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Staying Out of the Way

Yesterday started rough. I woke up exhausted, still feeling the effects of the night before. Too much barfing, not enough sleeping. Eri had already made me a doctor's appointment, and I tried to dodge it, but she insisted. Of course, she was right. After a stomach event like that, I had no real excuse not to go and oh nothing I was in physical pain.


The doctor said it was probably a stomach bug that’s been going around. His advice: take it easy. Then Eri mentioned that I had chugged a big cup of ice-cold green vegetable juice first thing in the morning (like I always do actually) because I was so dehydrated. The doc physically recoiled and told me to cool it with the cold drinks unless I wanted my stomach to stage another revolt. He prescribed a bunch of meds and sent me on my way.

I tried to work. Managed to get some things done, though I'll have to go back and fix them the next day. Slept a lot. At one point, I even passed out at my desk in the late afternoon. Meanwhile, outside, the snow started up again. In the evening, Kenzo and I read more of The Call of the Wild, getting to the part where Dolly goes insane, and Francois has to put her down. What a note to end the day on. Kenzo, as always, wanted to keep going, but by then, it was past 8 PM, and I was more than ready for bed. My body was still wiped out.

This morning, I woke up to sunlight hitting the window and took a peek outside. Oh boy. It’s been a while since the snow piled up this high, even on the windows. 


It looked like something straight out of Charles Dickens. I knew I had a long morning ahead. Snow shoveling, car de-thawing, and the added challenge of ongoing snowfall undoing my work as I went. But waking up under warm blankets after a solid night's sleep, knowing the snow had been coming down all night, was its own kind of magic.

In the evening, the boys had their online English class, thanks to my co-workers. We're in the middle of practice lessons for our new online school, so Kenzo and Osamu get free English lessons out of it. As usual, they weren’t too excited beforehand. It’s cold, it gets dark early, and they were in cozy evening mode. But once class started, they got into it. 


I feel like we’re approaching a big crossroads with their bilingualism. Right now, they’re great at both English and Japanese, but Kenzo, being in Japanese elementary school, is naturally ahead in reading and writing in Japanese. Eventually, they’ll start questioning their identities, reacting to outside influences, maybe even pulling away from parts of themselves. I want to be ready. I want them to see that being bilingual, being unique, is a strength. It’s hard to appreciate that when you’re young. I know I had my own struggles with identity growing up. Most of us did.

For now, though, they’re just kids learning and growing, and I’m here, shoveling snow and trying not to get in the way.



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