I wish it were my Birthday

Because I really want this shirt.

Today Jeff sews on Master sergeant. Mandy, Lily and I will be dressed in pretty dresses. During the ceremony we get to go up on the stage and "tack" his new rank on him. This means we get to punch him in the arm very hard. Or we can be like Angel and kiss it on.

Mandy is working at the base hospital for the summer hire program this year. Last year she worked at the Post Office. At the post office there is no air conditioning and the job was very physical. Hard work builds character and all. This year her job is in the air conditioned hospital answering phones and running errand. Perhaps this will illustrate to her the difference between college and no college. Not that she needs the illustration she is a good student, just nice for her to know. She got the opportunity to watch a circumcision the other day. She was very excited. She thought it was the coolest thing she ever saw. I am so squeamish about blood and pain, but Mandy appears to the type to enjoy that type of thing. I am very grateful for all the opportunities she has been exposed to her at Misawa.

Next week our family is driving down to Tokyo. We are driving ourselves to a hotel in the middle of Tokyo. We got the directions and there is a map of the general area where we are going, there were so many lines on the maps, you know those pesky roads, that the print was so small it was very overwhelming to think I have to navigate us to a specific location in the middle of all that. Good luck. And then we have to find Disneyland from our hotel. I am having a little bit of a panic attack about this. I guess it doesn't really matter that the streets don't have names and aren't marked because there are so many and they are in a different language that even with names and street signs it wouldn't help.

I guess Tokyo is divided into areas, I cannot remember how many I think it was a forty? You follow the signs to your area. Within each area is neighborhoods, so once you are in your area you find your neighborhood. Then within a neighborhood there is 10 sections, label 0-9 you find your section. Then in your section is 10 blocks each block is labeled 0-9, you find your block. Once you have found your block you find the building with in your block each building is labeled with a number 0-9. I don't know what happens if there is more than 10 buildings on a block. So an address looks like this,

123 neighborhood, area

1 - being the building number
2 - being the block number
3 - being the section number

I also read that in Japan if you ask for directions, good luck Marsha does not speak Japanese, they will give you directions even if they don't know the way. It is a social taboo to say, "I don't know". People will make something up rather than say, "I don't know". Hopefully my blond baby will come in handy, for more than just candy this time.

How do I get myself into these things? Ok, panic attack is over. We will be fine. No worries. We have people to help us if we get lost we can call the hotel and they speak English. No worries. Just me having a panic attack.