Austin. We saw him first.

I am always looking for good things to brag about on the blog, but mostly our life is not that exciting, except for this weekend. We got to see Austin!!!!!! It was short, but very sweet. We can't wait to see him again. Here are some pics. We had to make him a candy lei since there are no flowers here. It was good to see Daniel and Jeremy too. It was fun to hear Daniel and Austin chat in Russian. We are jealous of Hawaii people cause they get to see him longer.

Bluster Day

It's been rather blustery here in Tokyo. Enough to make a very small animal very anxious. Or to make a mildly hayfever prone Bekah very teary eyed. Every bit of dust and grit is blowing through the air, aimed straight for my eyes. This morning I woke up with giant blobs of gunk in the corners, where my eyes tried a little self cleaning. It wasn't entirely successful.

As Miss M says, the sun is tricking us yet again. (She also says "Bother!" quite a bit as well.) The sun has been shining in bright blue skies, but outside it's freezing with only a few blossom branched trees to hint of spring. These tropical/semi-tropical Palmers are having a very hard time getting used to this winter stuff. M has asked me on occasion "Do they have hot summer days in New York? Because if they do, I'm not sure if I want to live there or Hawaii." Can you see the draw of cousins at work?

I'm pretty bummed we're missing out on the Yosemite trip. Next time, I guess. I'm hoping to drive down from Oregon during August and visit one and all before we start the school year in Irvine. We'll keep you updated.

some thoughts on a very rainy day

We've been having rain none stop. It's hard getting around on rain and crutches. I had recently got a pair of rain boots so now I hop around with only one boot praying constantly that I won't slip. Today we went to the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum. Chris has been wanting to go for a while but I haven't been that supportive of the idea. Museum's with kids just seem like more work than fun. I was pleasantly surprised. The whole thing is totally kid friendly and Enzo loved it. The adults liked it too. We'll have to take you there when you come and visit, you can touch star fishes at the tide pool they have. Enzo's been wonderfully funny and a total joy. He decided that he too can't walk so he hops behind me and my crutches. He mixes up Portuguese and English every time he speaks and we think he's getting ready for potty training. He tells us when he's peeing and pooping and gets a diaper and wipes, lays down on the floor and tells us he's ready for a diaper change. What do you think? I won't start the potty training process till after we come back from Spring break in Brazil and I'll be out of a cast. Oh yeah, I'm in a cast. I got it on Tuesday. It's removable so I take it off at night. It's still totally painful to put any weight on it. I will need to do some physical therapy to re-educate my muscles, considering this is the third fracture on it. My friends come over to help with Enzo and even clean up. My wonderful friend and neighbor Victoria (Avi's mom) has lots of enegry to play and Enzo loves her. We're sad they're moving in the fall. We need to make new best friends/neighbors. Living on campus is good because the disability van picks me up and drops me off when ever I need it, which is everyday.

We are on the last stretch of the quarter. I'm way busier this quarter than last but luckily it's the other way around for Chris. His core class is with a professor who loves to talk about back in the days when he tutored Anthropology to Prince Charles. My core professor is a Marxist. I have learned everything possible about longshoreman and am now convinced that it's the bestest job in the whole world. At least that's what I have to pretend when I'm in class. Chris and I are both doing an independent/dependent study with an Anthropologist who specializes in Brazil. It's been fascinating and It's the first time I've ever had a a crush on a classmate (chris and I are the only ones taking the class, if that wasn't clear). I like having a class with Christian he's not as competitive as I was imagining, maybe because he also has to deal with me at home. In all seriousness it's a great class (excessive reading at times) and we speak Portuguese which is also a plus. However, my favorite class this quarter is a workshop that I am taking with Nikki Silva my favorite radio producer, if you've seen my blog she's one of the Kitchen Sisters. I have only recently been more myslef in class and not totally nervous that this lady that I admire so much is my teacher. It helps that she's very down to earth. I am producing a short piece about the frustrations of putting kids to sleep. I was inspired by Mariko's post 1,2,3 Abracadabra Baby Sleeps. I had a really fun and funny interview with Kaity and Danny and also one with Gio. When I finish I'll upload it so you can all hear and enjoy a bit of the DeMartini's voices.

Life of course if busy and even though we make it seem like it's all fun we also have our frustrating moments my broken foot being the main cause of much frustration at this point in time.

Chris spend a lot of time this week looking and planning the Yosemite reunion. We are very excited to see everyone and hopefully we can make it work so that most of you can come. We're too late for reservations but there are a bunch of first come first serve spots. We are planning for the week of June 16th. Can you make it?

The other news is that I applied for citizenship. It cost us $700, ouch! A birthday presents of sorts.

Here's a picture of Enzo so you can see what we mean when we say he's pure joy and also a little on the heavy side.

Mimi's Day Without Reading

Yesterday Mimi had cataract surgery on her other eye. Everything went perfectly. Only down side was a whole day of NO reading. (post surgery instructions.) We had to check in at 6am for 7:30 surgery. At 10pm she said, "I'm going to bed early to get the day over with." She was happy to get back to the paper, crossword puzzle etc. today. Also lunch with Tricia after a checkup with the surgeon. We love to read and see your exciting lives. Miss you all.

Froggie

Thought you might get a kick out of Zeke is Truman's frog suit.

help with Enzo

This week I start solo life again with Enzo when Chris is in class. I've gotten lots of offers for help. I'm not one to easily accept help but I consider it a bad characteristic and will work on not only accepting help but enjoying it. I forget how often people like watching kids especially if they don't have any of their own. Last week (before the foot thing) I took Enzo to make some photo copies with me. He often comes to run errands with me, especially for my TA class. The administrative assitante love him and always give him something to play with. Last week he got this.


I loved it way more than he did. He pretty much just wanted to eat the ball. I'm glad to have nice people around.

Sophomore Formal

Last night was Sophomore Formal. It was held at a "club" in Palo Alto called Illusions. I don't know why I put club in quotation marks. Anyway, it was actually quite fun. I am glad that I've broken out of my shell and actually dance now. I used to be terrified of it. I'm still not any good, but I've stopped caring about how dumb I look, and just go for it. There was a little stage at the front, and I even went up and danced on the stage. Yeah. Intense. Here are some pictures of my draw group/ family before we went out for the night. I thought Hoku's hair looked really pretty, so I included a picture of it. :)

I am a [not] a runner - part 2

Just came back from another couple hours at the health center. The doctor yesterday was concerned because my ankle is super swollen and the radiologist at the ER had not done ankle x-rays just foot x-rays. So I had to go back and tack x-rays of my ankle. Good news, not broken! Bad news, it's a beautiful day outside and I REALLY want to out an play. ARGHHHH!!!! I am still in a lot of pain. My foot is very swollen and I need to get it to a decent size so that they can put a cast on me. Yesterday I baked sugar cookies for my students, tried to make a somewhat fancy dinner for Valentine's day, taught my class, and then went to a party at night. Once again my decision making skills are bad and at the end of the day my foot was more swollen then it had been when I first broke it and I was in excruciating pain. The cookies were a bust. Almost all of my students are Latino/as 14 to be exact (only 3 Caucasian students). Apparently ALL (not an understatement I promise) of the Latino/a students have also decided to give up treats for lent!!! Mariko you should come hang out here. Most of the girls gave up all forms of treats. the boys (3) gave up chocolate but they ate the cookie. The whole purpose was for them to decorate their own sugar heart shaped cookie. The Caucasian students were stoked and binged. The party was fun in that the food was good and we made pirate flags. Apparently Valentine had performed marriages even though it was against the law, therefore showing his resistance to authority. My friends thrive on this concept and so decided to throw a pirate Valentine's day party. However, Chris and I really celebrate V-day today because it's the day we met. We call it the "Last Chance Day" in honor of the title of the valentine's dance where we hit it off . That was 5 years ago today. Boy am I glad that I didn't miss my last chance to find Chris. He's been super nice putting up with my grumpiness and resistance for medication. I surrendered to vicodin and our relationship is back on track. Enzo is also totally mad. he doesn't understand that I can't pick him up among so many other things he expects me to do for him. For our special day I got flowers, a new light for the living room. We actually found it in the Swap shop at Kaity's but Chris got the power cords and the actual light bulb. I also got calcium pills and....a pedicure done by Chris with Enzo's assistance. Victoria my lovely friend/babysitter made a heart with rose peddles in our back porch with the number 5 to represent the years we've known each other. She's creative like that. She's also babysitting so that we can go out tonight.

As for the foot...it's the third time I've fractured it in the same spot. I'm going to have a bone density screening sometime next week. The doc said that once I get a cast it should heal within 4-6 weeks. I'm going to aim for 4 so that I don't have to go to Brazil with it on. I'm convinced that my ankle is swollen because I had to walk back from the woods to my house with a broken foot when the injury first happened. It was night time no one was around and Chris didn't know where I had gone jogging, AND....there were a bunch of deers that started surrounding me. Kaity they were not the reason why I fell but they sure motivated me to get out of there ASAP. Jesse, I like your suggestion for swimming. I was swimming last quarter and really enjoying it. This quarter got cold and I chickened out and started working out in the gym. Noelle, I also work out in the cardio machines. In fact I love them because they are super fancy with all these cool buttons and I can listen to my podcasts. However, I was being teased because apparently running on the machines is not really considered running. Hence my injury is yet another example of why you shouldn't surrender to peer pressure. Now I'm going to focus on getting my feet to not be so swollen so that I can get a cast and heal. I'll think of exercise later especially since I am still in a lot of pain. Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I wish so very badly that you all lived closer so that Chris could get some help and someone could help Enzo and I get up and down our stairs.

P.S: I am also glad I didn't miss my chance to meet Chris 5 years ago because that would mean no Palmers and friends and I do love you all very much!


(I also thought it was an "S" inside the heart bust she corrected me and said it was the # 5. It made more sense)

Better Represent

Gwyn and Enzo, Zeke is calling you out.

I am a runner

Did you know that I am a hard core runner? Yeah, I've been running about twice a week lately and I even requested a jogging stroller for my birthday. You probably thought this would never happen since I used to not be able to run for more than 100 yards without totally collapsing to the floor and dying of fatigue. But I am so hard core that today I went jogging at at 6:00pm in the bike trails in the woods behind family student housing. Impressive huh?! No, not impressive. Who jogs when there is barely light outside in the woods? Jesse and Chris maybe but I am convinced that they are made up of different stuff than normal humans. I am 100% human with probably some calcium deficiency. I broke my foot!!! Of course I broke my foot I could barely see where I was stepping. I am soooooo mad at my self. I am also in a a lot of pain right now.

Oh and no I don't want a jogging stroller anymore. I'm back to my initial feeling about running. I hate it!