making up for tomo's b-day and some precious video clips from my childhood!

today was my day off! yes! gotta do my things while I can. This is the lesson I learned after obtaining my current job as a catering/event manager for a company that has a few different operations at the air canada center.

anyway, Oct 19th was my really good friend, Tomomi's b-day.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend the day with her to cerebrate it, because of my tight schedule at work, so I tried to make it up for it tonite.

You know the horseradish crust salmon dish that I made the other nite for Ilya turned out soo great?! I tried it again because I thought Tomomi deserves to try it!

This time better photos were taken, so here we go:



Tomomi's friend, Minori came over so our little b-day cerebration make up turned into a girl's time off eating tasty food and watching this dvd that i recently received from my dad full of old video films that he recorded of my sister and my childhood.

I am uploading some clips online, so not all of it maybe available right at the moment, but here we go: enjoy watching a little kumi run around places :)

1. this clips shows my oldest memory ever in my life-dressing up in special costume for my little brother's funeral when I was 2-3, I lost my little brother by an accident. I remember seeing my family crying sooooo much, and I had no idea what really happened, but I knew something very upsetting and sad happened. So I cried very hard with my family too. It was very hard to let him go, but he is always with us in our heart and soul. I think of him when I do my cardio and try to live my life as fulfillingly as I can for myself and for him also. In this clip, you see my older sister and myself wearing the special costume with a special make up on. You will also get to see an typical Japanese living room setting in the background. I am so glad that my dad filmed and kept this. I think that he bought the video camera to actually record this event.
   
2. of me at the age of 3 wearing kimono with my sister
   
3. dancing in kimono at the age of 3!!! LOL
4. run little kumi run
5. playing with my grandma's brother (haccho-ji no oji-chan)
6. elevator girl in training I grew up in the suburb, so when my grandma took me to huge department stores in tokyo and saw the elevator ladies assisting people to get on the elevator, I was inspired! and instantly wanted to become one. Apparently, I put my pre-school hat on my head, wore my first pair of groves and pretended to be one by the sliding door of the living room. Here you will see a little Kumi very hesitated first but proudly representing the youngest elevator girl exist in the world :)
7. entry to an elementary school: after returning from the first day at my school

sweet sound, sweet energy vibrating into my body, giving me big smiles on my face

http://grooveparlor.com/index.htm

Please listen to Cordell Johnson: http://grooveparlor.com/audio/grooveparlor/cordelljohnson-wickerparkfunk.ram

I just can not get enough of his shite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The way I put it: "if you listen to his music, your wildest dreams will come true (by Pedro)" ;)

Mad respect, love, and appreciation go to Cordell Johnson! Woo HOO!

ilya's b-day

my roommate, ilya took a day off from work, so I was able to spend his b-day morning with him. Thusly, i made a b-day breakfast for him and myself...




























wishing you the bestest wishes for such a sweet-heart, Ilya. May your new chapter be fulfilled with loads of happiness, joy, peace, excitement and growth :) Peace and love, Kumi

cerebrating ilya's b-day

Today was my day off yes!!!
I went out last nite and had a fabulous time with Nozomi and people that I became friends with.
Everyone was sharing such great vibes with me, and I had such a blast!!

Anyway, I came home around 4am and went to bed like 5am, so I did not wake up until afternoon. LOL But after working for 6 days straight, I really needed the sleep and relaxation in my bed. LOL

I went to take care of some errands and got a delicious looking chocolate cake from my neighbor bakery cafe that is very popular among posh looking young and old ladies. Well, they do sell some fancy desserts (not cheap), and I have tried some of their tarts and shortbread cookies, and I must say that I do love their fine elegant tasting sweets. So I decided to get a cake for my roommate, Ilya's b-day from that shop. I said "we deserve to try something much fancy from the shop! LOL".

Then my roommate and I had a cup of tea and shared a tart. It was delicious. My god, I should have taken a photo of the tart. It was a fig tart, and it looked soo pretty too! Anyway, it was a perfect tasting dessert for my day off. :)

I then went to a nearest postal office to get my percel from my sister who was recently back in Japan and brought some of my winter clothings for me.

The percel was HUMONGUS. I am very thankful for my family for their support in sending me my winter gear. Anyway, while the postal officer went in the back to get my stuff, this old gentleman who bought over 100 dollar worth of postal related products stuffed some of the stamps arranged on the counter into his bag (stealing).

So when the office returned, I was like: "Excuse me, sir (to the officer). Is this thing for sale? Cause I saw this gentleman putting a couple of that into his bag while you went to get my percel".

The officer looked at the gentleman sharply and proceeded to check his bag that was on the counter.

"You have not paid for this yet, so would you like to make a payment right now?"
The gentleman: "Urm, well, not at this time". and he just disappeared.

"What a loser. I mean, you were showing off your bills from your wallet, and you decide not to pay for a thing when you fail to get it for free? Give me a fucking break". I thought. (haha, I sound such a bitch). LOL

I just thought it is such a pity how there are people who try to get everything that they maybe able to, in a given scenario like that. Speaking of this, this incidence just reminded me of the hurricane Katrina hitting Texas and causing a major flood in the city, because I saw some young kids stealing things from the department stores etc. on one of the internet news.

When I saw that, I felt: "Wow, these kids who were left behind in the city unable to leave must have had no chance to actually own anything like that before...yeah, let them touch those things at least one time in their life time"....

And this thought hit me: "am I being such a racist by having different kind of opinions and reactions towards people from different class??" Yes, I think so. And I felt guilty for realizing my own false (rich shall not steal, but poor a'right, cause they have no choice!??).
I just wanted to post a note about it.

Anyway, I then went to buy a few things at the mall, went to the gym and did my 1 hour cardio, bought some grocery and came home to make a special dinner for my roommate who has a b-day on Oct 24th (tomorrow).

Since I would be stuck at work until late at nite, I had decided to make a great dinner for him tonite. Plus, it was my day off, so I thought I deserve to do something I truly enjoy as well.

:)

So here we go, these are a few photos of things that I prepared. Since we had a late dinner (my roommate did not come home until late, as I never told him abou the dinner), we had only two dishes, but it was just very fulfilling in many ways. :)

Horseladish Crusted Salmon:


It was absolutely delicious!
I will make it again! The bedding for salmon is dilled cucumber and carrot, which actually matched with the salmon very much. I made Grain Mustard Sauce (lemon juice, butter, olive oil, sour cream, dijion mastard, dill, chive, salt, black pepper and sugar) and it was just perfect. Something light but just right. I was very pleased with this dish as it brightened the flavour of each ingredients that I used, and they all played a magic in a plate. I felt that this was such a magical dish, and it was just perfect for my roommate's b-day (pre-) cerebration.

I also made butter-mushroom-rice, rosemary potatoes and sauteed broccoli and carrot. The photo is kinda blurry, but they tasted fine too :)


We had a shot of Russian Liquor along with our supper, and shared a fig tart that I had purchased from the fancy cafe. I bought my favorite, Aveda tea (comforting) in the late afternoon, so we had a cup of its tea with the tart.

Tonight I truly spoiled myself by spending time doing things that I truly enjoy (cooking and making someone feel happy and special), and fulfilling myself with the colorful and flavourful meal. I really hope that one day, I can bring my cooking skills one step higher than where it stands right now. Although I used to and am still interested in having my own restaurant in future, for now, I just hope to have more personal time to manifest my own creativity and passion in cooking by hosting friends for nice meals like this in near future :)


Thank you for reading!

Music of the evening: "Can you feel it?" by Larry Heard

http://www.soulmanifesto.net/audio/Mr. Fingers (Larry Heard) - Can U Feel It (Robert Owens Voca.mp3

I love this song the best in all the songs that I adore.

Just the best.

Because the sound and lyrics just reflect the person ME.

The energy in this music is something I feel INSIDE of ME when I do something very passionate, feeling high running, dancing or making love to someone you dearly love.

Just drives you crazy inside, you know? Like crazy energy explodes inside you!!!

HOT SHITEEEEEEE

Cordell Johnson

Please listen to Cordell Johnson, an amazing DJ from Chicago: http://dhpmixes.com/mixes/0905cordell.mp3

This mix made me want to move to Chicago once again.
Music like his keeps me inspired. and maybe that is what I need to stay true to whom I want to be.
I love the intensity of his mix sooo much.

Listening to his mix helps me let go of my negative emotions, dance my ass off expressing my feelings I gain from music and feel super great afterwords (I love feeling the moment where I am manifesting my true self thru my actions).

Seeing other people doing their things professionally, I really gotta do something about my LIFE too!

Mad respect goes to CORDELL JOHNSON.
I sooo wish to one day dance to your music set LIVE.
I know I will in near future. :)

and I am excited for such future :) :) :)

LIFE

I have had such a drama-week.
Where to begin? I do not know.
But it is very important for me to let my thoughts out of my mind to better understand myself, so I am typing having my lap top on my lap as I lean over the wall by my bed.

[WORK]
I continue to cover long hour labour, working 10-12 hours/day and 60 hrs and more/week.
I get a half day off and it is rare for me to get a full day off without doing any activity related to work right now.
Managerial role means more responsibility, but do I enjoy taking care of work inquiries via my mobile even during your time off?? Well, you know my answer: not really. LOL

I tend to spend my off physically recovering.
Taking care of my personal errands. Grocery shopping and buying things that I need to take good care of myself.
I barely have time to do inspirational things anymore.
But I try to engage in activities that I enjoy even during such busy schedule to bring me a sense of joy and happiness that I know I deserve. Change in my given life style is also healthy too, you know?

I find my current job situation quite challenging, because things are very very disorganized.
At first I found it very interesting how things were getting organized with my hard work, but I am physically and mentally getting burnt out that I am losing flexibility to accept the sudden challenge in the most positive manner. I get frustrated and gain negative emotions like anger sometime, and I do not like it, because I do not define negative emotions as something to identify my character.

I am trying to create a good structure and systems installed in this organization.
But the person I work closely with continues to sort of create problems, sort of destroying the established systems. I guess I can say that it is a test-run period right now to see how the systems that I have established work well with others, but the bottom line is that as long as he does not change the way he handles the incoming work inquiries, I know, I will be expected to work such crazy hours due to an unproductive way of coordinating things.

The other day, I slipped on the floor (slippery and wet floor) on my way to deliver a beautifully arranged sushi tray to a client.
I hit my elbow and my head badly. For a moment, I zoned out and did not know what had just happened because of the shock.
People came up to me to help me stand up and realized what just happened.

People asked me to help me get to the area where I could receive medical treatment right away. But as I saw the smashed sushi on the tray, and myself knowing I got injured, I got so angry.
Although people were worried about my physical condition, I was more curious to talk to the person who was in charge of the floor cleanliness maintenance.

"who is responsible for maintaining this floor?"
"let me talk to the person right now".

I must have scared off some people because of my intensity asking for someone in authority when I had to worry about my physical health too.

I was taken to the customer service area where I reported the accident and received some medical treatment right away.

As soon as I shared my concern (what if this happened to some fans or my staff??), I felt so sad and had some tears fall off my cheeks. Finally I came to worry about my physical health and settled down emotionally.

Now that I think of this incidence, I wonder if this has something to do with my previous life threatening experience where I got physically damaged. Because otherwise, how would you explain my instant anger towards such a thing happening to me?

Since experiencing the accident, I have been feeling quite down. Kind of depressed.

It seems as though my past experience shaped me not to tolerate any physical harm that one does not deserve.

But I now know that I can not blame someone for some accident happening like this. It was not intentional afterall.

Anyway, now, my neck is hurting and my elbow is a little swollen and bruised.
But the positive aspect of this accident is that I had my pony tail on my upper part of my head, cause it helped me not hit my head too bad, you know???

I still have the healthy brain to write out what happened. so I feel I am lucky....

[LIFE]
I continue to ask what I want to do in my life.
I wonder if I could turn my personal interests into a career.
I day dream of having a serious dance lessons to better express myself.
But as long as I continue to work such crazy long hour work, I do not get to have time to do things that I am interested in neither.
So then, what is it that I want in my life?????

I want to feel that I belong to things that I feel passionate about.
I want to express my SELF to friends and family that I care.
I want to have the time to work out daily, time to welcome guests for tasty meals.
I want to have the time to engage in the deephousemusic scene more. I am super interested in the housedancing scene.
I want to feel I belong to the things that I feel passionate about.

So what do I want?
TIME AND ABILITY TO APPLY MY CREATIVITY.

Although I must look aftermyself financially having a decent paying job, I need to find solutions for my current job situation so that I will get to have the TIME and ABILITY to APPLY MY CREATIVITY MORE.

Gotta take some actions NOW.

Off to do my thing shaking my bootie on the dance floor. See you later LOVE :)

Kumi