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** The Japan earthquake/tsunami.  Ugh.  Grateful that it sounds as though they are making progress in the right direction there though.  Prayers continue to be with the people of Japan.  We had a friend visiting from NYC over for dinner last Friday and he happens to be in Japan equity sales for a major Japanese bank.  He brought along two of his coworkers (another sales person and an analyst who was actually visiting from Tokyo), we didn’t want to pry too much but it actually happened that the sector the analyst specialized in was Japanese energy, so you can imagine he had a lot of expertise.  In fact, he was supposed to return to Tokyo the next day to start his analysis of the situation and how it would affect his markets.  The other sales person and the analyst both grew up in Japan and so had some very interesting insights into the culture there and how they will deal with this tragedy.  They seemed confident that Japan will recover and be stronger for it and I tend to agree with them.  I’d be hard-pressed to think of a stronger, more resilient, or prouder culture. One fascinating tidbit, was that how even in the midst of train stoppages and continuing earthquakes and the threat of nuclear meltdown to the north and whatnot, those Japanese who remain in Tokyo will continue to make it into the office every. single. day.  Because that is just the Japanese way.  They said it doesn’t matter if it takes six hours to get into the office, the Japanese people will show up.  (As amazing as that is, can I just say, I’m REALLY thankful it’s not like that here?  I’d be getting the hell out of dodge not worrying about showing up at work!)

** So incredibly proud of our troops in Japan and those on their way.  Once again amazed that as people flee a country, our troops willingly enter and put themselves into harms way to assist those in need.  There are no words to express how blessed we are to have so many courageous men and women willing to sacrifice so much of themselves for others.   Thank you, thank you, thank you!

** I’m late to the show I know, but livingsocial is matching $5 for every $5 donation to the Red Cross for disaster relief in Japan. We have also donated through Save the Children which according to the BBB spends 90% of all donations on programs (as opposed to administrative and fundraising costs).

** I have fallen into a familiar rut.  I come home every day and write a draft which I save and then never publish.  In fact, I’m not confident that this post will ever actually see the light of day (or the internet?) because I may very well never actually hit publish.  This one has a fighting chance though because it is in bullet form which means it doesn’t have to be coherent or have a real ending that ties things up.  Who said I have no standards?  Oh.  Hm…

**  I’m also doing the same thing in my non-internet life.  That is, imagining saying things to people (nothing bad, sometimes just factual things that they actually kinda need to know) and then I just won’t. 

** I gave up soda again for Lent.  And beef. Lent is the only time in my entire life that I’ve been successful at restricting any sort of behavior for a predetermined period of time. Self-control? Yet another one of those virtues I clearly wasn’t blessed with.

** Normally this is something I might consider keeping to myself, but I have to get it off my chest.  I have been sort of psycho-cyber-stalking someone.  I hate online social networking sites.  I hate them and all the easy-stalker-access they provide.  I honestly don’t even have a purpose behind my stalking (luckily online social networking wasn’t big when I was single so I can honestly say I’ve never romantically stalked someone), I just find myself constantly clicking on this person’s pages and trying to interpret every little thing.  Why?  No. Fucking. Clue.  What do I get out of it?  Nothing.  Except more crazy.  And let’s face it, I don’t need any more of that.

** (Incidentally, I hope that every one of the people I’m friends with on FB who also read this haven’t just blocked me…not everything is about YOU, okay?  Yeesh you’re big-headed :) 

** So far, my brackets are winning!  Counting on Coach K to seal the deal!  Of course, UCLA let me down (had them going to the Final Four and really didn’t think it was totally unrealistic) as they so often do….

** I have a phone appointment set with the adoption coordinator for the Carribean program on Thursday.  Will write about it more later (if it doesn’t end up unfinished and in draft form forever) but does anyone have any suggestions on what questions to ask?  So far I’ve got, “What is the age range of children for a couple our age (e.g. since some programs give younger couples preference on younger children)?” and “How many international adoptions have actually been completed each year?”  I feel like there’s a good chance that those two questions don’t exactly cover the entire breadth of what I should be asking…

** Received confirmation today that a coworker who is a couple years younger and married a couple years after me…yup…his wifey is pregnant.  This guy is totally awesome and one of my favorite people to work with and I was really happy for him (they’re having a little girl, his wife is of Indian decent and I’ve never seen a Chinese-Indian baby before but I bet she’s gonna be a cute little thing!).  It only stings a tiny little bit (as, I suppose, was made clear by my reference to the fact that they are both younger and married less years).  I don’t know if this is my “coming to acceptance” moment or if I’m just back in denial again.  Funny how they kinda look like the same exact place, no? 

** It’s only taken me three separate sittings to finish this work of literary genius.