Japanese Baby Cowboy!

Yes, it is true that "Japanese Baby Cowboy" is my phrase of the week! (besides the obvious "Happy Birthday!"). The whole Haley Bunch went out for my birthday on Tuesday night - our favorite special family dining experience is going to one of the hibachi table Japanese restaurants that are around everywhere now. The show that the cooks puts on are pretty predictable, but the guy we had this time was VERY animated and playful. He was actually Japanese, young and enthusiastic - one of his favorite bits was to act like he was riding a horse while shouting "Japenese Baby Cowboy!". Even better was the fact that Birch was actually able to sit through the fire part of the show - used to be that I had to take him to the sushi bar part of a restaurant while the chef did that part because the suddenness of the fire was just too much for him to take.

In other news, I am preparing to go to work tomorrow for the last time in 2 weeks and 2 days - I have never taken off an entire 2 weeks and actually vacationed. Add to that the fact that Leon and I are flying overseas and truly out of touch with the daily world that I am normally immersed in daily. I am taking a blank book because I really hope that I will surprise myself and write down what I am seeing and what it is making think of or realize. How can it NOT be life/perspective changing to see the cradle of Western civilization?

But before I can go on this amazing trip, I must get through tomorrow and get a number of things straightened away so that projects can continue to move forward in my absence. It can be hard to let go of what is going to happen when you are absent - but I will deal with those issues when I return. Whatever is made difficult by my 2+ week break from daily life will certainly be worth it.

Of course, it is not all excitement. There is also dread - of the flight, of being over the ocean for so long, for being so very out of control of what could happen to me (not that I have the conscious illusion that I am in control of what happens to me normally, but it sure does feel different when you are 30,000 ft. in the air over the middle of the Atlantic). But I will get through that and probably sleep like a baby on the plane. Anyone who went through law school w/ me can attest to my amazing ability to fall asleep pretty much anywhere - put me in a moving vehicle of any kind and I am out like a light!