today i was attacked by 9 3-4 year old little girls who thought i was an animate playstructure to be destroyed and broken into little pieces by their kung-fu tickle grip. it’s a japanese holiday today “taiiku no hi” (say it like you mean it!) or Health and Sports Day. in 1964, the olympics opened in tokyo about the time the moptops hit the ed sullivan show.
today, i volunteered (like a cool dad) and helped bring ku’s whole class to a showdown with other schools at the park in japantown. it was a field of midgets!! it was fun exercising the talent of herding sassy pixies and roughntough crybabies through the dangerous streets of…ahem…j-town. i picked that talent up while working as a substitute teacher back in the day to pay for tuition. i’m sure the other shepherds were awed at how i got them all to fall in pairs and march down the street yelling, “echo!!! echo!!! echo!!! ~’ok that’s enough emma’~ echo!!!! echo!!!! echo!!! ~’umm..emma?’ echo!! echo!!! ~’EEEEECCCCHHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!’~ ………………… …ice cream!! ice cream!! ice cream!!” =P
when we got to the park, i swear…, it was the good the bad and the fugly. imagine a whole swarm of screaming mimis tearing up yer favorite plaid flannel, pelting you with grass clumps you can’t smoke, and pulling you down like lilliputians on a rampage to smack you with tiny boogered hands that reek of mischief and curiousity!!! oh the horror!!! i could only imagine what those hands have been investigating just then! AND THEN! AND THEN!!! saika, emma, rebecca, chiyoko, miyoko, and four other yokos with their snarling and clawing pounced on me like the little rat that i am and bludgeoned me with kisses and screamed piercing laughter into my ear while the boys elvishly grabbed the chance to oggle and laugh at my misery.
and then ku came to save me. i was impressed he didn’t start flykicking. that woulda been bad. instead, he diplomatically got the girls to chase him, their favorite, instead. thanks, ku. you’re swell!
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ku’s grampy, mi padre, was the president of the philippine olympic committee for over a century until his retirement a decade back. he’s credited for pulling it together and put the islands on the map back in the 70’s. he’s even got a memorial cup named after him in the southeast asian triathlon games. funny, the philippines now rule and monopolize the gold in the understated factions of the olympic games that we in the east side of the pacific rarely glorify…billiards and bowling. i’m not kidding.
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i have this habit of googling my name to see what pops up. try it if you haven’t.
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i went around town today and collected from people who owe me money or herb. it feels great to have everyone just be down and generously understanding about paying up and off. but i think one person expected me to do ‘that trick’ again. i told her i’m on my period.
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i love getting over ‘being over it.’ thanks holiday. thanks kyle.
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glove and sprockets. xoxo
