The Single Life

No no, I haven't been dumped (phew!). S left for France Friday night, leaving me to my own devices, and reminding me of what "life pre-S" was like. I still can't get over just how much I got done. I should include, however, that this weekend "on my own" was also a weekend of staying relatively sober and not partying at night. I was literally dying of exhaustion from the week, so I finally crashed Friday night, still being unprepared, however, for all of this:

1. out of bed at 9 AM as opposed to the average 2 PM. Saturday and Sunday mornings-- I admit I forgot what they looked like! It's amazing the amount I can get done if I wake up 5 hours earlier-- things like laundry, which can be hung outside on the line in daylight and therefore dry in just a couple of hours; cleaning the apartment top to bottom; ironing my huge pile of wrinkly clothes (my most hated task, hence the pile); cleaning out the fridge; and other household tasks that usually get shoved aside.

2. being on time for my hair cut. Honestly, the past 3 times I have had to call for being more than 15 minutes late, because I couldn't pull myself out of bed. This time I even went shopping for presents for people back home AND ate lunch outside at a cafe-- all before my appointment!

3. SHOPPING! Lots and lots of shopping for Jo-Lo, because I had time to walk from Harajuku to Shibuya instead of rushing to catch the soonest train to get to some other place I'm late for. Two pairs of sneakers (there was a phenomenal sale, I swear!) and a sweater that I fell in love with later, I made a quick but much required trip to the bank before meeting the girls.

4. girl time! Went to karaoke with my bunnies and lunched and browsed in Jyuugaoka with A. Rode my mama-chari uphill there and back in true "weekender" style.

5. went to church. SHOCK! It was the first time since Christmas, and my first ever time in Japan. Most of you probably don't know but could probably guess ;-) that I was a Catholic schoolgirl, and that my 2nd grade teacher, who was a Salesian nun, and I still keep in touch. She wrote me an Easter letter and enclosed with it the name of a Salesian convent close to me in case I ever wanted to do some volunteer work. This has guiltily lurked in the back of my mind, but I just never found the time to go... until my weekend of free time, that is. This morning I found the church, very coincidentally, I might add (ask if you want to know the whole story, because I think it is some kind of spiritual beckoning to me), and went to a Mass in Japanese. I found it most amusing, maybe, that the service was pretty much directly translated from the English Mass, so even when they refer to Christ as the "lamb," etc., they say "hitsuji" in Japanese. It makes sense, but just sounded strange to me. Despite the "Japanese-ness" of it all, it was very natsukashii-- the atmosphere was so much like my Catholic school in Roseto, PA, it was uncanny. I can't explain it very well, but even the nuns, who had Japanese faces, still had the same gestures and mannerisms as my schoolteachers back home.

So, what do I conclude about my weekend? It's great to have one of these for a catch-up every once in a while, yes. But would I rather have an "S"-filled weekend of sleep, sun, and se... ahem, silliness? Absolutely!