Politics and “What if….?”

You want to know what my favorite thing about living abroad is right now?  NO POLITICAL ADS.    You all should indeed be very jealous of me!    Anytime we watch TV it’s on Hulu, and very, very rarely will there be a political ad.  If it does pop up, it’s for some random Proposition from the state of California.  Prop 37 and 39 seem to be the hotly debated ones…..  I do NOT miss all of the negative ads, signs, commercials, and mud-slinging that CONSTANTLY is part of each American’s life this time of year.  Yep, sure don’t miss that!!

It’s not that there aren’t any politics in Japan……it’s just that Ian and I can tune it out much easier.  We don’t watch TV, so we don’t see commercials.  When politicians run for office here, they rent vehicles with loudspeakers on them and roam up and down the streets of their voting area shouting to anyone who will listen their plans.  Occasionally we’ll get stuck behind one of these vehicles, and it’s utterly annoying.  There’s nothing worse than being behind a car that’s going 40 KPH (about 25 MPH) down the road blasting political info.  Plus, we’re not exactly the target demographic that politicians look at.  Since we can’t even vote in this country, politicians are wasting their time on us.  We’ve actually had a few who go from neighborhood to neighborhood knocking on doors and giving pamphlets to everyone.  The politicians who come to our door always have a big cheesy grin on their face when we open our door, and then they realize that we’re foreigners and that their time is being wasted on us.    Instead of giving us the speech that they give everyone else, they simply give us their business card and move on to the next house.  Ha!  Ha!

This past weekend was fabulously lazy.  The weather wasn’t that great….kind of gray and draggy all weekend, so it was the perfect weather to lay around and be lazy!    Ian and I skyped a few people on Saturday morning and then were lazy for the rest of the day.  He had to go to work that afternoon, so once he left I got up and started to be slightly productive.  I cleaned the house, washed a load of clothes, and tackled the dirty dishes. 

We spent the night at Melissa’s house.  We planned on going to church on Sunday morning, and instead of waking up early and making the forty-five minute commute to Hitoyoshi that morning, we stayed with Melissa, who lives on the outskirts of Hitoyoshi.  Everyone else in Kuma-gun went to the Tamana Halloween party, a big Halloween party for all ALTs and friends in Kumamoto.  Ian and I went last year, but this year instead of going we wanted to save money for Australia.  Since it was only Ian, Melissa, and I left in Kuma-gun, we thought that we might as well enjoy the night together.  Melissa made dinner, we brought a movie, and together we enjoyed our night.  Ian and I slept on her spare twin-sized futon.  Even though we generally share the twin bed in our house instead of pulling out our full-size futon everyday, Mr. Ian was hogging the entire thing!  I basically spent the whole night on the edge of the futon or on the floor. 

We went to church on Sunday morning and then to McDonald’s for breakfast afterwards.  There’s something familiar and comforting about going to McDonald’s after church.  Having American things like McGriddles after Mass gives our lives a sense of normalcy.    After McDonald’s, we headed back to Melissa’s.  Even though we had no intention of staying the whole day over there, we did.  I can’t even really tell you one thing that we did.  Basically it was a lazy day of nothing.  It was great.   

When we finally rolled back into Yunomae at 5PM that night, I started making cookies to take to school.  Since it’s Halloween this week, I’m making cookies for all of the teachers at my schools.  I also started reading a book that I borrowed from Melissa.  I saw it sitting on her bookshelf and asked to borrow it.  It’s A Sense of Hope by Barrack Obama.  Before anyone brings out the political banter, it was a New York Times bestseller, and I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about it.  He wrote it even before becoming the president, and I really enjoy it.  It’s not too terribly political but does explain why some of the things are the way they are in our country today.  There are places when it gets a little too political and I have to skim the page until the next subject is brought up, but all-in-all, I think it’s a great book!

I hate Sunday nights.  There’s always that thought in the back of my mind that says “CRAP!  IT’S SUNDAY NIGHT!!”  Knowing that the weekend has passed by all too quickly and that there are five work days in front of me is not a happy feeling.  However, to combat this feeling we spoke to our friends Jessica and Warren late last night.  They are having a baby!    Ian and I thought that something fishy was up because Jessica actually asked ME if WE could skype this weekend.  Usually  it’s the other way around, and I’m the one who initiates skype times.  Whenever we talked to them at home this summer, they seemed like they were ready for the next step, so it wasn’t too big of a surprise to find out this news.  Hurray!  She said that she’s due in May and that they’ll find out the sex in December. 

It’s weird that our friends are starting to reproduce.  At first it was weird that everyone was getting married.  Then everyone started buying houses.  Now everyone is having kids.  IS THIS WHAT IT’S LIKE TO GROW UP?!?!  Neither Ian nor I are ready for kids.  We’re still trying to decide if we should stay for a third year in Japan or not!  However, at the same time both of us are thinking……should we be settling down???  It’s such a strange feeling!  Even though we know that we want to wait, we wonder about the what ifs: What if we never feel ready?  What if we never feel “financially secure” enough to take care of a child?  What if our relationship changes after having a kid?  What if once we start trying, we find out that we’re infertile?  WHAT IF….???  I’m starting to feel very pressured and stressed about the next step in our lives……whatever that might be! 

Step one: decide if we’re going to stay a third year. 

Step two: decide everything else! 

So that’s that…………..