Monsoon Season

I am wholly missing Japan lately.

I got up this morning with the intent to make a bento for A to take to school and I just could not figure out how best to put it together.  Incredibly frustrating, and I know totally irrational, but I couldn't help thinking to myself that perhaps I'd left my bento muse back in Okinawa.

Really, the issue was most likely that I woke up with a killer sore throat on this, the morning of my Pampered Chef independent consultant launch event and I basically just feel completely overwhelmed in general.  But still, I miss Japan.  I miss the people, I miss the shops, I miss the FOOD - GOD, do I miss the food!!  I have this really awesome friend that is still in Okinawa and she has been wonderful - shopping and shipping things for me that I can't get anywhere else.  She even sent me a few Chu His in the last package.  Chu Hi is essentially a fruit flavored Japanese "soda" beer.  She reminded me recently that it's currently monsoon season in Okinawa.

Pretty sure I bring the monsoon with me where ever we go.  It's been raining for about 3 weeks solid here in England.  I get that this is a rainy country, but even the weather reports agree that this has been extreme for April/May.  A told me yesterday that she only likes BLUE skies, and why is the sky here always GRAY??  She has completely forgotten how frequently it rained in Okinawa.  A has also made it very clear that instead of living here in England, she would like nothing more than to move to California where she can be with grandma.  I don't blame her, grandma is basically the most awesome person in the world.

I just really need to get my act together.  The school year is almost over at this point, but it's never too late to quit being a slacker, right?

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Book 10/30 in the 2012 Reading Challenge.  Date completed: May 3, 2012.

Oh my goodness, this book.  I am writing this blog review only after having recovered slightly from the blubbering mess I was earlier this evening when I finished The Fault in Our Stars.

Let me first say that I rated it five stars on Goodreads.  This book moved me.  When I was looking for a good clear picture of the cover for this blog post, I found it used in an "ALL THE THINGS" meme.  Totally fitting.  I felt, to be honest, ALL THE THINGS throughout this book.

My heart soared.  My heart broke.  Finishing out the last third of the book or so today, I can't tell you how much of it I spent crying.  Yes, I'm pathetic.

The Fault in Our Stars - to get down to the actual reviewing, here - is about Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters.  Two star-crossed-lovers (I'm clearly a total sap for star-crossed-lovers) who are - spoiler alert - dying of cancer.  Hazel is an avid reader and particularly loves a fictional novel called "An Imperial Affliction", which is about a terminally ill girl much like herself.

I don't want to give away too much of this story, because it's really something everybody ought to experience.  Suffice to say that I'm finished reading it now and my nose feels like it's going to never stop running, and I have a dull ache in my throat where the rock-hard lump was before the book ended.  This book is a masterpiece in young adult literature.