I'm back in Japan. The flight was long but relatively painless (thanks to JAL's incredibly dedicated and uber-friendly agents and cabin attendants!), and Hero Material and I arrived home a little after 10:00 p.m. yesterday.

Hero Material's secretary had come by before our arrival and turned on the air conditioner. :wub: We were grateful since it was ridiculously hot and humid. She also left our hamsters in our living room. So we got to greet our little critters. Yay!

But bad thing is…my cell phone is more or less useless now. Well, I get my calls and stuff — I think — but for whatever reason, its memory went bad, and I lost my contact list. That means I can't call anyone because I don't know their number. Argh! (Hero Material tells me that back before they had cell phones people actually used to remember their friends' phone numbers, but I don't believe it.)

This morning I got woken up by a sound car blasting some candidate's names over and over again: “Vote for me! Don't forget my name XYZ! Vote for me! Don't forget my name XYZ!” Believe it or not, creating ungodly amount of noise pollution from 8:00 a.m. on Saturday (and every other day of the week) is how they conduct political campaigns in Japan.

Now I know I'm truly back.

Confidence is the weirdest thing ever. When I was in my early twenties, I was a size 4 but could never wear a bikini because I was too embarrassed at how “huge” I looked. (Because I was not a size 2…I know, I know…misguided youth!) I'm bigger now, but got myself a bikini anyway in a color I like. Figured life is too short to worry about a little bulge here and there so long as my bloodwork looks good (and it does; the doc joked that maybe I should eat more junk food or something). Besides, if anyone mocks the way I look in my new bikini, I can always feature him/her as a villain and/or a weasel in one of my stories.

Interestingly, not giving a damn about what other people think gives me more confidence and a sense of liberation. I'm not sure why I wasted so much of my youth worrying about fitting in. Guess it was just part of the growing up process.

On the writing front, I started the first draft of my new WIP. Much to May's surprise, I'm pantsing this draft. I've never really pantsed. Everything I've written had a clear outline, but I figured why not? Maybe I'll do better this way. I'll never know unless I try.

Oh BTW — Amazon is selling Altec Lansing UHP336 earphones for less than $40 which I think is a great price. I love the clarity and the beautiful sound. I can hear everything, every little base note, the cellos, etc. (I'm a very aural person, and I love listening to music when I write, etc.) The only bad thing is that it highlighted how inadequate iPods are for playing music. The earphone is very sensitive so it picks up every hiss, etc. from your audio unit (should you have a crappy one), and iPods produce the worst static and hiss. (Naturally, you won't notice anything if you use the meh “earbuds” that come with your iPods.) What a disappointment. iPod Touch was the worst even if the wifi off. So if I want to listen to music on it, I'm stuck with earbuds.

P.S. I googled the problem, thinking that maybe it was just my earphones, but actually a lot of audiophiles have noticed the same issue. *sigh*

I'm still in the States (hence the very sporadic Twitter updates and blog posts).

Since my last post, I went to NYC and met Agent. She was delightful, witty and absolutely wonderful, just as I imagined. :) I enjoyed our time together, and the meeting got me even more pumped up about my next project.

The next day, Hero Material and I hit MoMA. I know many people love modern art, but I decided it's not for me after the visit. I still don't get it, and I don't think I ever will.

After our MoMA tour, we went to MA to see Hero Material's extended family. They're lovely people, and their farm house was really cool. (I've never been at an American farm before.) They raise Black Angus, totally organic and grass-fed, and the cows looked so content, ambling around their emerald green fields. While in MA, I also got to meet Bethany, a member of my former crit group. I told her that next year's RWA is in NYC, so she should go if she finishes her ms by June. NY is so close to where she is. (I'd love to go to RWA next year — if I can — as well…)

Right now I'm in NH, surrounded by tall trees that love to dance with the wind. I've never been up in northern New England before, and I love the natural surroundings and cool summer. And of course, there's the oddity of my being the minority again. ;)

Hero Material and I are heading back to Virginia early next week for dinner with friends and so on. And I'm still not done with shopping.

How's everyone's summer? :)

Finally I have somewhat reliable wifi again! :)

I've made it to the States for a two month-long vacation, and I couldn't access anything well.

BTW — if anyone wants to travel, don't do the Haneda – Narita layover. Haneda is in Tokyo, while Narita is in Chiba (even though people call it “Tokyo Narita”, it's really not in Tokyo), and it takes over an hour to travel between the two airports. If your flight's delayed (not that mine was), it can be rather painful.

I enjoyed my flight from Narita to San Francisco. JAL was wonderful, with great cabin attendants and an awesome selection of movies and games. My trip from SFO to Phoenix, however, wasn't as good. I was shocked at how dingy and filthy the U.S. Airways check-in counter was. Trash and crumpled paper littered the floor, and the U.S. Airways agents (there were only two) never smiled, didn't say anything more than they absolutely had to to check us in for our flight… didn't even speak decent English! Compare that to the JAL terminal in Narita, where JAL had over twenty uniformed multilingual agents helping passengers. The JAL agents were friendly, courteous and helpful. (And yes, JAL's terminal literally sparkled.)

Note to self: avoid U.S. Airways.

Also I finally got my Samsung NC10. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB, so now it runs faster than my main laptop. Absolutely love it. And the keyboard is super-comfy, which is my main consideration. I don't care for chiclet keyboards, so the NC10 is just right for me. And did I tell you it's a cute pink? And it's light & it does everything I want it to do — Word, OneNote, Excel, web surfing & email and iTunes. The NC10's battery lasts about 6-7 hours, depending on what you're doing. An excellent machine. I highly recommend it.

BTW — after I got my NC10, Hero Material and I went to the Grand Canyon. Absolutely gorgeous. I love the ruggedness of the place as well as the interesting sediment layers. We got to see condors and a few other birds flying around us. They didn't seem interested in eating squirrels, which was good because many of them reminded me of Buttercup (one of my female hamsters), mostly because they were such beggars. LOL.

Anyway, I'm going to cut this post short now. Have a great Sunday!

After a lot of research and so on, I've finally decided to get a pink Samsung NC10. Doesn't it look pretty?

A lot of people seem to swear by Samsung's awesome keyboard, and I need something other than my MacBook for working on my manuscripts. Although the MacBook's nice, it gets very hot, and I have to use a lap desk with it because its sharp edges cut into my wrists, etc. and cause pain when I type for a long time on it. (I have an ergonomic keyboard, but sometimes I want to be away from my desk, esp. with the back pain, etc.)

On another front, I'm going to the States for two months. I'm totally excited since I haven't been home in over two years. I plan to see Hero Material's family, Agent and friends. (My family is of coures on the list, in case Mom's reading this.) And shopping…! Can you believe I haven't bought any clothes or shoes in almost three years? I can't buy anything that fits me right in this country. I'm considered too tall and large. (Hey, at least Victoria's Secret thinks I'm small, so I guess that must count for something, right?! LOL)

Finally a short public announcement — I know I'm bad with blog updates. So if you want to know what I'm up to though, you can always follow me on Twitter, which gets updated almost every day. I don't auto follow, but I respond to tweets directed at me. Make sure to use @NadiaLee. Thanks!

I realized that I haven't blogged in over two weeks. Yikes. How the heck did that happen?

Mostly, I've been just busy and occupied with other things and didn't even think about it. I'm working on some secret revisions only a few people know about, getting ready for my trip to the States (which involves going to the local immigration bureau office)…

Oh and I'm back in rehab for neck & lower back pain. It seems like I go there every summer. Last year, I was stupid about it and waited until July, and basically couldn't sleep for weeks due to the most horrendous neck pain. Talk about lost productivity.

This time we did an MRI, and the doctor confirmed that I have a couple of herniated discs. The good thing is that with some extensive (and very long) PT & exercises, I should be able to manage the pain and lead a normal life. The bad thing is that the pain I have all along my spine can cause a horrible migraine. (Which is probably the reason why my head felt so awful recently…) The doctor ordered me to come back ASAP after my trip to the States to resume my treatment. If he had it his way, I'd stay in Japan and get rehabbed three times a week.

P.S. Buttercup had babies. Again. (I think this brings us up to 21 hamsters, total.) They're incredibly cute. However, since Buttercup is under some delusion that she is starving (she isn't; we give her tons of food every day), she always pushes her kids out of the way to get the most delish treats. *shaking head*