This'll Just Take a Minute

Taking a random Wednesday off from work means Thursday is going to be extra busy, and today was that. I was in meetings for a little over five hours and just barely managed to reply to emails that needed attention and attend to tasks that require daily steps forward. I have it so good because the people I work with are my friends. We even talked about this today in a meeting about our team culture. We do a solid amount of professional development and core values driven discussions. Officially, I am the manager, so my position has a certain nuance. For example, I know I'm not part of conversations that team members have amongst each other. And that's fine. It's natural. I trust everyone, as I would trust any friend, that they all have the best interests of each other and our organization at heart. They never let me down. The first meeting of the day was a two hour book study session. My team is passionate about growth, so we choose a book regularly, make a schedule, and meet...

One of the things I love about motorcycle riding, besides the plain visceral exhilaration of the wind and acceleration and being totally exposed to the world you're traveling through, is the erasure of all thought. I've never rock-climbed or defused a bomb, but I imagine it's similar in terms of focus. You can't think about anything other than the thing you are doing. Literally. Your mind is forced into only the present moment as a survival instinct I suppose. On a motorcycle, whether on a busy downtown boulevard or a curvy coastal highway, if your mind wanders, the very best you can hope for is an ambulance ride and some broken bones. I ride my bike for certain practicalities; trips to the office, errands that I can't walk to, and quick joyrides when time allows.  It's been a while since I rode for six hours straight, even longer since I ventured into completely unknown territory and felt the liberation of not having a destination and that carefree sense of vul...

The boys and I were playing badminton out in the street the other day. And by "playing badminton" I mean of course we were running amok with rackets and birdies. Kenzo and Osamu have little boy rackets with short handles and I have a regular adult size one, and we managed to keep that birdie in the air for a while.  Eventually the kid from a few doors down came by to play too and one of the birdies ended up on top of our neighbor's carport. The dad saw it and shouted out the window (because he's an army drill instructor and has no volume control) that he'll climb up and get it tomorrow because he's about to get in the bath. He actually apologized for the delay in retrieval.  Kenzo asked me what this game is called. He knows basketball, soccer (he's been to a pro soccer match already and plays every Saturday), and baseball, but this was totally new for him. I told the boys this is badminton. They looked at each other and laughed. Osamu squealed this new wor...

"Papa! Mama! I got a match!" Osamu was so proud. Kenzo helped him get a match. That made me proud. And I told him. Tonight I wrapped up work at 6:07 p.m. I'm officially off at 6:00, but I have this bad habit of telling myself, "Just a little more and then I'll close it up and go downstairs and join Eri and the boys for dinner and do family time." It gets past 6:30 sometimes. That's a really bad habit. That's me taking my good fortune for granted, the amazing fortune that I work from home and don't have to commute or abide by in-person company culture. It's also me taking my family life for granted. This evening I ended my work day with a walk. I was at my desk for an extended period. Since lunchtime I think. It's terrible that I forget. I forget to step away and get fresh air more and more. Today was such a gorgeous late-summer day. I've got the windows open and as I stare at my tasks on my computer I can kinda convince myself I'm...

The host showed us to our booth and Eri, the boys, and me slid in with the smell of meat in the air. It's Steak Palace after all. They have a robot waiter that brings salad bar plates and the requisite water to every table. Once we were captive in our booth and paying attention, this surly guy went down his list of things he needs to tell us, from how to use the button to call for a waiter to wearing a mask when you go to the self-serve drink counter. I like giving the benefit of the doubt, so I'll say he was clearly having an off day. It's rare to see rude in Japan, especially from a customer service employee, and this guy wasn't rude, at least not in the classic American sense. He just gave off a clear and palpable vibe that he'd rather be a lot of other places than at the Steak Palace. The guy finishes his dutiful, albeit crabby, explanation. Eri and I make eye contact from across the table, the kind where you're like, "I'm not the only one experien...

Last year I decided to try on a new habit. I would walk an average of 10,000 steps per day. This is what the pedometer on my phone had on me in September 2021... That's my walking steps data for September 2020 to September 2021. And here's what I can report today for September 2021 to now. I walk on snowy nights. I walk in the rain. I walk in 35 degree heat. I walk to Izumi Chuo just to people watch and grab the occasional can of Seven Eleven brand canned highball, and I walk to Ichinazaka to get my hair cut and browse Daiso for things I don't ever intend to purchase. I just walk. And now I am habit-stacking. To spice up my walking data tracking, in addition to 10,000 steps being the minimum daily average at any given interval, the minimum average daily distance needs to be 8 kilometers. That goal is starting to get some wind in its sails. Plus I started this thing I call "eat when you're hungry". The underlying notion in this is "don't eat when you...

I woke up in my "Pancakes please!" shirt determined to keep my streak going; only change shirts once a day, at bath time in the evening.  My will was strong all morning. I got the boys ready to head off to kindergarten and went for my morning walk, stopping at Lawson for a quick protein bar snack, and arriving back at my desk to prep for my 9 a.m. meeting while I sipped coffee out of my Thermos mug. But as the meeting time drew closer I got weak. At 8:54 I noticed on Microsoft Teams that someone had logged in and started the meeting. I hustled into the closet, grabbed a polo shirt with my company logo on it, and quickly changed out. When all 7 of the meeting members logged in I could see that only two people were wearing a collared shirt, one of them me of course. My boss, who happens to be the president of the company, was wearing what seemed to be a sort of undershirt of the kind I would normally be wearing, but with a casual sport coat over it. Doh! Good move. I'm usin...