I really hope everyone has/had a great Thanksgiving. I hope that if you were fortunate enough to spend it with family and/or friends that you cherished that time and were able to take a few minutes to reflect on what you are thankful for. I know I did. I, unfortunately, did not spend this Thanksgiving amongst friends OR family. I spent it on duty. So while standing my watch I had nothing but time to think of what I am thankful for. Here are a few (of the MANY) things I am thankful for.

• I am thankful to have such an amazing mother and an equally amazing friend. Mom, you have no idea the impact you have made in my life. Your unconditional love and support means the world to me. You STILL manage to make everything "all better", even via a quick phonecall. Your friendship is so important to me. I cherish it. I love that I have you to talk to about any and everything. I miss you incredibly and love you 8080808080. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
• I am thankful for my seester. I am thankful that I can call her my friend. I love you Angi, very much. I look forward to spending the holidays and such with you and yours in years to come. I miss you incredibly and I thank you for keeping in such great contact with me while I am over here. I look forward to being able to 'chat' on the phone soon. (vonage style) Oh and I am thankful that you have your DH. I am glad that he is a great husband and a loving father. Happy Thanksgiving you two, give hugs to one another on behalf of those that don't have 'someone' to hug this Thanksgiving. :)
• I am thankful for my li'l brudder. Even though we DON'T stay in touch as we should. I am so proud of you. Please stay focused and keep kicking arse in the Navy. Not sure if by this time, you have re-enlisted but remember....you are choosing to RE-enlist. SO choose to make the most of your time in. Give 100%. You can and WILL do great things! I love you and miss you! Hi and Happy Thanksgiving to K. I heard about your 15lb turkey. LOL
• I am thankful for my favorite neice and favorite nephew. I miss you two so much. Z- you are such a great kid. I am so glad we were able to hang out in March. Drop me a line everynow and then....I'd love to hear from you. And H- I miss you so much! I really really do. I love reading your moms blogs on what you're doing and such. I look forward to talking to you on the phone soon. I miss you and love you.
• I am thankful for my close friends. They are few and far between, but you know who you are. I thank you for giving me all the memories I have. Many many memories. Good stuff. I wish I could hand pick who I had out here.....I miss you soo much. SOO MUCH!
• I am thankful that I have a succesful though extremely stressful career in the Navy, that has me living in Japan. And yes, it is terribly hard being away from those I love. BELIEVE ME. But still, it IS pretty incredible that I am living in Japan. And just as soon as I stop wishin I was home right now, I have so many places to see and adventures to experience over here. lol
• Theres tons more I am thankful for....really. I know I am truly blessed. I guess I just wanted make sure my loved ones know how much they are missed and how much they mean to me. Even after 12 years in the Navy I still get crazy homesick around the holidays. And it doesn't help that I am ridiculously festive.....So, don't get annoyed this year at the holiday shoppers, the hustle and bustle....the Christmas carols on every radio station, etc. I would LOVE to be in the middle of all that right now. --

But instead....I'm going to get back to work. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. I hope you had lots of turkey, a good nap, and some more turkey.

Telemarketing….”Good morning. This is Alisha from QRS, are you a full time employee? Great I have been asked to contact the business people, here in the Mansfield area, and since you ARE a fulltime employee you will receive the next 60 months service of McCall’s, Working Woman, Movie line, and Elle”….wow, I still remember that from umm….94??
Waitress: let’s see….Pizza Hut, Cheddars, Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Bucks, Lonestar, umm Capn’s Corner (lol) or did I just roll silverware?? I forget lol
Detassled Corn: for a few summers….good money for a young kid. Didn’t like getting up and on the bus at 0’dark thirty……but it was all right
US NAVY: 12 years and counting……still can’t believe it’s been that long.

Four places I have lived:

We won’t count all the places I lived BEFORE I JOINED THE NAVY….but since then-
Virginia Beach, VA
Sardinia, Italy
San Diego, CA (ahh, love it)
Nobi, Japan

Four places I have been on vacation:

I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel extensively while in the Navy….but VACATIONS per say??
Oklahoma….every year of my childhood. Pawnee Bills anyone? Worlds of Fun on the way? How bout Merrimack Caverns?
London- me and a friend of mine in the Navy flew up there from Italy back in 2001. LOVED LOVED London!
Maui- yeah, it was with my ship, but it was amazing. The road to Hana is by far one of the coolest road trips ever. Las VEGAS!!- Love me some Vegas…..went there numerous times while I lived in San Diego….each trip was special in its own way…Mom and I going was sooo fun….the last time I went…was pretty spectacular. And oh, me, and 8 of my girlfriends going for my 30th birthday….Good times for sure!

Four of my favorite foods are:

Moms Fried Rice (mixed with applesauce) mmm.. I dunno…when I was little the applesauce mixed in with the rice on accident and ever since the two HAVE to go together. Lol
Cottage Cheese Yumminess- ½ c Low Fat Cottage Cheese, ½ c Frozen Blueberries, ¼ c raw oats (or Bran), 7 raw almonds, 2 splenda packets….DEEE---LISH!
Home Made Chicken Noodles… the ones Gramma Bir made “from scratch” lol Warm Spinach/Artichoke Dip- or any creamy, cheesy, fattening dip for that matter. Crab-Lobster dip—etc etc. YUM….”Dip It GOOD”….(some of you know of my genius restaurant idea)

Four places I would rather be right now:

At my mom’s house, decorating for her BIRTHDAY…helping her cook for Thanksgiving…then helping decorate for Christmas *sigh* ON LAND—considering as I am typing this, I am currently OUT TO SEA (but just for a few more days) lol
In San Diego- for lots of reasons.
In a house that’s conveniently down the street from those I care about….family, friends, etc…..(wow, I am asking for a lot, huh?) J

Four topics that I NEED to blog about sometime soon:

How crazy busy work has been and WILL be!!- both good and bad
Holiday stuff….including pictures of all my festive décor I will be putting up in a week or two
More Random Japanese sightings…. Umm….I dunno....any requests??

Lets talk about the different buttons on this HI TECH toilet gadget.....

• Stop: Stop What?
• Spray: Nice "Butt" symbol
• Bidet:Umm what EXACTLY is the difference between the 'spray' feature and the 'bidet' feature? I thought a bidet was a bidet was a bidet? Shoots water umm in that region.
• Music Note/Flushing Sound: Umm, karaoke while on the toilet?? *keep reading* lol
• Water Pressure: ok c'mon folks...just spray the water..don't make me choose how powerful a blast I get....lol
• Volume: Again....karaoke?? (Nope, read on)

So I tried them all out....hesitantly....and well, I don't need to share the particulars(but there IS a difference between bidet and spray haha...but lets discuss the MUSIC NOTE. I was curious why they had a flushing noise....I mean you push the button and it makes this ridiculously FAKE flushing noise. Well, when in doubt....GOOGLE it OUT. And I did. I typed the following JAPANESE+TOILETS+MUSIC ... hoping to find some information on the hi tech toilet gadget I experienced from earlier. But--NOT surprisingly, it gets soo much better. Please read the following article about TOILET NOISES...and why the Japanese people are NO LONGER embarrassed to poop in public. *LOL*

When Naoko Ito uses a public bathroom, she cringes in embarrassment at the thought that other patrons can hear the sounds coming from her stall.That's when she turns to the "Sound Princess".Ito, like a rapidly growing number of Japanese women, presses a device installed in public toilets to simulate the sound of water flushing - and mask the cruder noises of nature."I usually use the flushing sound when I go to a public bathroom, such as at a department store, because I get a bit self-conscious," said Ito, a 60-year-old waitress.
The Japanese word for clean - "kirei" - also means beautiful. The device - a curious mix of Japanese bashfulness and modern technology - is spreading rapidly through public buildings and has now become standard equipment for new construction.Leading toilet producer Toto has sold 500 000 of their Sound Princesses - "Oto-Hime" in Japanese - since 1988, and the company says orders surged 125 percent in 2003 alone."The core of our clientele is schools and companies," Toto spokesperson Kumi Goto said. "Japanese women are very embarrassed by the sounds they make in a toilet."There's another reason behind the increase in the gadgets: ecology. Women in Japan have traditionally flushed several times to cover up their noises, so the Sound Princess is saving water and cutting down on public building operators' utility bills.The Sound Princess is fairly simple. The user passes her hand over a sensor, and the convincing sound of a torrent of water comes from a speaker.
But for now, "Oto-Hime" seems too likely to remain for women only. Such gadgets might seem a dainty, modern excess of a shame-obsessed society, but the Sound Princess has deep roots in Japanese culture.The Japanese are notoriously fastidious: the daily bath is practiced with near-religious fervor, and walking inside with your shoes on is considered filthy. The Japanese word for clean - "kirei" - also means beautiful.And what happens in a bathroom stall is, well, among the dirtiest things that humans do.Going to the toilet has been considered embarrassing and even shameful for women since ancient times in Japan, said Noriji Suzuki, a parasitologist at Kochi University Medical School."Sometimes you see people talking to each other over a stall in Western countries, but that would never happen in our culture," he said.The trend is not limited to women these days. Some schools have done away with urinals because boys are increasingly too embarrassed to use the stalls, since going there would tell onlookers exactly what's going to happen next.

Labels: japan