Over the last eighteen months or so, I’ve become pretty good friends with my co-worker Gwen and her husband Mike. Well, they’ve just had their first baby, a little boy! (I’ve yet to visit, for various reasons including a niggling cold I wouldn’t want to pass on — though don’t babies have a strong immune system? Er, I dunno. I’ll call and ask Gwen.) Anyway, congratulations to them! And suddenly, the balance of weight has shifted back to me being the one who looks more pregnant.
This afternoon I’ll be heading across campus to sign my contract for my current promotion. I’ll comment more on that when the ink is dry.
I’ve been watching what I eat, hitting the gym pretty regularly. I occasionally miss a day or two, especially when the effects of the previous day’s workout linger, but on a day like today, when I just have sniffles and a general feeling of ick — as well as the vaguest of inclinations to throw up, I don’t know why — I make sure not to miss my workout. To get into the gym, one must retrieve the key from the security guard, and I suspect he was quite surprised to see me show up on the evening of Seollal to work out.
Lime made ddeok mandu guk (rice-cake & dumpling soup) for Seollal for the first time. And it was good.
I’ve all but finished my work on the story “Ten Spikes and a Hammer” — I’m just waiting for some Japanese translations of a few phrases to get back to me from the friend of Gwen’s, who specializes in literary translation of Japanese fiction from the era the story is set it. Nothing like verisimiltude, huh? I’m already (slowly, and haltingly) at work on another story, surreal expat-horror set in Japan, tentatively titled “Moe” (mo-ay). The word is Japanese, and I encountered it in the essay “Otaku Sexuality” by Saitō Tamaki, translated by Christopher Bolton (and collected in and literally means “budding”, but it’s used by Japanese otaku to somewhat self-deprecatingly describe their fascination with a specific manga or anime character. (“I’m Asuka moe,” means, “I have a thing for Asuka,” as is explained in the essay.)
More news coming in a few days, including a story publication, so check back soon!
