Update

Alright, so life has been going on and I've shied away from just the routine updates of whats going on in my life. So, I'll just kinda lump it all into one entry here.

Yoonmi is progressing beautifully in her pregnancy and her tummy is expanding. Tonight she told me she needs to buy some maternity underwear, ^^. That's awesome!

Also, I've stopped going to the chuna therapy. I went everyday for over 3 weeks and I just felt terrible. Everyday, I'd wake up feeling a little better, but by 9 or 10 I was hunched over like a 90 year old man again. I couldn't stand up straight and when I went into the doctor's clinic, he would have me lay flat on my back or stomach and the pain was so intense, I would start sweating from the effort of holding the pain in check. A couple times sweat mixed with some tears because it hurt so bad. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I go to an elementary school and teach for 4 hours straight with no break. Even with painkillers it was hard, but with acupuncture, you aren't supposed to have painkillers. So, it was that after finishing my first full Tuesday back at the elementary school that I couldn't face the idea of going back there and putting myself through even more needles and pain. I didn't go and haven't gone since. About 24 hours after I stopped going, I realized that I was feeling better. 48 hours later I was standing straight up again. 1 week later, I could sleep in a bed again and actually walk upright, albeit more of a shuffle, for the full day. So, I've been going to the sauna, alternating in hot tubs and cold baths and hot rooms for about an hour and a half 3-5 times a week. Now, I can sit at my desk for more than 30 minutes and still be able to stand up straight the rest of the day. This may not seem like very much to you, but I'll tell you what, I can now wash the dishes and help take care of the rabbits and my wife knows how great it is. I'm still not back to healthy and I know my spine is still a little out of wack, but after losing 8 kg (17.6 lbs) Its getting better!

We've decorated our house for Christmas with the few decorations we have (more now this year since I brought some back from the States) and we are starting to feel a bit of the Christmas spirit. Today was the first day of snow for us. There has been snow in the mountains and a few of the cities around us, but today we were let out of work 30 minutes early because the snow was about to fall and we're supposed to get around 30cm (11.8 inches) so they wanted us to get home safely ^^ I walked home, all 200 meters.

I still can't wait for this weekend and Saturday just can't seem to get here fast enough, but at least tomorrow night, I have a distraction. A free opera is coming to town and I'm taking Yoon Mi to see Carmen at 7pm. Its a professional gig, but the city paid them well enough to open it up to the public for free. I've seen Carmen before, but it has been a long time. It'll be interesting to see how a Korean woman can play a well endowed, volumptuous harlet.

The true power of rain

It has been raining for the past couple days. Many of you guys are from the Pacific Northwest and know rain. You know rain so well that if you were to use rain as your primary character in a novel you would know how it would react in any situation. I think that in about 1000 years all babies in the Pacific Northwest are going to be born with webbed feet and excessively oily skin.

As annoying as rain is, I know how to deal with it. I think I'm the only person at my school who doesn't carry an umbrella but prefers to just wear a waterproof jacket. We all know how important rain is. We know that excessive amounts of rain can cause severe damage. Most recently, this can be best expressed with what happened in Thailand. However, for me, that isn't the true power of rain.

There are many, many types of weather we experience throughout the year; hot and arid, hot and humid, snowy, foggy, overcast, windy, and more. But the most influential is rain. How many times have people literally felt their emotions change drastically with other weather types. When it is sunny, people are generally happier. Many people feel that childhood giddiness in them when they see snow for the first time of the winter. But when one wakes up in the morning and sees that it is still raining, still soaking everything, still making your joints ache and your pant cuffs wet, there is never any emotion other than gloom. When people get married, they hope for sunny days, or if it's in the winter, they hope for a white christmas (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere) but never once do people hope to have their big events on a rainy day. The only time I've ever heard people wish for rain was in Oklahoma when the farmers needed the rain to grow their wheat. . .then they curse it when it doesn't stop at the right time.

Sure there are some exceptions to the norm, but in general, I feel that the true power of rain is its pure, undeniable ability to rain on everyone's parade.