little low, we thought.

K and I went for dinner at our old haunt in Kumagaya and we saw one of our students from six years ago. She quit in 2001 because she was starting junior high school and here she was now in her last year of high school. She was always a polite, sweet and cute young girl and she was still the same. I spoke only in English to her and she tried to say a few things to me in English. It was great to see her again.

K took me to Gyoda Station where we could park and spend some time chatting. She had a lot of complaints about her job and her personality, and needed to get them off her chest. I wish I had something to say to make her feel better about things but when she feels negatively about things there's nothing I can say to make her world rosy again. I just have to listen and make a few comments until she gets her frustrations out. Then I can add a few words or wisdom. I think she felt a little better after. At last I got on the train but had to wait 16 minutes for my connection at Omiya. I carried the box – not too heavy but rather unwieldy – home and then came here to look for the flashdrive. I sure hope I can find that thing at home since it really isn’t here.

Posted by tsubame at September 11, 2006 07:32 AM | TrackBack