My Tolyo time is winding down, which is good news for my wallet. It is obscenely expensive to eat out every single day and still eat well in spite of an exchange rate of .0063. In context that means that my 2000 yen breakfast for two was 13 bucks. Yeah, it doesn’t sound like much. It sounds like quite a little in fact, but that is how you get tricked. You do a lot of ‘a little’ and it eventually adds up. My kids have mastered this exchange rate–one in particular has crafted it to a science. He spends $1.20 on a meal most days, which places him in the category of eating out cheaper than it takes to eat in. Meanwhile we are taking them out to eat for 3500 a person. Times that by 4 and suddenly you’re paying real money! I am trying not to pay too much real money, but here we are.
I have had an amazing time thus far. It mirrors the highs and lows of the relationships Ihave with both foreign exchange boys, but my personal growth in the situation matches their own. We are all doing well together. The Lady Talis? She always has her shit together, so it isn’t ever an issue. What is at issue is the sudden crunch of time that reflects the upcoming semester and slew of projects I am working on. I have a book due at month’s end. I have a novel rewrite due 15 days later. Then the new jobs will start cropping up. What I need is a schedule that reflects all this and a plan that factors in both grading and graduate school, because that is on the brink of becoming a thing again.
The truth of all of this is that I am firmly preparing for the next phase of life. My next 25 will be crazy. There is so much I want-need-intend to do over the next 25 years that the first five (which I am calling the ramp up phase) will be extremely hectic and equally adventurous. We have several countries we’ve yet to visit and need to lock that in before our schedules are coopted by needing to care for aging and ailing parents. It is go time and I am ready to go!
See, this is how you’re supposed to do Mondays. Strike at it with the energy of a thousand hammers. Push back against the gray of depression and threat of unending work and responsibility. See the sky in front of you and make your heart sing into the heavens. That, my dear readers, is what Monday is supposed to be.