Happy Birthday Mary!

Last Sunday was a big day around here.  Mary, the (not so little) baby of the family, turned five.  FIVE!  How did this happen?  It was kind of a bittersweet event.  My baby isn’t a baby anymore!  Pretty soon she won’t want to hold my hand when she crosses the street; she’ll be tying her own shoes; she’ll start to be less willing to do things MY way (wait a minute, we’ve already passed that point!)  Every time she falls asleep in the car and I have to carry her inside, I know those days are numbered.  With no little people coming down the pike (at least for now) this marks the end of an era.  So, a little sad...but I know we have lots of new adventures ahead.  And, I while I might miss tying shoes and carrying sleepy babies, I’ll never miss waking up at 3am or discovering interesting surprises during diaper changes. 

This birthday also marks the first family event in three years that we had to spend on our own.  While we lived in South Carolina we were lucky enough to be close to family in Jacksonville, so birthdays and holidays were shared with cousins and grandparents.  It’s easy to get used to that!  We had to go to think back and remember what we did before South Carolina.  We started off the day the same way we start every birthday…we wake up the birthday person with muffins and a serenade of “Happy Birthday.”  Mary usually wakes up anytime between 6am and 8am, so we chose 6:30 as showtime.   Judging by the clarity of this picture, you can tell the photographer (me) had not had her coffee yet. 

So, after we all ate muffins and (Bill and I) had some coffee, the phone calls started coming. For any non-Cubans, here’s a primer for traditional birthday events. First, the mandatory birthday wake-up with singing. Next come the phone calls—the very early morning phone calls. It’s ironic that birthday things happen so early when almost every other Cuban event is—how shall I say it— so non-punctual. In all fairness, this year the calling party was thirteen time zones away, so they had to call on Saturday night, Jacksonville time. We’re lucky we didn’t get the phone call at 7:15 Monday morning! Here’s Mary chatting with Abuela. I have no idea why I couldn’t focus the camera this morning, but I promise that it had nothing to do with the wine I had the night before.

(For you younger folks, that coily black thing is called a phone cord. Once upon a time the telephones only worked if they were somehow attached to a wall. We used to have a cordless phone, but it sucked was not very reliable—something having to do with only being able to use a certain megahertz.  We’ve had to revert back to using a corded phone for our calls back to the States. I’ll get more into our trip back in time in a future post.) 

Next we did our regular Sunday morning things--which naturally involved a mad dash to get to 8:30 Mass on time. This morning it was extra important that we got there on time because before Mass someone always makes an announcement welcoming  anyone who has just PCS'd to Okinawa and recognizing anyone in who is celebrating a birthday this week. Mary was looking forward to her moment in the spotlight, and she was not going to let Michael's resistance to wearing a collared shirt get in her way.

So we made it to Mass, then came home and I started working on the cake while the kids went to CCD.  Mary wanted a cake that showed life in Okinawa...so together she and I came up with this little scene: 

After lunch we had a few of the neighborhood kids come over for cake and ice cream.  I wasn't quite up to doing a big party, plus we had other plans for the day that didn't include a gaggle of five-year-old girls.  BUT, it did include....wait for it.... a chance to get on the TRAMPOLINE RIDE!  I told you it would make an appearance in this post!  One of the bases was having a festival and we were sure the trampoline ride would be there.  Apparently these base festivals are a regular event...they've had them about once a month since we've been here.  It's pretty much the same thing each time.  There's a stage area where a not-so-famous star performs.  (This time it was some guy who did NOT win on American Idol.)  There's an unhealthy food area.  There's an area where they steal your money have all kinds of (very expensive) chance games, and if you lose you don't even get a dinky prize.  This was very disappointing to Emma who, after plunking down 300 yen ($4!) didn't make one shot in the basketball game and left the booth empty handed.  (She must have inherited her mother's basketball skills.)  And finally, the main attraction was KiddieLand where they have all the rides.  Don't be too excited about this...it's not like Disney World.  Basically it's about 5 good "rides" and several other not-so-good rides (mainly consisting of bounce houses.)  After our first festival experience, Mary knew that in order to go on that trampoline she needed to get in line right away.  So we got in line and waited....and waited...and waited.  She was very determined and stood in line at least 45 minutes while the line moved at a snail's pace.   Finally it was her turn.  The guy strapped her in, then raised up the side bungee-cord things so she could go super high.  Then she let-'er-rip.  Mary was a natural up there--flipping and jumping and doing whatever other things you do on this trampoline-on-steroids.  Naturally, I have pictures of this momentous event: 

Since we do have other children, I thought it'd only be fair to get some pictures of them on the rides: 

Once we were all rided-out, we went out to dinner. At each birthday, the birthday person gets to choose what the dinner will be on their special day. Mary's choice was dinner at a local restaurant called Coco's. Coco's is a curry restaurant that I had been hearing about since we lived in South Carolina. Apparently it's a pretty popular restaurant in Japan. (Or, at least among American military bases in Japan.)

I don't know what's up with the hair in this one! 

After our tummies were full from Coco's, we went back home for the last Birthday Event of the day....the Presents! Mary raked in quite a bit this year.  Her stash included a ZhuZhu Pet Maze thing from Andrew (who I think secretly likes these ZhuZhu pets and actually bought the present for himself.)  If you have no clue what I'm talking about,  count your blessings Zhu Zhu pets are these fake mice toys that you can wind up and they move around the floor (eerily similar to real mice.) They also sell some maze contraptions that the kids put together so they can watch the mouse crawling around the maze.  My guess is that this toy is intended for children who's parents (like us) are too mean practical to buy them real pets. 

Other presents from her collection included a little stuffed animal that does forward rolls by itself, some pretend jewelry, some bubble juice, and a new Barbie.

At the end of the evening.... the grand finale.   Mary thought present time was over, but Bill & I had staged a special surprise on the front porch. When I gave Michael the signal, he quietly went out the kitchen door and ran around the house to ring the front doorbell. When Mary opened the door, she found....a brand new bike!  She was so excited--she had long outgrown her smaller bike and had been borrowing Andrew's bigger bike when he wasn't paying attention.  Ever since her birthday she's been tearing up the neighborhood on her new set of wheels. 

I've written this post from my perspective, but this morning when I pulled out the video camera to get a video of Mary riding her new bike, I thought it might be better for you guys to hear about The Big Day from the birthday girl herself.   So, here's Mary (and her unruly hair) telling us about the day's events: 

Happy Birthday Mary! 

Lost

(I apologize for my unannounced leave of absence from this blog.  I'll try to get back with the program!) 

With each move, a fair amount of wandering is to be expected as we get to know our new town.  I actually enjoy this (usually brief) period...as long as I'm not trying to get somewhere on time.   It's like being an explorer...each time you turn down a new road you get to discover where it leads and whether or not it's a better way to get from point A to point B.  And, the best part is, the kids take even longer than we do to learn the lay of the land, so they have no idea that I'm just exploring. I usually get to enjoy a blissful month or two before they start whining saying, "Why are we going THIS way?"  "Why are you turning here?" or my favorite, "This is going to take FOR-EV-ER." 

Well, Okinawa has given a whole new meaning to the word "LOST" in my vocabulary.  I've gotten lost going to places that I've already been to several times before.  I remember when I got my iphone I was very confident that it would never get lost again--the map app would rescue me whenever I lost my way.  Unfortunately, I've discovered a few flaws in the system.  I present to you a sample map that is typical of what I'd find on the iphone. 

For starters, most of the places are listed in Japanese.  But, I'm in Japan!  Other than learning how to read Japanese, there's not much I can do about that.  However, there are a few, very frustrating characteristics of Okinawan city planning that make it very difficult for the hopeless foreigner to navigate the streets. 

1.  Notice, on the map above, there are TWO roads labeled 58.  So someone will say, "Get on 58 and drive North" and you'll unknowingly get on the wrong 58 and end up way far away from your intended destination. 

2.  Notice how there are many, many smaller streets (shown in white) that don't have any kind of name or label on them.  This is not because I didn't zoom the map enough...they actually don't have a name or label.  If a road is deemed important enough, it's given a number (like 58 on the map) but those main roads often have several traffic lights, or everyone in town thinks they're important too and and the road is usually very congested. So you're constantly on the quest for the elusive "short cut" that will get you to your destination without having to travel on the main roads.  Since these smaller roads are nameless, you'll get a lot of directions that sound like this: "Ok, go down 58 for a little bit, then you'll want to turn left on the road after the sign that has the purple pig on it.  You'll take that road a little while and eventually you'll go up a pretty steep hill.  Right before you're about to plunge off the cliff at the top, turn right onto a tiny street.  Try to make sure there's not a car coming in the opposite direction because there's no way two cars can fit on that road.  Stay on this road for a while....you'll pass several convenience stores and a 100 yen store.  Then you'll see a sign with a little guy who's hair is on fire...turn left here....."  Well, you get the idea. 

3.  What you don't see on the map is that many of the roads have either disappeared or are currently closed.  There seems to be some sort of disconnect between the map makers and the road builders.  You'll be on your way, feeling proud of yourself that you've finally navigated from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time, and then all of a sudden the road on the map does not actually exist where it's supposed to, or if it does exist, now it's blocked by some concrete barrier. 

Now that you understand what I'm up against, you'll better appreciate this story about a recent navigational challenge one rainy afternoon a few weeks ago.  I was coming from a doctor's appointment for Andrew (who was suffering from a sore throat that I thought might be strep but ended being a normal sore throat) to Mary's preschool in another part of town.  (Or maybe in a different town...I don't know.)  I had about 45 minutes to get there.  I was armed with my iphone and a Okinawa book of maps left in the glove compartment by the van's previous owner.  I had been to both the doctor and the preschool several times, so I was feeling pretty cocky and I was sure I could find a faster way between the two.  I started the journey, carefully glancing between the iphone, the map and the road, all the while trying to count how many nameless streets we'd passed so that I'd be sure to turn on the correct one (this time.)  Well, somewhere along the line I either missed a road or the map screwed up, or something...but I ended up hopelessly lost.  And, unfortunately I neglected to check my gas gauge before we embarked on this trip, because when I looked down at it I discovered that I only had about an 1/8 of a tank left.

 Normally I'd start looking for a gas station at this point, but here the gas (off base) is about 4 times as expensive as what we pay on base, and I think they only take yen (of which I only had about three dollars' worth.)   This is when I started to panic a little.  I tried to console myself knowing that I had my phone with me so I could always call someone for help, but then I realized that I had no way of telling them where I was!  It's not like I could tell Bill, "I'm on the corner of Main Street and Meadow Lane" because these damn streets don't have names on them!  It was very unsettling.  I finally remembered Bill's sage advice of what to do in this situation.  He'd told me a while back, "It's not a very wide island.  If you're lost, just head East or West and you'll eventually hit an ocean, and one of the main roads is usually right there."  So I headed East, which was also in the direction of the base.  Several deep, calming breaths later things finally started looking familiar.  It looked like we were going to make it!   Once we drove through the Main Gate we blew off Mary's preschool for the time being and made a beeline for the gas station.  A few (very long) minutes later, we finally drove in on fumes.  Once we had a  full tank of gas we eventually made it to the preschool.  It had taken us an hour and a half to get there, but at least we made it! 

Since we've been here, I've also discovered another type of lost that has nothing to do with road travel.  Since the base exchange is our primary shopping option, whenever something is out of stock (or simply not there) we often turn to the internet to fulfill our shopping needs.  You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but somehow the computer "knows" that I'm in Japan.  I can't tell you how frustrating it is to go to your favorite website, only to find this: 

Normally there's some sort of link for me to click on that will take me back to the American website, but it's kind of a treasure hunt trying to find the right place to click.  I've gotten very good at looking for the little Japanese flag on the websites--usually clicking on that will take me to another page with an American flag.  Click on that and....yes!  Back to the good ol' USA. 

One last story about being lost in Japan.  Last weekend Bill and Michael went on a Boy Scout camp out, so I took the rest of the kids to a Mini-Fair on one of the other bases.  Knowing that one child in particular is prone to wandering, the first thing I told the kids once we got there was where we would meet if anyone got lost.  I said, "Ok, kids....if you can't find me go to the Marine trucks over there and that will be our meeting place.  Mary, do you see the Marine trucks?  That's where we'll meet if you get lost.  Where are we going to meet if you get lost MARY?  That's right...the Marine trucks."  Feeling confident that the kids knew what to do if they got lost, we set on our way to enjoy a fun afternoon of rides and games.  After we'd been there a couple of hours, Mary realized she hadn't gone on the trampoline ride (you know, where they strap on a harness to the jumper so he gets to jump really, really high. ) Unfortunately, this ride had an enormously long line and we would still be there waiting if I had let her go on that ride.  Mary was very stubborn persistent and insisted on getting in line, but I held my ground and firmly told her that she was not allowed under any circumstances.  After (I thought) we had settled that little disagreement, we went over to play on the Marine trucks (remember, our designated meeting place.)  The Marines were letting the kids get in the "jungle trucks" and honk the horns and everything, so they all had a fun time playing around in them.  After about 10 minutes, I realized I hadn't seen Mary in a while.  I looked in and out of all the trucks, and still couldn't find her.  I enlisted Emma to help me look...still no Mary.  I wasn't sure what to do since we had agreed to meet AT THE TRUCKS and she wasn't here!  Ten more minutes later I started getting a little panicky.  I decided to ask one of the Marines on duty to help me out.  I guess this guy is used to finding lost children (and dealing with nervous mothers) because he handled the whole thing really well. After giving him all of Mary's information, he got on his walkie-talkie and told all the other Marines on duty to be on the lookout for a lost 4-year-old in a flowered dress with brown ponytail. Once he did that, I remembered Mary's insistence on going on the trampoline ride.  I told Corporal So-and-so, "Let me  check one more place...I think I might know where she might be."  So I walked over to the Very Long Line, which was now being made a little longer by one strong-willed four-year old girl.  As soon as she saw me, she crossed her arms in determination.  I was half relieved/half crazy with anger!  I gave her a big hug, then quietly, through gritted teeth, said to her, "YOU COME WITH ME....RIGHT NOW."  You don't need all the details of what happened next, but, needless to say, she did not go on that ride! 

So this concludes my long delayed post on being lost in Okinawa.  Next time I'll bring you up to speed on a very big event around here...Mary's 5th Birthday!  I'll give you a little tease...the trampoline ride makes another appearance!