It's been a while. A long while. But if it's ok with you, I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been a while. Ok? Thanks for understanding! Love ya!
So... I left off talking about the flea market that I went to with my daughter Allyssa and my friend Sarah, so we could sell some of our junk.
As we were waiting in line in our van to get our flea market spot, we saw the Japanese locals waiting off base to come in and rummage through our junk. They were friendly. And flashed me a peace sign after I took a picture of them...how cute is that?!? (That's what they do here in Japan for pictures, show a peace sign!)
We got our space and tossed our junk out of the van, as it seemed like everyone else was doing. (I've never done a flea market before. Did I mention that? And never, never in a foreign land.)
And then, they came...

(Yes, that's me in the yellow hat and yellow shirt baking away in the sun. Allyssa was very adamant that she would be the one taking the pictures that day. Gotta love my kids!)
so they came...and they browsed...

and the Japanese - they were fun to "people watch". They would swarm...

and REALLY contemplate their purchases. Which made me think...because, you see, most everything I was selling was 100 Yen (about one dollar). But they would take several minutes holding something up, and looking at it and inspecting it.
It made me realize that in that respect, I need to take a lesson from the Japanese. Maybe I wouldn't wind up with so much junk to sell in the first place.
So, that day at the flea market...I realized that I respected the frugality of the people of this new country I'm living in. And after spending a morning tending to my junk and getting a horrible sunburn (and yes, I did apply sunscreen), I grew to appreciate and respect all the funky hats and visors...
and the umbrellas they use and the layers of clothes they wear. Even went it's hot, hot, hot out. They know what they're doing.
And, if you really must know where I've been and why I haven't been blogging lately...well, instead of listing my "top ten" reasons, I'll just say, "blame it on facebook"!