Don't Vote.

Ok - I know it's UK YouTube - but I couldn't figure out how to make the stupid thing come up in ENGLISH on my Japanese IP computer.

PLEASE VOTE. This is funny.

I Couldn't Forget

It's 9/12 in Okinawa now. But still 9/11 in the states - most importantly in NY and VA. I recalled my experience on 9/11 with my mother on the phone yesterday and she recalled hers. My folks live in NJ, my father works in NYC.

Seven years ago (wow... seven years) I was 9 months pregnant, living in Escondido, bummed I'd be missing my brother's wedding in NJ because I couldn't fly out for it, and waking up and making breakfast. I turned on the television and for some weird reason it was on Univision, the Spanish channel. So when it came on, I saw the image of a tower on fire - but with Spanish words & subtitles going I thought it was a new movie promo.... sadly, that was not the case.

As I changed the channel and it started to register, my phone rang. It was my mom's best friend calling from Calabasas, CA. "Your mom & dad are fine - but you won't be able to get through on the phone for a while most likely..." and it all started to register as I watched plane #2 go into the second tower live on TV. I'll never forget that moment. Neither will my poor father, who watched it from his workplace window across town in NYC.

I'm thankful that those of the people I know in my home state and in the DC area (my brother-in-law had a meeting at the Pentagon that day) are all well. There are stories, but they have happy endings. Many don't. Nobody can forget that day - that day where we all gathered around our televisions with tears in our eyes with the realization that things would never be the same. Certainly for our military family. And for my then unborn baby.

A lot of memorials and truces are called in the US today, including a day off of campaigning for our Presidential candidates. As my friend Nick aptly put it, "Some might see these yearly memorials as sappy. I sure hope not. I, for one, am still angry. It still pains me. I truly hope that we never forget. I know I never will. "

RIP

We lost two great entertainers this weekend.

Bernie Mac was one very funny guy; I think it's tragic that he died so young at a mere 50 years of age. George Clooney, one of my few boyfriends on the side, was quoted as saying, "The world just got a little less funny. He will be dearly missed."

Isaac Hayes. Wow. 65. Again, too young! I was born in 1971 when Shaft came out; I remember my dad playing that soundtrack on his reel-to-reel TEAC tape player. From the NY Times:
"At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation." (Hey! Bling before bling was COOL!) "TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys."

My memories of Hayes' buttery deep voice go much farther back than his days as Chef on South Park, but what a great comeback that was for him! Rest in peace, Bernie & Isaac. Heaven just got a lot groovier and funnier.

My Condolences For China

As many of the Marines and other service members stationed here on Okinawa are participating in Cobra Gold in Thailand or floating on ships near Thailand (some of our friends included), awaiting word that they can help the people of Myanmar, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 slams Sichuan, China.

"To understand the power of this 7.9 quake: one of the worst natural disasters in recent American history, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California measured 6.7. The scale is logarithmic, meaning -- for instance -- that a 5.0 quake is fully 10 times more powerful than one measuring 4.0." -MSNBC.com

I know that some of the people reading this were in or very close to Northridge in the '94 quake. It's so much more devastating that I can even wrap my mind around. The same article quoted above reminded me that 9/11 happened a few months before the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics in Utah. The tattered flag from the WTC was raised at that event. Though none of the Olympic facilities in China were affected, according to the news, this will definitely change the celebration and ceremony, understandably.

My thoughts are with the millions of citizens affected by this quake. I think this planet needs some good news soon.

Some Business

First of all, if it interests you, take the time to read this interesting and important article. It regards the rights of the military and their families to free speech as related to the recent happenings in Okinawa.

Also - military/DoD families, I implore you; the new Living Pattern/COLA survey is now online for us to take. It only comes around once every 3 years. Due to the fact that the current COLA pay is still the same amount (adjusted for yen rate) that it was 3 years ago, and that the survey results were not very good at all, we feel it's of the utmost importance that we have our empty-pocketed selves heard!

We're going to sit down with receipts in hand and fill this out in a detailed and honest fashion. I highly suggest you do the same. Please. The link for the survey is http://www.perdiem.osd.mil/oscola/lps/japan/ - it should only take about 30 minutes, and can be filled out one time by each family. More info from our email regarding the survey:
Before beginning the survey each participant will need to create a six character Ticket Number and be able to identify the locality code for Okinawa as JA027. The Ticket Number will be created by using the first and last name initials along with the last four digits of their Social Security Number.

Freedom Is Sweet

Hello! Yes, I have been out in town - almost constantly - since the Period of Reflection was lifted yesterday morning. The current restrictions are not that big of a deal to us, Craig's not some huge drinker - the occasional wine or beer or mixed drink at home will be just fine. (And I have a DD! Sweet.) The curfew is no biggie either, we put the kiddo to bed at 8 so usually it's just a movie or TV after that. The good news is, nary a second glance from locals, as I had hoped. The bad news....

-The yen rate - 101¥ to the dollar! YIKES! To give you an idea, when we got here it was about 124¥ to the dollar, so we've lost 18.5% of our value here. *Edited to correct my crappy math, thank you, Nick.

-Articles like this worry me. I'm really curious as to how many of the 1.3 million Okinawans dislike the Americans this much that they want us to leave. The protests held here have about 100 people there - doesn't seem like much representation, and I'm told that the protesters are often flown in from mainland Japan! It's tough for me to REALLY get an unbiased general opinion. But I truly hope and continue to believe that people here are OK with us being here. Because I love being here, even if only for a while. And I know a lot of people who do too.

All in all, not too horrible, and oh MY it is GOOD to be back out again! I ate at SomChai today for lunch with my friend Casey - there was a line out the door at 11:30 when he opened! A few guys in there cited the fact that an exception to the PoR restrictions was that you could travel to places of worship. I definitely think his food qualifies as something I worship! (Richard said, "If you worship the chili, this is your place!")

I've been out shopping, driving, paying my cell phone bill, and enjoying very chilly and windy time outside, but whatever - I AM OUTSIDE! I'd love to say I learned some lesson from all this, but it's probably just that my kid has a harder time sleeping when she hasn't had time to play outside. And I still like cooking.

Free At Last....

At least I am. Craig has some restrictions, but absolutely nothing we can't handle (or don't already do!)

Can't wait to see what it looks like out in town today!

Some Random Stuff

First of all, shame on you, PRESS, for giving up the Prince's position. This was even more idiotic than Geraldo drawing a map in the sand.

Yes - he was released - and no, we're not free quite yet. The General is in Korea, and I'm predicting that after his meetings on Monday we will be free. I'm not holding my breath to hear any apologies either.

In the "oh, crap" category, we're renting the blu-ray discs of the final parts of The Sopranos via Netflix. We're awaiting episodes 5 & 6 now. We're also watching (live now) the final season of HBO's The Wire, and after each episode there's a write-up on Salon.com by a group of fans. We just watched the most recent episode and while reading the Salon article afterward we COMPLETELY spoiled the ending of The Sopranos for ourselves. As we read the sentence we both yelled "OH MY GOD THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN!" and well, it sucks. But whatever - that show ended a year ago now, I guess it was wishful thinking that we'd avoid finding out what happened until we got to the end, but ....that blows.

Speaking of blu-ray - I'm thankful that I STOPPED my husband from buying an HD-DVD player because now blu-ray has WON! Yay! So for those that haven't jumped on this train yet - a PS3 is the cheapest blu-ray player, also plays games (duh) and regular DVDs, so I recommend it. The quality is amazing.

I did watch the Oscars and am SO thrilled for "Once" - a heartwarming amazing movie that I seriously have been recommending to people since we saw it in the movie theater before we left for Japan - which is now the winner of the best original song Oscar. Since then, Mia has also fallen in love with the soundtrack (it's basically a musical) and knows each song by heart and sings them with so much feeling - I wish that I could video the kid but she won't let me. I'll do that in secret one day. Craig and I are pretty sure we have one of the only 6-year-olds who can sing the whole soundtrack of Once, and if she was on American Idol, would sing "Lies" or "Falling Slowly" for sure! (we asked)

I'm sifting through pictures in my "reflection" time... some were from Shuri Castle a few weeks ago. Here's one of Mia with a group of super friendly Japanese girls who really liked her. They asked to have their pictures taken with her too.

More to come, probably later today.

The Latest

I have lots of great pictures... we visited Shuri Castle this weekend, and we also enjoyed another sunny day today. However, there are some Marines who screw up huge.

Then we have a long payday weekend, and some Marines think that other Marines' screw-ups and the reprimands they've gotten at work all week long aren't enough to stop them from doing stupid things.

So now we know that starting tomorrow morning, we will be on lock-down (basically allowed to go to work and school and home, nowhere out in town), indefinitely.

More on this as we hear about it. Get ready for a fantastic photo series on the telephone pole outside my home.

Great Shipping News

Yeah yeah - I know you were all frustrated in the states that your precious Blackberries didn't work. Well, boo hoo. As close as I get to that is an occasional text message. But I do have fiberoptic cable connection for my Internet and THAT is blazin' - though I do have to be sitting at my computer.

Anyway, read some great news today thanks to an email from a friend. You can ship to APO/FPO addresses Priority mail in a flat rate box for cheaper! It's about time - and thank you, USPS.

Another Great Idea America Should Adopt

Charge for plastic grocery bags.

I did come here with my cloth Trader Joe's bag, but often have more than one bag worth of groceries. So, Edith, thank you for the idea - I'm getting these for myself because I want to be a loved American in this town!

Aftermath

I'm so happy to report that everyone we know & love in San Diego is ok. Some property was damaged, almost all of it is covered in soot & ash and in some cases water mixed in - but for the most part nobody we know has lost a home or a major amount of property. Two different people called it "stuff" (quoted in both emails) in their messages to me - because "that's all it really is". The constant in these messages is the outpouring of generosity and the coming together of the San Diego communities. Apparently there are constant comparisons to the Katrina disaster, however I respectfully disagree. The damaged caused by water - and consequently disease-filled STANDING water are of no match to the fires that destroyed (in comparison) far fewer homes in San Diego. These folks have insurance for the most part and are lucky enough to have been evacuated in a very organized manner - even with the road closures and traffic.

I thought I'd post a bit of the stories I had received for you to read. If you aren't interested, skip on down to the photos I posted at the bottom.

Earlier this week from Anastasia - mom of Seeger, who was in Mia's hip hop dance class (she rides horses, and owns Raven, her own horse as well):

We briefly had two sets of
visitors evacuated from Scripps Ranch that came
to our house; the family left after a couple of
hours, but my friend Chris stayed with her cat (KC of Bowman Family fame stayed with Chris who was sweet enough to take her!!) and two turtles and valuables. She was allowed to go home this afternoon.

However, the real drama for the last 24 hours has
been with the horses. Canyonside Stables is
located less than a mile and a half north of our
house, in Rancho Peñasquitos. We boarders were
very concerned because the Witch Creek fire was
all over Poway (northeast of the ranch), and
mandatory evacuations had been called for a huge
swath of our part of San Diego County, from I-15
inland to the I-5 on the coast, and from State
Route 56 north to the 78. The ranch is just a
few miles south of the 56 and west of the 15, and
the concern is always the difficulty of not only
transportation but of finding care for large
animals like horses. A lot of people had been
very edgy and began evacuating the ranch, but the
official large animal evacuation points were in
Del Mar at the Fairgrounds, Polo Fields, and Show
Park...exactly in the direction that the fire was
heading...and later was declared full. A
minority of us has horse trailers, and the rest
of the boarders were frantically trying to
arrange rides to evacuation sites. ...and then
as dusk fell, a few people understood that we
were to evacuate (later found to be a
misunderstanding / assumption due to panic), and
chaos began. Our local evacuation point was a
Little League field in Mira Mesa, but only a few
people seemed to know exactly where this was. A
friend that had been evacuated from Ramona to our
ranch, and I hauled out four horses and her two
dogs and cat. After searching for about an hour,
we got a call from the ranch requesting that I
return with a trailer to take out more horses,
and thus we were able to locate the evacuation
point: a chain-link-fenced Little League
field. Horses were tied to the fence (not very
safe at all) and apparently people planned to sit
their holding their horses all night long. When
I went back to the ranch, I realized that it was
much colder there and the wind had stopped, and
so my friend and I made the decision to return
our horses to Canyonside and sleep in our
vehicles, ready to flee if necessary. (Steven
stayed home with the boys, watching out for our
house.) This morning, the ranch still was not
experiencing the heavy Santa Ana winds that are
fueling the fires all over Southern California,
and so I went to the evacuation site and offered
rides back to the ranch. At first, very few
people were willing to leave what they considered
safety, but my point was that the humans and the
horses were all exhausted from spending the night
at the field, and if the wind shifted we needed
to be rested and ready to move. Slowly, people
began to take me up on offers of rides back to
the ranch. This sounds straightforward, but it
isn't because a large number of these horses do
not know how to be loaded into a horse
trailer. While the 10 or so trips that I made
today should not have been a big deal, I ended up
having to give trailer-loading "lessons" to a lot
of frightened horses in less-than-ideal
conditions before I could get them out of the
evacuation site and back home. I finally got
home around 3:00; the shower felt amazing, and we
went to dinner--I was STARVING since all I had
had was a Starbucks this morning at the only open
Starbucks near us (in Albertsons). While the
Santa Anas and the high heat are predicted to
continue through tomorrow, the smoke has abated
significantly, and so I'm spending the night at
home tonight...although the Jeep and trailer are
loaded and ready to go at the ranch, just in case.

So...we're doing fine. All San Diego Unified
schools (as well as others) are closed for the
remainder of the week, so Seger and I (at least)
will be home tomorrow (Wednesday), and possibly
for the rest of the week, too--we'll have to play
it by ear. I understand that in San Diego County
alone there have been over 600 homes
destroyed. In a really frightening twist, many
of the places in Rancho Bernardo and Poway that
Steven and I have been looking to move to
burned. Wow. So...we're very lucky that we're
fine and Raven and the rest of the horses at the ranch are fine, too.

Okay, I have to get the dogs fed and the boys to
bed...and I will most likely collapse as well as
the adrenaline is finally wearing off. Please
keep your fingers crossed that the wind stays
calm for us, and that the poor people in harm's
way get a break in the weather that's not
predicted to let up until tomorrow afternoon. I
can't believe that four years ago we went through
the worst natural disaster...and now we've far
exceeded that damage, although not the loss of
life, which is what's important. Again, I see
the best of people coming out: The community in
front of the ball field kept coming out to us to
offer to run a hose across the street in case the
horses needed water, and these non-horsey
neighbors brought carrots and apples. When the
going gets tough, the best of humanity pulls through.

From my dear friend & former coworker, Taryn, who lives in Ramona:

Got evacuated on Sunday night with the whole town of Ramona, took 3 1/2 hours to get out to Lakeside, luckily Gavyn (Taryn & Jason's 6-year-old son) was not too panicked. My uncle's house burnt down which is very sad, they are both over 80 and have lived in the house for 50 years, as far as I know all our houses are fine, my answering machine is picking up at least. I think we are burned all the way around the house but not sure. Anyway, we have already been out since Sunday and there is no water in the town of Ramona so we don't know when we will be going back, staying at Grannys and going crazy, completely crazy, thanks for emailing. I think that everyone from work is fine as far as I know. This is a mess. I have heard that the whole end of main street by the Sizzler has burned down. I am sure it will be very tragic when we get back home.

From another friend and my former VP of HR, Anne, and her sister-in-law and a dear friend & former coworker of mine, Jennifer:

Jen and I are fine. We were evacuated early this morning. Jen is now w/her folks in San Marcos. We decided to head home, as we heard we might be able to swing it. We're here. It's extremely smokey, but inside the house is not too bad. The neighborhood has been spared, but so much of RB has been hit...mostly one area. So sad! We'll know more tomorrow, I'm sure. Steve couldn't even go to work if he wanted, as the 15N was closed. True devastation.

Thanks for your concerns.

-Anne

Thank you for checking in. We are good here and back home. Our plight was nothing at all but 48 hours or so away from home, we lost one tree, soot, ashes and a few singed plants. We are blessed to still have our "stuff" (which is all it is). Mostly, we are blessed to have each other. So many others have sooo much more to deal with and my heart goes out to them.

We were awakened by my Mom calling at 5am asking if we were evacuating. Uhhh...what...was the gist of my response. Sure enough we turned on the tv to find that basically all of RB was under evacuation and that Westwood was burning down right that moment. We quickly packed some essentials, kids, cat and dog and headed off to Qualcomm. After hanging out at the q for about 4 hours we decided it was too much to bear with kids, cat and dog. We quickly went to plan b. Go to mom's despite the advisory evacuation at her house. Her evac warning was lifted and there we spent the night. We finally decided to brave going home (knowing that people had spent the night safely in our little neighborhood).

What is most incredible, is the way the community of San Diego has pulled together. As we left Qualcomm (evac site one for us) to head for my Mom and Dad's a man stopped us in the parking lot and asked of we wanted some of his granola bars for the road for our boys. I said, "no, thank you." And he replied, "how about a prayer?" I said, sure and there he knelt on the ground as I sit waiting in the car (with the door open) and said a prayer with me for the safety of my house and family. What a beautiful gesture from a complete stranger. It makes me well up with tears thinking about it.

We are still cleaning and as many others will be for days to come. In the midst we are still preparing for our Halloween party this weekend. Hell yeah...my house is still standing...I am having a party. We hope it can help friends re-connect or just get away from the chaos for a couple of hours.

From Mike Newman - old family friend. Let's just say we've known each other since early elementary school:

Thank you all for your concern with respect to our home and the San Diego fires. Each of you either directly or indirectly conveyed your concerns regarding our welfare, and I wanted to provide a final update to everyone with respect to the fires and our house. We evacuated on Monday morning, and were finally permitted to return to the house today. When we returned, we discovered that the wildfire had entered our property and burned more than a dozen trees in our yard. The fire probably encroached 50 feet onto our property, but the firefighters did a superb job in keeping the fire away from our house. They used so much water on the trees and our yard, that the ground was still mushy and wet 48 hours after the fire passed. If not for their efforts in fighting back the fire, our house very easily could have been destroyed. Instead, other than the burned trees, our house and property were fine (black and sooty, but fine).

We also have an investment property in another part of Rancho Santa Fe, and like our home, the wildfire entered that property too and burned trees and vegetation. Again, the firefighters did an awesome job of protecting the house, which escaped unscathed. Someone we know actually saw the firefighters on television, on our driveway, protecting that house. They watered down the entire house, in addition to the yard, in order to protect it.

We are extremely fortunate that the wildfire entered both properties, yet caused no damage to either house. I'll be back at work tomorrow morning, grateful to get back to normal.

Mike

And lastly, from our former neighbors and friends, the Woodie family:

Definitely a strange week. I think I sent you pics from Julian from last Sunday, when we rolled through Witch Creek just a couple hours before the huge fire erupted there. We spent Sunday night glued to our TVs as the Witch fire rolled down past Ramona and towards Poway, then we finally got evacuated on Monday afternoon. That’s an experience I’ll never forget – going through our house looking for the “stuff” that really mattered, and would fit in the car – but it turned out all right in the end so that’s all that matters. That night was pretty crazy as well – we headed over to the 5 because the 15 was closed heading North, with me in my Jeep and Heather and the kids in her car, and rolled along through the smoke (holding my shirt over my face in the open Jeep – that was particularly dumb to have taken 2 cars but whatever) up to the 76 and then cut across. Heather was only a couple of car lengths behind me, but she missed a light about half-way across the 76 and right after I rolled through they shut it down, redirecting me South again and her back West. Ugh. I was pretty close to the 15 at that point so I kept going, trying to see if we could get through on the 15 into Temecula/Murrieta where we were going to stay with her parents. I made my way to within a mile or so of Rainbow before it was all shut down and I had to turn back because of the fire that was raging in Rainbow/Fallbrook. Ugh again. So I had to head back down to the 78, all the way across to the 5 (again in the smoke from the fires just a few miles South of the 78 along the Del Dios highway) and then up the 5 where I had almost caught up with Heather. We finally met up again at the Ortega highway and the 5, and we crossed over the Ortega – a tricky drive even on a good day – to Elsinore and finally to Murrieta. 6 hours after we had left Scripps Ranch, we landed in Murrieta. The kids were unbelievable troopers, and even the dogs were in good shape, but everyone was pretty exhausted, and the information was pretty sketchy up there, as the L.A. stations were focused on Malibu and Orange County fires.

Very luckily, the fire moving towards Poway didn’t make much headway that night and the direction it was going meant it pretty much had to go through the heart of Poway and then through all of new Scripps Ranch to get to us, but with the crazy winds anything was possible. By Tuesday at noon, the fire just wasn’t moving our way any more and they lifted the evacuation order for us and some parts of Poway (which was the really good news – if it wasn’t threatening those parts of Poway, it sure wasn’t going to threaten us), and we headed back home. The 15 was open at that point, so our trip home was mercifully short.

Now for your viewing enjoyment - Mia with a doggie at the OOARS Doggie Wash Benefit. His name is Checkers:
Richard - the fabulous cook at Somchai...holy cow some of the best Thai food - nay - best FOOD I've ever eaten:

Our kid, Mia - in her pumpkin fairy costume she wore to Logan's 6th birthday party. Very exciting.

More Prayers....

http://media.signonsandiego.com/fires/

San Diego is on fire. Again. Almost 5 years to the day from the last huge one, and these fires are much worse. I'm thinking of you all in San Diego County - LA too! I hope you're all safe and with loved ones and that this all ends soon. It's very hard to watch it from here and not know if everyone's fine - but I have to say I'm happy we're not inhaling all that smoke again.

With these concrete buildings and the rain & humidity, I think fires will be pretty unlikely in Okinawa.