New month, new color!

2/28/2023.  
My favorite espresso drink is now Cortadito. 
https://thecoffeefolk.com/cortadito/  
You'd like it.  
I have several themes in my mind to write. I'm smiling. Here are some lineups. 
Sit-ski   
Chicago trip   
Mongolia  (Oh, yes, Mongolia!)
Something BIG related to Handcycle. (I'm grinning)
March will start tomorrow. Wow

2/25/2023.
Today’s story is like a “revealing Secret Santa or Secret Sister.” I had no idea about Secret Santa before I came to US. Once I learned it, I loved the idea of it very much. I believe there is none like this event in Japan. (Oh, so as White elephant gift exchange.)
I wrote on 2/17 (you can scroll down and read it if you are curious.) about the play “Two on the aisle, Three in a van”. I loved it and amazed all cast member’s brilliant act/work including backstage crews’ hard work. I wanted to “play” with them during their 2 weeks long shows with a hint of Secret-Santa-idea, even though I’m not a close-friend of all casts/crews. But if you know me, yes, I wanted to cheer them up for the wonderful shows.

Started from this:

I brought some snacks with Cheetos for their rehearsal night, with a cheering-note. Why Cheetos? Because it was one of their stage props. I wrote “from your Secret friend” as my identity.

Secret friend gift #2:

I brought balloons for each casts. Just because their show weeks were long and I wanted to keep their energy up high like those balloons.

Secret friend gift #3:

I brought roses for every casts/crews. “Rose” was also one of the keywords in the play. So as “Teamwork”! I wrote “Teamwork” in the note as well.   
I’m so satisfied what I did in these 3 weeks. It was so much fun to “play” for them. I couldn’t reveal myself to casts/crews after all. Well, it was just not the right time to do it right after their show in the theater. So I wrote it here. I’m not a theater person but I was happy to feel as if I was one of theater family. Fun! Right? Hope you felt a little bit of joy from my story today. It was a wonderful comedy play definitely! Bravo!!

2/25/2023.  
The postcard from Washington, DC brought me a great sunny joyful day! Love snail mail! Plus she picked the postcard at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum!!! It's a bonus. It says "Boy stretches to put his mail into this 1890s collection box. Doremus-style boxes like this were as universal as blue mail boxes are today." in front. Cool! LOVE IT. 

2/24/2023.  
In Japan, there is a required thesis presentation for getting bachelor degrees (I think) at most of universities. (Maybe science fields)  
I have a bachelor of science (I don’t say it loud though. sheee) and yes, I did my thesis presentation in front of audience. Wow, it seems so long long ago. I don’t remember the exact title of my presentation (bad me), but I still remember my feeling in front of the audience at the seminar room. A funny part is “I invited my parents to watch me talking.” Because most of students were not from local, plus it was only bachelor stuff. Inviting parents rarely happened. Funny, I do remember about that part. Well, then I got a huge stage fright, I stopped and breathed deeply slowly and told professors in the front seats “I’m going to start over from the beginning.” Then I did.  
Key words were: TGF-β family, xenopus Mad protein (Smad3, 4).
I’m not good at doing a public speech. Oh especially in English, I’ve never tried it. However I keep encouraging my son to try a public speech. I don’t think I’m a right person to say that though.  
Every time I hear about my husband’s students’ thesis presentations, it reminds me of my experience in Japan. And I’d love to be there to observe their talk if possible, even though it’s always hard to understand whole research stories to myself. It’s always good to watch them.  
Oh, I remember this. I did presentation about Japanese cooking for Moms club in Manhattan in 2004 or 2005, demonstrated how to make it and let them try it. The Moms club members were so generous and patient. We had a good time. Even for this even, I practiced my talks at home again and again. And I always needed props for any presentation like big placards. Good old memories. (Photo: Moms club gathering. It was supposed to be “no child” night, but I brought my son with me anyway.)

2/22/2023.  
Ohhhhh, happy happy birthday to my mom in Japan. You are such an artist, sweet singer and wonderful cook!  
See the photo? We receive big delivery boxes every month. Yes, every single month, these boxes have to be delivered no matter what. 

These are my husband's catheters. He cannot live without them literally. They are really important items truly. However it's a little bit complicated system related to insurance and catheter company. I hoped it automatically come to our house. My husband needs to order/check/re-check shipping for the catheters every single month. What if he gets too sick and cannot do any online stuffs???  I believe, in that case, I need to do an action for the catheters. I'd better learn how to order them from my husband, just in case.  A scary part is "we cannot stock up extra catheters because of the insurance". Hard stuff.  
photo: I cannot give flowers to my momma physically because it's too far away. But I have some here blooming and think of her deeply. 

2/21/2023.  Just random stuffs;  
#1: Did you watch the news about Mr. President's visit in Cincinnati?  
https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/president-biden-swings-by-just-qin-bbq-during-brent-spence-bridge-visit?_amp=true
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/01/04/joe-biden-visits-popular-cincinnati-restaurant-wednesday-just-qin-bbq/69778489007/
My husband showed me the restaurant's location and we made a plan for visiting this place. And we made it at last! The lady in the video was at the cashier for us!! (Oh I didn't know this fact until now. But it was HER!! Wow.) 

#2: I just started painting my husband's room. Funny. Because it will take longer time. (Just one side at a time.) But at least I feel good about it. 
P.S. Do you see what's blooming in the photo?  Yes, two Christmas cactus (cacti)! These started blooming in November. Just kept blooming.

2/20/2023.  
I'm not a real scientist at all, but I love science and love being around scientists. It was a privilege to watch Biology dissertation defense at University of Dayton today. (My husband is one of the committee members.) My husband took his 3 grad students with him, too. As always, my brain hurts because of focusing on too much information in English. But I was so grateful and happy that my husband made it to be there to do his "science & professor" work just like pre-injury days. It was a simple joy to myself to witness that.

2/19/2023.
My sweet friend who is a teacher/artist/mother of 2, gave me her handmade greeting-cards. It was a Christmas present. A set of 12 cards, 12 Ohio butterflies. They are all endangered or threatened in Ohio. I was so pleased of her sweet thoughtful action. These cards get my attention very much plus beautiful arts indeed. Then I’ve enjoyed “using” these cards very much. At first, I thought “I should keep them all here with me, I should. Because these are so beautiful. Maybe I should display them on the wall.” It’s that much beautiful professional work. Then I changed my mind. I decided to send each card to my friends near and far and track cards’ destinations. I could imagine the places these butterflies travel. How do you think about that?   
So far, my friend’s butterflies flew off to:  
Northfield, MN
Washington, DC
Athens, OH
Brooklyn, NY
Oxford, OH
See? It’s so much fun. Then I got a card in return from Northfield, MN!! (photo #2). That was a Big Bonus! You know how much it made me smile?  I will keep one for myself as my precious treasure. 

2/18/2023.  
A while ago, when I stopped by the hospital lobby, I heard piano playing. It was comforting and I had to peek to see who the pianist was. It was "My favorite things" Jazz version!!!  Then what surprised me more was "I knew the pianist!"  He was the pianist for the high school musical show pit orchestra/band. I met him several times at the musical shows. I just fell in love with that Jazz version of My favorite things. He moved from this town but I still remember about him and his tunes. "My favorite things" are covered by many many musicians. It's fun to listen to them.

2/17/2023.    
I purchased the ticket for the play “Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van” that will happen in this town. The opening night is TONIGHT. YES, I’m going tonight, the Opening night. I’m obsessed by “opening night”, you know?  I’ve been smiling all day long. I know 3 cast members very much, I know 1 cast member because of his wife. I believe I know 1 cast young man because I saw him at school before, when I worked for this school district.  So my excitement got bigger and bigger until today.  However there is one condition about my language communication. You might laugh.   
I love the Musical theater shows (any musical) the most. You can guess the reason easily. Music and songs plus dance never fail me, never disappoint me to be able to enjoy the whole shows no matter how much I understand English scripts. “Plays” are a bit different to myself. Oh, especially “comedy” is tricky to me. I might miss easily “timings to laugh”. It’s sad, I don’t want to miss it at all. Sometimes I just give up to attend to Plays just because of this reason. This time, I decided to give it a try. Then my “project” has started. (Yes, now is the time you laugh.) I searched the description of this show online. I found the script book at University library and checked it out. I tried to read it through, it didn’t ruin my excitement at all. (You might think it is spoiler for the actual show, don’t you?) In fact, it helped me a lot to be ready for attending the show really.   
(Maybe from here, it might be “a spoiler alert”.)  I’m not sure how much popular this show “Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van” is. How much popular is the Musical “Mame”(1966)? I learned several new things and I’m loving them. Especially reading “theater scripts books” is fun, fun and fun. I’m now reading “The Sound of Music” and “Mame”.   
I love the process and enjoy the process when I set my goals (this time, going to the play). I don’t think anybody does it like I did for watching a theater play.   
I need to find someone to chat about this play after I watch it tonight. Because I will be chatty extremely for sure. 

Entry#114. 2/16/2023.   
Our house is 2 stories, has no basement and has two-doors garage. The front door has steps and so as the back door. Most of rooms have carpet. Basically this house is not so practical for wheelchair users. But, you know, we live with it, sometimes impromptu. Right after the accident, my friend asked me “Will you find 1 story house and move?”.  I didn’t have that idea at all.  At that moment, I was thinking “I cannot move to another house (like) by myself. Impossible!! No way.” Besides I love my neighborhood very much. However moving to “100% accessible 1 story house” would be the best action for wheelchair users, theoretically.  
Right now, my husband doesn’t use upstairs at all. He doesn’t need to go there. There is nothing he needs to use. In the 2nd floor, there is a narrow bathroom (bathtub) that we can take a bath lying down. I still have a tiny wish that I want my husband to use “bathtub” lying down, take a bath, hot tub, not shower, just like a Japanese traditional style. Surprisingly many paraplegic people made YouTube videos about how to use bathtub without shower-chair. They say “once your feet and legs are into the tub/water, buoyancy makes your body float and BUOYANCY will make it easier. Just slide your whole body into the water.”  The videos show that everything is simple. (I know it’s not that simple for reality, I know.) So still this is my tiny future dream for my husband. I also know he might say “Using a shower chair at roll-in-shower room just fine. It works perfectly right now. No need to change or try a new way.” And that’s true, too. But you know, I just have a tiny dream in my mind.  
If I make my husband use upstairs’ bathtub, he needs to “climb” steps to the 2nd floor. Like this videos. 

Like we know, it’s not so required skill. It really depends on what my husband wants. But if he could manage climbing stairs and taking hot bath….. I just keep imagining. That’d be just nice and maybe relaxing. But we always need to think about “after”, how to get back onto a wheelchair from bathtub and how to go down staircase. Well, I’ll keep searching and learning. That’s what I can do. 
P.S. Eventually we might need to think about "moving to 1story house", sometime in future. We will get older and older, that's for sure. There are still many things to think about.

2/16/2023.  
Do you know Mancala game? Have you played it before? My husband and son are good at it and I'm a bad one. But I like this game. 
https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-play-mancala-409424

I like Othello. Do you know Othello?  
https://www.worldothello.org/about/about-othello/othello-rules/official-rules/english

Photo: They used to play chess often. 

2/15/2023.  
Every time we discover a new nice restaurant where is accessible, we would be grateful for the opportunity we have. 

2/14/2023.  
Happy happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Photo: I made this bulletin board at Middle school several years ago. Nice fun memory. I think I need my own bulletin board in my house. 

2/13/2023.  
Our boy-dog, Ranger is age 13. He’s been through several surgeries including big scary one for Gastric torsion. He recently visited his vet, Oxford veterinary hospital https://oxvet.com/staff/

to check up and discuss his whole body condition. He is now blind and deaf, but he is still fine for walking and appetite. His wonderful vet doctor restated that Ranger had many specialist doctors more than human beings. Orthopedist, oncologist, ophthalmologist, and so on. His latest UTI (infection) was treated and he seems getting better and better. However we need to schedule for another surgery soon. His small bump on his forefoot has to be removed (unfortunately). Because of his age, we are always worried about the effect of anesthesia. Hopefully everything will go smoothly without any complications.  
The experience of his Gastric torsion was so scary to me. I never forget. It was a life threatening event and we were so relieved that it was just on time to visit ER and he made it through the surgery. My husband’s call and decision saved him literally.  (It’s been a long time now since.)   
Yes, we all do hard things together, because we are family. Ranger still senses us no matter what and we all love him very deeply. We gotta stay strong. (We cannot say thank you enough to wonderful thoughtful Oxford veterinary hospital staffs!!!)

photo: on Dec 2022

2/12/2023.  So randomly knitting stuff.
I was born in 1973. As long as I remember, I wasn’t a girl who cooked and baked a lot. But I was a craft-lover girl. I guess my mother gave me many kinds of craft gadgets. And she kept the old toy knitting machine for a long long time which is amazing. Even she sent me that machine from Japan to US when my son was born, just in case he was interested in some craft stuffs. Do you see a photo of the toy knitting machine? (with my tiny young son.) How much popular is this type of knitting machine in US? Are you familiar with it? I know many knitters (knit-lover friends) from near and far. Their knitting skills are amazing. I imagine they would say hand knitting is much much better than machine knitting. How do you think? 

https://youtu.be/NdHKij-KiZ4

https://youtu.be/vxD01P2N7N8

https://youtu.be/qtVj49VqAFI

2/11/2023.  
Our very first visit to Mad river mountain was so satisfying. 2 hours drive /one way was worth great experience of sit-ski lesson indeed. My husband's sit-ski #2 is done and everyone's smile was precious.

2/10/2023.  
I love snail mail. Do you?

2/09/2023.  Murals updates:   
I’ve got Mural-photos from my dear friend in Manhattan/Olsburg, KS!! I LOVE them all. I’m so happy she shared them with me. Now you get curious and want to visit there to see them with your own eyes, don’t you?  She really lifted my spirit up and gave me great energy. Thank you!
These are in Manhattan, KS.

https://thelittleapplelife.com/murals-of-manhattan/

We both loved the “Night fires” the most. Our favorite!!! (Even it says 2022! Very recent project. Wow) Do you have Murals in your own town?? Send me photos of yourself by the mural. 

#1: title “I know a Place”  
#2: title “Night fires in post rock country”  
#3: title “Anotacoes” 

Entry#113.  2/08/2023.
If you search on YouTube about “how to put on and remove shoes for paraplegic”, you would see there are quite a number of videos. Who knew putting shoes on is also tricky for paraplegic person. At very first at the inpatient hospital, once my husband went to the gathering with only socks on without shoes (it was a quick visit). Another paraplegic man (we are friends now) warned him “Where are your shoes?? Seeing that makes me nervous. You should wear shoes, that’s a must.” grinning. At that time, we haven’t recognized about shoes’ importance especially for paraplegic. Even now (19 mo since the injury), we notice and learn something new about shoes/boots.
One time, my husband fell from wheelchair outside at the crossroad (curb). We didn’t expect at all but his toes got fractured, tiny bit. He wore shoes of course. However that happens sometimes sadly. After this fracture, we got a bit overly careful. It’s like a “watch and learn” and it would get familiar for each situations.
Size:
At the very beginning, he was told (he saw YouTubers comments as well) to get shoes with 1 or 2 size up. So he did. The reason was it’s easy to put them on. After several month later, he switched to regular size sneakers because it was more comfortable. Too big shoes wouldn’t be easy to handle.
Weight:
Heavy shoes also are not easy to handle. My husband needs to pull leg up to transfer to a seat (any seat, to car or to chair). Light weight is better. But you have to think about protection part, soft/light material isn’t so protective. 
Outsole:
He has several great trail-running shoes with strong grip outsole. Sometimes those grip blocks leg/foot movement. For now, he gave up his old nice trail-run shoes. That’s a sad part. 
Snow boots:
Just because his new adventure “sit-ski” on the snow, he needed snow boots. He visited several shoes stores and tried them on. Good boots have always hard-protective-ankle part (including collar and tongue). Most of the time, he couldn’t slide his toe into the boot at all. Very tricky and frustrating. (Then I guessed the adult long rain boots won’t work at all. That’s just my guess though.) 

After all, my husband needs to find his favorite comfortable easy-to-use shoes/boots somehow, taking times. The most important point to pick is “don’t make pressure sores on a foot, wherever it is”. 

You also need to know about quadriplegic person, how they handle most of things around themselves including putting on shoes. It’s really good to learn about these stuffs. My husband purchased special boots which are basically made for quadriplegic. Attached photos. The upper part of boot opens up amazingly. It’s really easy to handle and he loves it. Your eyes must be opening wide now, aren’t they?

2/07/2023. 
Library system in Japan is different than US. (I'll re-search about it later.) I guess my love of libraries started in the year 2007 when my son started kindergarten at Lee elementary school in Manhattan, KS. The wonderful librarians let me be in their school library as a volunteer. I learned that #398.2 (Dewey decimal system) is the call number for the fairy tail section. I looked for Japanese folk tales at that time. Then I totally fell in love with Library. (Well, I used elementary school library a lot when I was a kid. But not much public library later on when I was in middle/high school.)   
I love the Lane public library in my town. (Now I'm loving King library in Miami U as well.)    
Do you see the staircase-panel which has strips of book-pages? They have beautiful murals upstairs. The memorial bench is just lovely. And of course the librarians and staffs are skillful and super friendly. They make you smile all the time.  
Now I feel I need to take a phot of myself sitting by that girl.

2/06/2023.  
When whole day was full of excitement, your body got too exhausted to move. Plus I think I'm getting a bit old. Details are coming soon. 

2/05/2023.
Our son is a junior in college. It’s almost time to start thinking about the job after graduation, so I imagine. Then I think back on my experience of my first real job in Japan. It’s a long time ago. I found an old photo of me and my family. Since there is no digital data, I took a picture of a photo. 

My father, mother, younger brother and me. I believe this was the year I worked for a Medicine company as a sales rep. It was Glaxo Japan at that time. I googled “GSK Japan”.  
https://jp.gsk.com/ja-jp/home/#

Too bad that their website is only in Japanese, there is no English translation at all. It surprised me a lot. I will write more about my first job sometime. Only one thing I can tell right now is “I was just young and I couldn’t find the job that fitted me.” I need to add this, both education system and job/employment system in Japan are totally different than in US.   
I am interested in how our son finds his own job and I do hope he can find the one he loves. Sometimes I’m jealous that my husband and son do “men’s talk” about jobs. One of the good parts of father-son connections. 

2/04/2023.  
My neighbor's fence has a hole which looks like a tiny window for neighbor's dog. I don't know about him much, but he greets me all the time (!?). Just like this photo. Happy Shiny Saturday!

2/03/2023.  
When you see the advertisement titled “Sing-a-long a Sound of Music”, you cannot ignore it and start digging into the details about it. Because you are a Musical-Theater-show-lover. Have you heard about it? Have you watched the show before? Is this very popular now? How much popular?  
Then you noticed that this unique show will come to Cincinnati, at Cincinnati Music Hall in this month(!) Your eyes will be wide open. 

https://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/about/press-room/press-releases/cincinnati-pops-to-present-international-musical-sensation-sing-a-long-a-sound-of-music/

I do love Musical shows including musical-movies. Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music are my top favorites. Yes, I love Julie Andrews very much. So my wishlist has now another new activity “going to watch Sing-A-Long a Sound of Music” someday. Someday.  Even though I’m not good at singing IN ENGLISH at all. I would love to watch the interaction-event. It’s gonna be fantastic to watch and feel people’s excitement to myself. This show sounds so much fun indeed. Wow! Are you interested in it?  (It says no orchestra for this event, but I imagine it’d be super nice with real orchestra musicians there. It might be chaotic, maybe. That’s predictable as well.). 
P.S. This kind of events could apply to me, not my husband and son, as you know. I’d find my companion for this. 

Entry#112.  2/02/2023.  
Yes, all social medias make me think of Black history month in US. February is Black history month. It’s nice to rethink/re-read about it. https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1150977600/black-history-month-2023-theme-3-things-to-know

Then I’m learning something new, too. It’s about influential Black disabled men. It’s really good to know about them to myself. I will learn more and more. https://disabilityhorizons.com/2020/06/8-influential-black-disabled-men-to-follow/

Plus our wonderful town, Oxford, Ohio has Black history tour! How wonderful. 

2/01/2023.  
I'm using a free website builder called Webador. It's not so fancy but it's a simple use. It records statistics about visitors' numbers. (In fact, it's view-numbers, not people's.) It makes me curious and motivates me as well. I started my blog at the end of March 2022. So, you see? Next month will be one year anniversary for my unique writing. Woooo hooooo! That's something, I believe. I attached a screenshot of stats-chart. It's so interesting, don't you think? I have about 250 viewers evey month. (That means about 7-8 people read my page per day.) Love it. And thank you, all of you out there, my dear friends, for checking my blog. I'm all smiling when I think of my friends. 

There are some limitations using this free website builder. I wanted to add a "builtin board" that anyone could leave words (sentences) without their own names. Like a short survey. However the only option I have is "Add comment"-format. Ok, I'm gonna try this anyway. "What would you like to know about me?" This is the question. I don't need to know your name, just initial is ok for "name" section. Unfortunately I couldn't remove "email" section. But it won't show on this page after you submit. So just for processing. Will you try say something? Please anything. I wanted to do something "interactive" through this page. Plus your ideas would help me a lot to keep writing in future. 

What would you like to know more about me? Or paraplegic? (Please use below.)