This blog gets neglected...

when things get busy. Sorry.

I have photos of a pottery village trip, the incredible Naha tug-of-war, and some amazing dive shots from my trip to the keramas. But right now, I'm working on the stuff I get paid to do - and my paying clients would be less than thrilled if I didn't have their stuff done on time so that I could be posting my personal stuff.

It's coming! Promise! While you wait... 2 stories.

I just had to call the housing agency to have a maintenance person come out. He came today to fix a broken drawer and look at a couple of things. When he was finished, he commented on our piano. I asked, "Do you play?"
"Skoshi..." (a little).
"Please, sit!" I turned on our digital piano - which, I might add, even this guy agreed was pretty good for a digital jobber.

He just played me the most gorgeous song, almost without error. Wow! Now that's not something that would ONLY happen in Okinawa - but it's rather unusual to have a housing maintenance guy sit and play an intricate Japanese song for you on your piano.

The second story - Mia of course. She is miss INDEPENDENT now, and walks to the bus on her own in the morning and then home again in the afternoon. It's about 1 1/2 blocks up the road, and it's really not a big deal - but last week it was raining one day and I went to grab her. She got off the bus with a scowl, and said, "Why are you HERE?" Uh - because I figured I'd bring a raincoat for ya so you wouldn't get soaked. You're welcome! Jeez.

So a couple of nights later, Craig remembered what happened and said, "Mia - why don't you want Mommy to come to the bus stop to pick you up sometimes? You used to love that."

She thought for a minute and said, "Well - because I can do it myself. And I can do stuff I can't do with you when you walk with me."

"Like what?"

"Well.... " long pause, "Like petting the doggies and kitties on the way home." (Dogs, whatever, but the ferile cats out there?! Yikes. But hey, she was honest, right? We got a good laugh out of it.) Thankfully the cats mostly run off before she can reach them anyway.

Ok, I had enough time to edit photos from the dive trip.

And I wanted to share this story on Athena's blog. She's a photographer in Hawaii (a very talented one and you should call her if you're there because she rocks) and she helped us do something very special for a very special friend. I can't wait to hear Edith's take. Thanks, Athena!!

Have a great day - PHOTOS SOON - I'm not going to promise, because I have FOUR shoots to edit for work and my personal stuff comes last - but you know, soon. And I just planned a 3-day trip with a girlfriend to KYOTO in November for changing leaves. I can't WAIT!