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I'm a Weirdo (Sometimes)

I took the afternoon off and went to my therapist and my psychiatrist, but I think the best part was riding my motorcycle all over Sendai on this unbelievably beautiful afternoon.

There's that curious quote I have even used myself in the past...

“You never see a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist’s office.”
— Geoff Smith


Well, here's my motorcycle parked outside my psychiatrist’s office.

The most therapeutic thing about this, I think, is that I can basically park anywhere I want downtown for free and traffic jams are a non-issue.

Also, I love coincidences. 

I don’t know if I believe in fate or coincidence. Or maybe neither are to be believed in, like when someone says, "I don't believe in using shampoo." Whether you believe in it or not, it's a thing that exists.

The other day I was cleaning the house and listening to music and I had on some Amazon playlist called "Mellow 70s". 

Yeah, I know. Please mock me.

That song by the Carpenters, "Rainy Days and Mondays," came on. I hadn’t heard that in a really long time, so I turned it up. I like my mellow loud when no one's around. 

Also, nobody else in my house likes the kind of music that I like. The boys don’t count. They like whatever mama and papa like. Unless they’re being contrary, which is random. One day I know they will form their own preferences about things and one thing I’m trying to be careful about is to not get in the way of that. I don’t want them to like or dislike anything based on me. I know that’s crazy. I just don't want to be that dad who "shows" his kids Star Wars or whatever. Kenzo and Osamu know a lot of Bob Dylan songs already, but it's just because they spend time with me and not because I am trying to indoctrinate them.

I stopped by Lawson on the way to catch the subway downtown for a dinner party with some coworkers and my boss.  I was standing in line waiting for the checkout when a convenience store muzak version of "Rainy Days and Mondays" came on. I looked around and smiled at the lady behind me, and did an awkward facial motion to signal that I like this song. She quickly averted her eyes. And good for her. I’m a weirdo sometimes.

When I got home from my first trip downtown, I pulled into the driveway on my motorcycle and the car wasn’t there. Apparently Eri had taken the boys somewhere and I’m pretty sure I should’ve remembered where they were going, but I didn’t. 

Kenzo has had a cough and runny nose for a few days so she took him to the doctor to get some cold medicine.

I headed inside and did my usual obsessive compulsive straightening up of things and caught up on some work emails and changed clothes and put some wax in my hair and sprayed on some Axe so that I could feel sort of clean.

Eri and the boys got back just as I was getting ready to leave. When I walked downstairs, I could hear Osamu gasp with excitement to see papa. And this time it wasn’t my imagination. The boys were actually super excited to see me. They are so fickle. Sometimes I greet them and say, "Hey, how was your day?" and they totally ignore me, and sometimes they run and grab my legs and hug me and won’t let go. 

Kenzo was in a kind of mood where he didn’t want me to leave and he said he wanted to go with me. I said I’m going to have dinner with my coworkers and I’ll see you in the morning. He insisted on giving me two kisses and I gave him a big smackeroo in return.

Izumi Chuo in the late afternoon was glorious today.

Dinner was better than expected.


This is the management team for our division. They're a serious bunch.



It was a much-needed night of food and drink. We rarely see each other in person these days.

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