I am a Tri-athlete

I did it. And I stuck with my friend Dee the whole way. It was so incredibly fun! All four of us (Katie, Yvette, Dee, and I) made it to the finish line just fine. I really really had fun! It made me want to do a bunch more triathlons! Big thanks to all the people who came out to support us (Mom, Dad, Auntie Grace, Rob, Dan, & etc). You guys were so wonderful to take the time to do that. It meant so much to me to see you guys there!

The swim was first. I was way too excited and couldn't slow my breathing down, this resulted in me doing the backstroke the WHOLE way. I am such a nerd, but I thought it was hilariously funny too!









After the swim was the bike. This was a fairly easy 10.2 miles. Some nice up hill, some nice down hill, and it's also where I caught my breath from the swim and ate my gu. Mmmmm.










I stuck with Dee the whole run. I was really proud of her - she didn't walk at all! So I hung with her and we finished together. It was cool to stick with a friend on the first tri. In the future I'll probably want to be more competitive, but it was a fun start.








Here are all four of us at the end - Katie (far left) came in first, then Yvette (middle right), and Dee (far right) and I (middle left) finished together. It was cool because they announced our names as we crossed the finish line and there were a lot of people cheering for us. =D Thanks guys!








Dad and I at the end. Dad, the man who has done more athletics with me and come to more of my races than any other human being. He's always there for me. It meant so much to me to have him, Mom, and Auntie Grace there, especially as Josh couldn't come because he was busy being a Sheriff.







At the end they had showers, and it was SO wonderful to wash some of the gunk off me and get to change into clean dry clothes! I still have my race number on my leg and arm though, #357!










At the end Dad, Mom, Auntie Grace, and I went to Ihop. Auntie had to leave before she got to eat though, because Jichan was getting into trouble at home =( but it was great to have her around while she could be there!

good day yesterday

Yesterday was a very good day. I went to church. Ate breakfast at Ba-chan's. Went to the Japanese-American Museum in downtown L.A. with Dad and Mom Y. That was pretty cool. Then we went back to Ba-chan's to play cards and eat dinner. Very good! After that Leroy, Kathleen and I went out to the high desert to watch the meteor showers until 1:30 in the morning. We actually saw some too! It was really fun and relaxing. I finally had a really really truly good day this summer and it was wonderful.

other pics of my life lately

This is at the celebration banquet for Josh before his graduation.

Then there is Josh and I at his graduation. (Yay!)

And then there is me shooting at SSA last Sunday. v. fun!

super big moth

This is a really big moth (see how big it is next to the shapie and dollar bill) that I found in my garage, captured, and then set free. I had never seen a moth this big before. When it first flew by I thought that it was a bat. Does anyone know what kind of moth this is???

summer goes by

so very quickly. phooey.

It was great to see my family again tonight - there's nothing like good salmon, playing horsey with Brie, letting Sam chase me, and watching Cinderella with Mom and Jess while Dad and Adam read and Josh took Anna out. The only thing missing? Josh, and flashes of my friends that I wasn't with. But so so good to see my family again! It's like they normalize me somehow. Root me. Center me. Love me. Thanks you guys!

The first thing I did this morning after I woke up before I finished my tea? Run Josh's belt and gun down to him at work. Kind of important thing to forget. Whoops! As long as he gets it out of his system now, while I'm still available to run it down to him! =D

midsummer dreams

Well, Josh graduated the academy in quite an amazing ceremony, went through jail academy, and is now working the men's jail. It's not as bad as he was expecting (at least not yet) and I've enjoyed seeing a bit more of him than normal.

Therapy is going really well, and each time I go I come away feeling better ... and it's a type of better that helps me get through the rest of my life, it's not just a temporary fix better (like eating cookies or listening to loud music). Vacation ::sigh:: is wonderful, but I'm still so full of everything! I'm still catching up on all my friends, training for a triathlon, prepping for the next school year, being Josh's wife, and ... yeah. Starting to catch up on things. I'm so glad that God has given me this time off. I need it. It's fun to see how many of my friends and family ask me about therapy. It's a very sweet sort of inquiry, and hopefully I'll end up being a better friend and family member because of it.

I think that I really do want to start learning Japanese. I've been thinking about it and playing with it for a while, and it would just be cool to have that be something that I could do and play with. I don't quite know how to go about doing it ... but it would be a cool thing! I really do want to travel to Japan one day, and see the place where the roots of so many people in my life who I love are located.

Well, the triathlon is on August 19th, so time is getting close for that. At this point I kind of just think that the most important thing for me is just to be able to do cardiovascular intensive activity for an extended period of time. After this first one I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing, but for the first one I think that I'll be ok.

It's kind of funny, but I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. So for now I'll continue to teach, which is fine and good, and then maybe one day it'll grow clearer. In the mean time I'll just work on growing up and being a better me. I have to admit that law enforcement is a tempting career choice for me, but it's just that, tempting, I know that it would not really be for me and would be way too much of a power trip to be healthy.

Wanna know something funny? (and I have to preface this with blunt honesty and say that Josh had a new barrel on his gun so his sights might have been off, and I actually think that they were) but when we did our out door shooting competition on last Sunday a bunch of us were all goofing around and one of the guys decided that we should all try and shoot this tiny little bowling pin target that was way far away and everyone only got one shot. We all lined up to do it, and only 2 of us made the shot - some asian guy and me. So we lined up to do it again, because honestly I'm not (by far!) the best shooter in this group and I totally thought that it was just a lucky shot. We went through again and that same asian guy made the shot, and I did too, and no one else did. Not even Josh, the star shooter of the academy. So ... I'm not a fast shot, but I'm an accurate shot. It was kind of cool for me. That's another area that therapy has helped me with. Before when I shot I REALLY REALLY cared about doing a good job in front of everyone and wanted them to see me doing well so that I would earn respect. But now, since therapy, I can actually just relax and enjoy shooting in the moment and that means that I don't tense which sends the bullet in a much straighter line and now I hit the targets better. Funny that.