New Year's Eve / Day

Wow, Jono and I had a pretty busy New Year's! On New Year's Eve we took Jon and Kimberly to the Oakland Museum of California, which is swift becoming my most favoritest museum. I finally made it through the history wing. We also looked at the new Bay exhibit, which had a giant floor satellite map of the Bay Area which I tromped around feeling like a Kaiju. Next time, we'll start working through the Natural History floor! :D

Then after a bit of rest at Chris' place, we went to taiko rehearsal at 5. This is the first time our taiko group was invited to perform on NYE, and so we were all a bit nervous. It was at a fancy shindig, too, where the tickets are $200. It turned into a 6 hour affair* to play for 10 minutes, and it was a really surreal experience. Basically I liked it until the party attendees started showing up. Everyone at the party was dressed in slinky party clothes, which meant I was at elbow height of everyone, carrying dusty stands and trying not to mess up peoples' dresses. It was loud and drunk and all my least favorite parts of parties. The only respite was in the hotel's labyrinthine kitchens, where there were normal people and not so much noise, and the smell of food. Also, the party was about 90% white, and the staff was about 10% white. Hrm. Hopefully next year we'll go back to drunk karaoke with friends instead.

So we got back to Chris' place a little after midnight.

On New Year's day, we got dim sum, then made onigiri for the taiko party. Then we spent 12pm-5:30pm at the taiko location, setting up, rehearsing, pounding mochi, performing, and breaking down the stage afterwards. This has been our 4th new year's with our taiko group, and it's a pretty fun event. I like spending time with our taiko group! :D I drank yummi ozoni with fresh mochi, I moved lots of drums, fussed over the tea, and I played without really caring (because I was too tired). After a short fiasco of my husband absconding with 2 drums and the car in the wrong direction, we were done!

Then we went to Chris' place and hung out with our friends until 9pm or so. All in all a long, taiko- and friend-filled 2 days!

Oh, here's our performance of Kouki Tenmei: https://vimeo.com/83288486
Jono is in the front, second from the left. I'm in the top right corner. This was our first time with a 3 level stage. It's pretty cool!

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* 6 hours: 5pm rehearsal, 6pm loading the drums + travel, 7pm unloading the drums and setup, 8pm dinner, 8:30pm green room dress rehearsal, 9:30pm protect drums from drunkards on the dance floor, 10pm perform, 10:10pm pack drums, change out of gear, load drums, 11:20pm leave hotel for BART.

New Year's Resolutions 2014

I'm a few days late, but it's Resolution time!

( First, 2013 Resolutions! )

And now, my Resolutions for 2014!

Help Jono find his path. Jono's had a hard couple of years, but he's getting close to finding his direction (for the next few years at least).

Come to terms with the whole pregnancy thing. Stay healthy. Come April, my flying moratorium will be lifted, and I'm going to go back to my normal life. I feel like I've given this whole pregnancy 1 year in the coveted "5 things I juggle" group. After this it's going to the back burner again. Hopefully, though, I can do so without abandoning all the gains I've made this past year.

Transition into a more stable role in my family business. This year is going to be a year of major shifts -- my parents are retiring/transitioning to different roles in the business. We are also going to start development on some new curricular support stuff. My brother is graduating college (!!!) in June. Hopefully we'll be able to weather the transition in a good way.

Level Up Tisquantum: I hope to finish the current chapter this year. And maybe, if I create enough of a buffer, I can have a weekly update schedule? (Is that even something people want???)

Don't sabotage myself. I do this all the time -- I get to be friends with someone at work, and then in moments of self-doubt, I let that slip away. I'm eating healthy for a week, then I spend 2 days in a haze of salami.