raining cats and dogs

Eiko says...

Boris and I go on walks quite frequently over here, for the fresh air and exercise while getting in some good sister time in the process. Today, while on such a walk, we literally waded through the potent stench of manure, and when I say, 'potent', I mean REALLY potent! As in, it could kill a cockroach! And 'roaches are said to be able to survive an atomic bomb!! It had the affect of what wasabe does to your nose and makes your eyes tear! I really want to know what exactly the farmers are feeding their crops here! It smelt like bull crap x 100!!

Anyhow, the potent stench aside, Nasu is gorgeous! I'm lovin' the GREEN! It's so beautiful.

And it's been raining almost every day since I got here, and it's SO COOL! The road right outside our house floods over, and becomes like a little river! Boris and I got our boots on and stomped and splashed through the rain and the wind and the water, like 5 year olds would, and it was SO FUN! I like rain. I like water. It's refreshing.

Remember how I mentioned I was going through a minor identity crisis in my last post? It's annoying. I'm realizing a lot more how much the changes are affecting me. I mean, up until quite recently, you were told to 'forsake all and follow Jesus,' and therefore, it was 'buh-bye' to a lot of your personal dreams and wants. Life in the Family consisted of regulations and standards that you were suppose to follow. Do good in upholding the standard and keeping the regulations and you were a good disciple. Your daily schedule consisted of 'ministries', such as JJT, Child Care, taking the kids on 'Get Out', and if you had a title, you were allotted time for that. Like, if you were in the Steering Council, or you were the JT Counselor, you had your responsibilities which you invested time, thought and prayer into.

But thanks to the Reboot, we have a lot more freedom to practice our faith according to what we each feel comfortable in and have the faith for, but the thing is, I was pretty comfortable with how things were, being that I was born and raised in the Family! That's the life I knew and was familiar with. Now, with a few posts on HIM, things have completely changed, and although I have no doubt in my mind that the changes were good and necessary, and although I'm very happy with how things are looking now, I'm a bit wobbly on my feet. There are no set rules or standards to measure your discipleship and spiritual health with. There are far few do's and don'ts. It will take some time to find my footing again.

Good news is, I'm not slightly uncertain and depressed and worrying, I am uncertain yet happyand hopeful! I'm quite excited about my future, and I'm lovin' life.

And blah, blah, blah.

cheers

greetings from nasu

Eiko says...

Staying at the parent's place

My stay at Lodge Home made me appreciate so many things about my parent's place in the peaceful countryside. I don't have a problem with being busy, and I actually would prefer bordering on being too busy as opposed to being too relaxed. I like the 'up tempo' lifestyle because it gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel like I'm actually doing something. But after taking a few steps back, I've realized how much I've been craving the peaceful environment. It's great to be able to just SLEEP, and not be worrying about anything in particular. It's been a very relaxing week in so many ways, I almost feel over rested. Too much of this will eventually get me edgy, but I haven't reached the point of being 'over rested' just yet, so I'm still good.

Health and stuff

In the past few weeks, I've noticed a strange pain in my back, and it's been bothering me for a while. At first I didn't think much of it, and that it was probably the work load, but it seemed to worsen after coming here to Nasu. It really caught my attention during a work out session, when I couldn't complete a certain exercise that I have been able to do without any problem before. The pain in back nearly paralyzed me! It almost feels like a strain, a dull pain, and if I bend over past a certain angle, my back gives in. The pain also occurs when I lay down, flat on my back. It's extremely uncomfortable.

Last night, because of the pain in my back, I slept on my side, only to wake up with my arm that I had used as a pillow, all stiff. I think my upper body is a pain magnet. My shoulders cramp up easily, and I get neck strains. I'm hoping this can be remedied by better posture, strength training and an overall healthier schedule.

Other than my back issues, I am happy and healthy. As I noted earlier, I am SLEEPING! I'm sleeping so well, I can't even drag myself out of bed in the morning! THIS is the life!! I am loving my sleep!

Reboot-ing

Being that my daily schedule is very relaxed, I have a lot of time to read and study the reboot material. With all the changes that are being addressed so suddenly, there will be people who will either love the 'new' TFI, or people who won't be so happy with the 'new' TFI and all the changes that are happening. I am among the ones who are lovin' the changes. But at the same time, I'm finding myself at a minor identity crisis. Notice that I said 'minor'.

Because although I'm very happy about there being more freedom in how we can live our faith, being that a big part of our lives have consisted of following rules and living up to standards, and our discipleship and membership being measured by how well we've been doing in those respects, when those things are so suddenly taken away, I feel a bit shaky and unsure about what exactly I want to do from now. I feel like the chained eagle, that had just been released from the chain! The chain no longer exists, but I've been so used to doing things in a certain way, that I think it will take a bit of time getting used to having 'wings' and learning how to use them. I feel like I want to explore these new changes. The problem is that I don't exactly know how to do that. Therefore, the 'minor' identity crisis exists. I'll be getting over it as soon as I get used to all this new stuff that's happening.

Art

For the 100th time, I'm giving up on art! I seriously suck at it. For one, my patience for art has gone way down. After the basic sketch and the first layer of shading, I'm board out of my mind with the picture I'm drawing1 Secondly, I'm simply getting bad at it. I'm losing the 'touch', and it's become pretty obvious. It's more difficult and it takes more time for me to get the proportions right, and my shading skills have dropped. More importantly though, I'm losing the desire to draw to begin with. I don't have the inspiration.

But although my skills have been going down the drain, the other Matsuoka artists have only been getting better and better! Akari and Yuya have been practicing and the results of their efforts are amazing! Check out their latests: a pencil drawing of Brittany Murphy by Akari, and the character of Richard Sharpe in color by Yuya at Matsuoka Art!

Okay, well, I'll blog more later, because frankly, I'm blank. Life has been pretty uneventful these days. Actually, I take that back. There have been some pretty memorable moments and events that happened this past week. But some stuff just shouldn't be read by people that aren't directly involved, which is YOU, so I'm keeping that to myself.

Preacher's Kid Syndrome, Rumspringa, TFI Teens

Eiko says...

If you're a parent in any religious group, then you've seen it unfold before your eyes in your teen, or have witnessed other parents struggle with their teen's excessive behavior. Everything that you tried so hard to impart to your child backfires at you when they hit their preteen years, and it almost seems like you've been raising a monster all this time! Why? You were faithful to protect them from TV and excessive movie viewing. You monitored their Internet usage, their computer games, the music they listen to and their friends. Perhaps you even home schooled them as another precaution to protect them from the evil that's just so rampant in this world today. So why on earth is your child (excuse me, 'preteen') acting like everything you've tried to shield him/her from?

I was surprised to find out that there is a term for this excessive preteen behavior other than adolescence. May I present to you,

the Preacher's Kid Syndrome!!!

Preacher's Kid Syndrome is separated in two stereotypes:

1. Preacher's kids act as if they are "holier-than-thou". They preach their beliefs to anyone they encounter. They do not like to be wrong about anything they preach, even in the opinions of others. They may be also proponent, and in some cases, spoiled brats.

2. Preacher's kids start off as good, faithful children, but anywhere from their preteen years to their adult life, they rebel. They do anything they can to avoid the church and their practices. They may deny their parents outright or they may be rebellious behind their parents backs.

I honestly don't know which is worse: stereotype 1 or stereotype 2. I've seen both stereotypes in myself and in my peers and friends, where their parents attempt to raise them in their beliefs and religion, and the teens become extremely rebellious or extremely self-righteous and 'holier than thou'.

Being raised in the TFI, I can relate to both stereotypes. In my preteen years, I felt like I knew better than my peers in secular society because I knew the 'truth', and the 'Word of God' and I can imagine what a pain in the a-hole I must have been then. Later on in my teen years, I felt that rebelling against everything I was told to do and follow was a MUST! All the logic and common sense aside, I had to say no, I had to do the opposite, I had to rebel!

One fine day while I was browsing YouTube during my school hours, I stumbled across the film, 'The Devil's Playground' which is a documentary featuring Rumspringa. Rumspringa (meaning running around) generally refers to a period where Amish youth are permitted to, and in some cases even encouraged to explore the non-Amish world. Like many teenagers do, Amish adolescents engage in rebellious behavior resisting or defying parental norms. And like many customs, the enforcements are relaxed, and misbehavior tolerated or overlooked to a degree in an Amish community. So during Rumspringa, a certain amount of misbehavior is unsurprising and is not so severely condemned (for instance by shunning, kinda like excommunication. )

So, let's say you're a teenager raised in an Amish Community and you want to let your hair down (literally), and experience what it's like to not be Amish before you join completely. You'll be able to experience a non-Amish lifestyle during Rumspringa where doing the things listed below are tolerated and/or overlooked, because everybody understands that you are Rumspringa-ing!!

*Wearing non-traditional clothing and hairstyles

*Driving vehicles that are not horse-drawn.

*Not attending Home Prayer

*Drinking and/or using recreational drugs

*Engaging in pre-marital sex

etc.

It's interesting to note that the vast majority choose Baptism and join the Church after Rumspringa.

I mean, I'm sure the Amish parents do an excellent job in training their children in the admonition of the Lord, and that they ground them well in the Word from an early age. But when they hit their youth, and they Rumspringa, they will eventually see where it ain't, because statistics show that most of them join the church. I personally think that if the TFI had a form of Rumspringa, or if the teachers and parents embrace the idea of Rumspringa, a lot more of the youth of the TFI would still be here with us. I'm not so sure, but that's just my view on the whole shabang.

And I am by no means demeaning the importance for rules and standards. An organization without rules is like a body with no skeletal structure. You'll be an octopus. I don't like octopus at all, eating and otherwise. I don't even like takoyaki. I just think that there's definitely a balance, and being overly restricting might have the opposite effect.

never date a musician

Eiko says...

I was listening to David Cook on my ZEN today and was admiring his god-given-voice, and I was thinking how cool it would be if the guy I get together with could sing like that. I mean, imagine how way cool that would be?

Um.

On second thoughts, not so cool.

If he could sing like that, that's nice. But it wouldn't be too cool if he had the ability to write songs and sing them too. Because I noticed that artists that write their own songs usually write about the current relationship they are in, how wonderful it is, and also how much it sucks. They also bitch about their break ups in songs--how your smile makes them sick, how they finished setting the last of your pictures on fire, how they are in the process of erasing you from their memory (forever), how they'll never love again, and it's all because of you, etc. And when they're famous, the whole world knows about how much of a bitch/bastard you were for making their life so miserable through that song that they wrote in memory of YOU!! And before you know it, everyone is humming and singing that song, including your friends! Ouch, that would be so annoying!! And woe unto you if that song gets famous and hits the tops! It will be playing in the gas stations, the department stores, on the radio, in commercials, in movies, and everyone will be singing their cover version of it, and they'll be singing about you without even knowing you personally! How freaky is that? If that happened to me, that would ruin me forever! Yikes!!

So, before you completely fall in lust over that rock star you're dating, or that cute country singer that asked you out, ask if they write their own songs. If they do, consider the consequences of the break up.

little vaca

Eiko says...

Nasu is effing beautiful in the spring! I love the young greenness that surrounds me here. Absence does make the heart founder! Even the cows and their stinky asses seemed welcoming to me, and more than anything, seeing Boris greet me at the door with her, "Hey there, nigga!" brought me home like nothing else! The quietness and the calm atmosphere is so refreshing! The clean air and peaceful neighborhood is beautiful! I was instantly happy when I stepped out of the bus. I feel refreshed and calmed already, and I just got here.

Last night, (the night I got here), I made a tomato pasta with Boris, and we enjoyed it over white wine and catching up on the latest happenings in each other's life. We also watched Valentine's Day, a very cute movie, something we so should have watched on, ... well, Valentine's Day! A very relaxing evening indeed.

My body needs to seriously adjust itself back to a normal human's schedule. I still can't sleep until way past midnight, even when there is no baking to be done, and no cafe to fuss over, and I was abhorred when I found myself waking up at 4:00 AM in the morning! I was also abhorred when I woke up to find out that my shoulders and back were all sore--not from a work out, but from lugging my suit case through Shinjuku Station yesterday. Sure, the suitcase was super heavy, and I also had 2 more heavy bags strapped around my body, but my stamina and strength definitely decreased, and I seriously need to exercise and start living healthy again.

Oh! And speaking of which, while I was waiting at a red light to get from Shinjuku to Shin-Shinjuku, Minami guchi, I saw this guy step out of a taxi in front of me. He was wearing this shirt that had, "speed, agility, strength, stamina," written in bold letters on it. The shirt was quite stylish and also must have cost a fortune, but the human being that was wearing the shirt was the exact opposite of what the shirt was spelling out. He looked like an obese potato that sat around all day in front of the tube, and who also took a taxi when he could have walked the block! Also, standing next to me was someone who was wearing an electric pink shirt. The someone was a guy, that had a waist any girl would have died to have! His legs were equally impressive, and as if he could read my jealous thoughts, he starting lifting his shirt to reveal his tiny waist! I was like, 'Dude, care to share the secret to being super-model-skinny? Darn!!'

Anyway, it's wonderful here. I'm having a great time. I'm relaxing, and resting. Life is so beautiful!!

I'll blog more later, and I'm hoping to post pictures to!

cheerzzz!

プリーズ・ミー・ホット！！

Eiko says...

Aich was waitressing the other day when a customer, (an older man) enters the cafe and casually says ,

「ホットください。」

Now, looking at all the facts, Ai-chan is waitressing at a coffee shop, and naturally coffee is served. So the request for 「ホット」really could only mean that he wanted a hot coffee,...or a hot cup of tea. BUT! Either the question was instantaneously translated to English in Ai-chan's mind as, "One hot please", or "I want it hot", or "Make that a hot", or Aich was thinking about something...funny, it came as a shocker, and she was stunned for a few moments. "Wha? Hot? Sorry, we don't have that on the menu." More like, we don't do happy services here. Buh-bye!

And while waitressing today, the same thing happened to me. An older man walks in and sits down at table 5. I bring him a glass of water and the menu, but before I could offer the menu to him, he made it very clear what he wanted in one word. 「ホット」And I'm like, sure! With a waitress smile plastered on my face.

「少々お待ちくださいませ。」

He wants it hot...riight.

But who doesn't, coffee or otherwise?

And all this reminds me of the time when I was working at オムライス亭. My senpais thought me and Boris were so cool cuz we could speak English. and they would often try to communicate with us using all the little High school English that they knew. Yuta, (the cuter one of the two) desperately wanted a melon soda, and we had just finished talking about how they would be totally irresistible if they were fluent in English.

「永子、プリーズ・ミー・メロン・ソーダー」

Now, of course I understood exactly what he wanted, (a melon soda) but somehow my mind didn't really catch the 'melon soda' part of the incorrect phrase, which left me with, "Eiko, please me." Grammatically speaking, "Eiko, please me", is correct, and "Eiko, please me melon soda" is not. Yet somehow the correct sentence was a just a tad bit disturbing. I carefully explained what 'please me' could mean to Yuta. He smiled kind of bashfully, with a, 「あっ、そっかー」and continued to purposefully make the 'please me' mistake whenever he wanted...well anything.

Aaanyhow.

The cafe is running smoothly. We've got plenty of room for improvement, but improvement is happening everyday, and that means progress. The baking side of things is going pretty smoothly. The baked stuff really sold well yesterday and the day before, and consequently, that meant staying up late baking for the next day. It's a good feeling though, when you know that the customers like what they taste to the point that they keep ordering more and more,...until well, I have to put up the 'sold out' sign.

That's it for now.

recent photos

Eiko says...

A beauty shot of cafe marche at night! Imagine being dead tired on your way back home from work, and you saw Cafe Marche looking ever so hot, with live music being played inside? I would totally stop by!

Up Country singing on a lovely Friday night!

The other day, we had Cafe Marche's one month anniversary, after we closed shop, and we all chilled over lot's of sushi and beer. It was just what everyone needed as we were all such 'troupers' of late, and we all deserved the shiner prize! We all ate and drank far past our stomach's content, that's for sure!

Me right before the evening shift. Yeah, I'm tired. I can't sleep so well these nights.

for hecks

Eiko says...

It is once again the time of night when I am itching to go out for a walk at Toneri Park.

But since that isn't really an option, (unless of course, I'm cool with the package deal that comes with the walk, a.k.a meeting perverts and their friends) and neither is sleeping, I've decided to just blog.

Since coming here, I've been sleeping so much better! Not that I actually sleep for longer periods of time, because I don't. But by the time I finally croll into bed, I'm exhausted of all forms of energy, and consequently I sleep very deeply for the few hours that I do sleep. My body has quickly adjusted itself to the late-night, early-morning lifestyle. Sleeping earlier than 1:30AM is almost impossible.

But it's all good. Besides, I'll be going back to the cows and the quiet and the peace once the 21st comes around. Need to pray about reboot things.

end of totally random post

A report to Eiko...

Akari says...

Dear Eiko,
*I am NOT being a good girl as I am supposed to be.
*Mom is making us eat weeds from our back yard(if you remember, Eiko, Our back yard smells like the sewers).
*Our vegetables are rotting.
*Daddy stopped drinking Coffee!!
*We watched Blades of Glory and Gattaca.
*Boris is making us write essays.
*The teachers(that includes you, Eiko) being gone, I skipped P.E., and instead browsed the Internet. I stumbled upon something very amusing and slightly disturbing. See the video below.

P.S. the video below is NOT for sensitive viewers.




Yup, it's Evgeni Plushenko when he was still 18, the 2001 world championships exhibition.
I hope you like it.

Adachi nights

Eiko says...

I couldn't sleep last night due to a wonderful nap I took, and all I could think of was going outside for a walk. It was 1:30 AM, but late night walks with your favorite music blaring in your ears are just perfect when the temperature is going up and day time is bordering on sweaty-sticky weather.

Just about then, when I was seriously considering changing into my clothes, I heard ear-drum-tearing, horror-striking yelling and screaming going on outside, and I was instantly brought back to reality.

Reality being that Adachi-ku isn't ideal for midnight walks, especially on your own. Just a few nights ago, when I was aching to go outside for a night walk at Toneri Park, I saw a police car, parked nicely in the park entrance, and a little commotion was obviously taking place. I also go to sleep to the ringing sound of police cars and fire engines speeding past our building. I guess I'm trashing the late night walks if I end up joining Lodge Home.

But then again, back in the T.O.M Home days when I worked the night shift at Kappa Zushi, I would make the 30 minute walk back from work by myself, and it was definitely past midnight. A dear co-worker of mine kindly offered me a lift on the back of his motor bike, but somehow, that seemed more scary than making the walk back alone. NOT that he seemed iffy, ... but I guess I just have a vivid imagination. Besides, I enjoy the late night walks. But there's always the nagging little thought that it is indeed Adachi-ku, and the police men circulating the block was also a reminder of the many perverts that must also be lurking in the dark.

Hm. I still wanna go out at night. There's just nothing compared to the cool breeze, the quiet, and the deserted streets.

This is a problem.

Cafe Marche Pictures

Eiko says...

Here are the long awaited Cafe Marche Pictures!!

Enjoy!!

Blueberry Muffins and Butter Cookies.

My personal favorite out of all the sweets that are baked for the cafe are by far the blueberry muffins.

We actually stopped baking the Butter Cookies, mainly because it takes too much time to roll the cookie dough out and shape them. There was nothing wrong with the taste, but time is of the essence! We mainly stick to easy drop cookies, and we freeze the batter so that we have batter on hand whenever we are all sold out.

Here are the Banana Muffins.

They have chocolate in them, and they started off to be the thing that sold out fastest. Ew! I personally hate the combination of banana and chocolate. I don't particularly like the Banana Muffins we bake and sell here, although I sort of do understand why the customers like them. If it were up to me though, I would either substitute the chocolate for walnuts, or just junk the Banana Muffins altogether.
Yup. That's me.

I usually spend at least 3-5 hours in the kitchen baking for the next day, or making cookie dough to freeze for later use. Although this isn't every night, there are times when the late customers decide to buy all the leftover sweets because they liked what they taste, and I have to re-bake everything after closing hour! (happened today) I feel a great sense of satisfaction and smugness and gratitude when almost everything is sold out, but it also means staying up until way past midnight, baking the last batch of whatever I may be baking last.
That's Mr. Takada-san, and Mr.Akiyama-san. :)

Chef and waiter.
Notice the stage in the far corner!

J.D., Sam and Aich barely fit on it! It's tiny!
Chiba Tenchou, busy in the kitchen.

The kitchen is also tiny. There's barely enough space for 2 people to move around, and there's a lot of back and butt bumping and squishing together when you try to get by somebody.
We have live music every Friday and Saturday,

but not outside... Great modeling though.
We sell a variety of stuff here on the display shelf that we situate outside of the shop.

The mothers are particularly attracted the fruit and vegetables we often sell here.

Jame's beautiful creation!
We have a table set outside for the smokers.

And this is just for decoration.

P.S

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! Much love coming your way from me! Muah!

Cafe Marche News

Cafe Marche Updates

As I'm sure most of you know, Lodge Home (the late T.O.M Home) has been in business for 2 weeks now. Cafe Marche is welcoming a variety of people from all walks of life, and taking all things into consideration, we are doing wonderfully.

The Cool Stuff:

*We have regulars

*We are meeting the neighbors that we didn't know existed all these 5 years and a bit that we've been here!

*The people that like us, or the cafe, or the food here, bring their friends, and their friends bring their friends, and a happy network is in formation, and is fast expanding. Just the other day, we had over 40 customers within 24 hours! Nice stuff!

*The live concerts are a big thumbs up! The alcohol drinking crowd love the Friday and Saturday evenings when Up Country performs live music at Cafe Marche!!

*We have a good reputation for yummy baked goodies!

*And there's tons more.

Need working on stuff:

*The menu needs some tweaking.

*Our service towards the customers needs to be more professional.

*We need to make sure that we are making a decent profit from everything that we sell here.

*We are very short-staffed.

*To name just the tip of the tip of the massive ice-berg.

Stuff YOU should know before dropping by.

And here's the stuff you would like to know if you are planning on paying us a visit. (this information will get to everybody officially in an upcoming AHM)

If you are not planning on ordering a drink or something to eat at Cafe Marche, than please do not enter the cafe. The Cafe Marche is not an extension of Lodge Home. We are running a business, and therefore, we will be treating you as a customer, and we will also charge you.

The "we will be treating you as a customer" part is very important.

Upon entering Cafe Marche, (like any other cafe)

You should expect the 「いらっしゃいませ～」greeting instead of the, God-bless-you-brother-greeting, you are used to hearing from Family members.

We will lead you to an open seat, and after a,

「こちらがメニューになります。ご注文がお決まりになりましたら、お呼び下さい」, we will expect you to order something to drink, or eat, or both. (Just for your information, the cheapest thing on the menu is a cookie, or hot soup. Only 100 yen!! *wink*)

English is generally a taboo in the cafe, (esp. English spoken at volume 10) as most customers shy away from, and feel out of place when English is being spoken between the staff, or even between customers.

Oh, and naturally, hugging, (and kissing too) isn't encouraged. Like I noted earlier, this isn't an extension of a Family Home. We're running a business. So if you want to do the hugging, the kissing, the God-bless-you-brother/sister-stuff, and catch up on how things are going with the reboot, the changes, the ministries, etc., than 4th floor and 5th floor are the places where that will be happening.

If you're interested in how we run the cafe, than by all means, please don't hesitate to drop by Cafe Marche and check it out! But keep in mind that you will be "checking it out" as a customer, and consequently, you will be spending some money.

If you've been to the cafe, and you were met with the "God bless yous" and the hugs, than that was a MISTAKE! It was a mistake, because customers shy away because of it, our business suffers, and the Mission will suffer in the long run, as the only customers that will be dropping by are people who are cool with the hugging stuff, like TFI members, and foreigners. But that's not exactly what we have in mind.

Whoop! That's how it runs, baby! Keep yourself updated by checking this blog out. I'm working on posting the pictures, but my comp has some issues, so it will have to wait.

Oh! Just one more thing.

Stop calling Lodge Home!

What I meant was, stop calling our Lodge Home's Phone number, as it is no longer Lodge Home's phone number. It is Cafe Marche's number now, you will be contacting the cafe instead of the Home. If you want to get in touch with Lodge Home, call the mobile phones of the members of Lodge Home. Because otherwise, you will most likely NOT get through to whoever you are trying to contact. This will also be included in the upcoming AHM with some numbers you could ring if you must.

Children's Day Eve

Eiko says...

Tomorrow's Children's Day, and I baked some very exciting, colorful M&M cookies to sell at the cafe for the kiddies of Adachi-ku. They better appreciate the effort and time invested in baking them since I did use half of my free day to bake the cookies.

I mean, if I were a child, I would be so happy if someone used their off day to bake cookies for me. And I would most definitely pay up for a cookie, even just out of pure appreciation for the act of kindness and sacrifice.

And they should so make a Teen's Day, where all the teens celebrate the fact that they are neither a child or an adult. Teens will also celebrate puberty and adolescence, acne and everything else that comes with being around 13-19. On that day, (let's make that March 5th, my Birthday, since I'm the first one I know who came up with the brilliant idea), teens will have 50 % discounts on almost everything aside from drugs and the like.

And this post is fast becoming the stupidest post I've ever posted.

So before it degrades any farther, I will shut up, and get some rest.

Everybody in Lodge Home, STRESS NOT!

Also, take a nap. We all look like walking zombie people, that are in desperate need of a vacation.

Life goes on.

Cafe Marche updates

Eiko says...

Cafe Marche Updates

To be honest, I didn't think the whole "cafe" idea would really work or take off, but it is indeed working, and I'm happy, and busy, and exhausted, and excited because of it.

HAPPY

because although I abhorred the idea of being in the kitchen baking cookies and whatnot all day originally, the customers really like what they taste and they come back for more! When someone likes what you create enough to pay money for it, and esp. when they keep coming back for more, whether you enjoy creating them or not, is quite satisfying.

Once when I was waitressing, an old man came in and ordered a coffee and a blueberry muffin. He asked for two sugars and no cream. I officially labeled him a 'weirdo'. Nobody, under any circumstances, should put two sugars in one tiny cup of coffee, especially if they are going to junk the cream. Later on while I was wiping the counters, he calls me over and asks,

「お姉ちゃん、このマフィンいくら？」

Then I go,

「はい、マフィンは一つ150円になります。」

Then he goes,

「これ３個ちょうだい。おいしいから。」

Although a stray thought of being responsible for the contribution to the man's waistline did cross my mind, (eating 4 muffins all by yourself does that to you) I instantaneously relabled him from 'weird' to 'totally cool'! I mean, he liked the muffins I baked! Not only did he like them, but he was willing to pay for them!

This dude is now a regular, and has come over 3 times in the past week. Yup. Totally cool.

There was also a mother and her daughter who came by our cafe because they heard from their friend who ate here, that the baked sweets were good. They bought 3 bags full of them!

Stuff like that make me very happy. And 'happy' happens quite often these days.

And 'happy' leads to '

BUSY

When I'm happy because the customers buy the sweets, it makes me very busy because it means more time in the kitchen,...baking. Our oven is small, and it is less then perfect, which means hours in the kitchen baking for the next day. Often this happens from after 10:00 PM all the way till past midnight. I do get time in the day, but when the customers decide to buy more than I originially expected them to, that means baking hours after my 5~10 PM shift.

Naturally, busy leads to

EXHAUSTED

I want and need more sleep. I also want mental and spiritual rest.

But I'm

EXCITED

because things are picking up around here, and the future looks bright. I can see this cafe really going somewhere. We do have regulars, and new people come by our cafe everyday. The fantastic JD and Aich sing on Fridays and Saturdays on the cute little stage we have in the corner from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. This goes well with the alcohol that we serve, and we even had a intoxicated customer dance around to one of them good oldies.