I was totally fine this morning, now I have a cold, wtf?!

It just came on as I was watching tv this evening. First my nose started running, then my chest got all congested and now I have a sore throat to boot. Great.

I have some TheraFlu, but I'd really like a bottle of NyQuil. I don't even remember what any of the cold remedies are in Japan. They've been having more and more commercials for those items on tv lately, so I guess I'd just better keep a memo pad handy.

In other news, I got a used car mag just to see what's out there. I think I'm going to go with a hatchback or a wagon. As much as I thought I wouldn't drive much and therefore a minivan would be a pretty good choice too, I went downtown by bus today. Round-trip bus fare cost almost 700 yen. Now I remember why I haven't been going downtown much to hang out. While once I get a car I don't imagine going downtown much due to the lack of parking, all the shopping malls around here have free/discounted parking (w/purchase). I could totally see myself doing that on weekends/after work to get stuff for the apartment, do some grocery shopping, buy some clothes, etc... I'm looking at taking the plunge with my Jan. paycheck.

I had a few other things I wanted to put up but I'm not feeling up to it atm. Hopefully tomorrow.

Wish I could say that the winter holiday has been awesome so far, but it hasn't. It was on its way to awesome - up until the 30th. Then I came down with this weird stomach ailment which completely put me out of commission. I wasn't able to eat ANYTHING for 4 days, my energy level was nonexistent, and I was achy all over. I was hyper-sensitive to my surroundings - the slightest variation in the environment (sound, smell, temperature, etc...) affected me, in a bad way. If I could, I would have cocooned myself. I didn't feel hungry or starved because I had ZERO appetite. Smelling cooked food just made me nauseous. I sustained myself merely on sports drinks and water. I'm still not 100% but at least my energy is back and I don't need to be within 10 steps of the toilet at any given moment. The silver lining to all this is that I lost A LOT of weight, about 10 pounds. *weak grin*

I did manage to go to the mall with my sister and her husband today. I got a case for my iPod Touch, the Belkin Grip Tight Groove, at FYE - 2 for $18. I also ordered a Best Skin Ever which came in yesterday, and I think the 2 combined will pretty much be all that I need. Oddly enough, I've loaded my iPod up with music and movies. My sister has loaded hers up with apps. Interesting....

What else, well my vacation was pretty short as it was so now I really need to prioritize. One of the big things I like to do when I visit home is eat at a lot of different restaurants. That's just not going to happen. Like I said earlier, my stomach thing is still not 100%, and my parents won't stop cooking. Oh well. Fishing trips, I might be able to get one in before I leave. Hanging out with friends/family, I met almost everyone at the Christmas party so that was good. Drive my car, check. Wash my car, I still need to replenish my car care goods, and then wash it. Saxophone, I don't want to store whatever this ailment is in my horn. I might just ship one of my alto saxes to myself in Japan and just play when I get back. Still, I don't even know if I'm going to be in Japan past April right now, so maybe I should just hold off on sending it until later.

So what about Japan? This is pretty much what I'm looking at, in order of preference:
1.) University position
2.) High school (maybe jhs) position
3.) My current job
At this point though, if I don't get 1, I think I'd rather go back home than do 2 or 3. Just thinking about going back to work right now is making feel all blah, which is a complete contrast to the last time I worked there. Last time I worked there and went on break, I was glad for the break of course but at the same time a bit excited about getting back in there and working with the kids again. This time, well I would like to work with the kids again. However, the experience has just been tainted. Before I met you-know-who, I was ready to be a lifer at this joint, "where do I sign?" - lol. Now, I really just want to GTFO.

Should I come back home, I'd teach part-time at the community college once again. I'd also go back to school (probably full-time) and study something health-related, maybe radiology. I'm starting to think that full-time teaching at the community college is just a pipe dream and I need to learn something marketable. Hopefully Miyuki would like to come along for all of this. If not well, I guess that would be it.

Still, when I was getting ready for that university interview, I got so excited. It was like "Man, that would really do it for me!" Get university teaching experience in Japan, and that would improve my resume for getting a community college teaching gig in the USA - which I think would really do it for me too. With that in mind, I'm still going to shoot for finding a university position in Japan. If I can't get one then I guess it just wasn't meant to be, I'll return home and do that health-thing.