Trip.

Tonight I get separated from the family as I drive up to Atlanta, take a red-eye to LAX, and then a morning flight to Japan. Where thankfully I will be in downtown Tokyo at a seemingly nice hotel. I'll only be there overnight, just to hammer out some details.

I had some business cards printed out in Japanese, as that is a necessity of Japanese business culture.

I had a little surprise for Ashley this morning, I won't be arriving on Friday back in Georgia, but rather I paid a crap ton of money for her surprise. I will be arriving early Thanksgiving at Minneapolis International air port and I won't be missing Thanksgiving!

Get to Know the Arakaki's.

Today I'm answering and asking questions to both Ashley and I about normal every day things.

Q: How old are you?
Brian: 22 and a few months.
Ashley: I'm a mint condition 21.

Q: Do you plan on having more babies?
Ashley: Of course!
Brian: Of course...

Q: What kind of pizza do you like?
Ashley: Sausage and pineapple!
Brian: Ditto. See, there is a reason that we are married.

Q: What are you watching right now?
Brian: I'm working my way through all 150 episodes of the original Twilight Zone.
Ashley: I've been really pleasantly surprised by the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. Though I still prefer the books.

Q: What's you're favorite sexual position?
Ashley: ... I have to go...

If you have any questions for either of us, don't hold back, we'll try to answer them to the best of our ability.

Things I've Done This Week.

- Slept on the couch one night, because the bed was, "Full of babies!" Babies meaning, the cat, the dogs, and the twins.
- Had Chinese take-out three days in a row cause we were both too lazy to make dinner.
- Got my butt pinched in an elevator, not sure who did it.
- Got stalked by a group of girls.
- Asked to a dorm party.
- Spent hours on the phone to Japan.
- Ashley almost broke by jaw, to be fair, I deserved it.
- I had to make an excuse to my mother-in-law about why I'm not going to be at Thanksgiving. I'm not going to say it's job related cause she would kill me.
- Still haven't been to a movie for a month...

Oh it's On!

So yeah, Ashley, the down to earth, shy, tomboy that I married apparently isn't that shy around her BFF. Certain bedroom secrets have come out and have been subsequently squashed. I'm not saying that she told any lies, but my "turn-ons" are not an appropriate conversation between two giggling girls, while I'm five feet away.

This all happened when I was about to go walk the doggies, and I saw that her BFF was over and I waved to them as I was about to leave. Then I heard, "You know he likes when I *** a ****** in the ***."

So to get her back, let me reveal some things about her that you may not all know.

- She started to name our kids after our first date. If you can tell, we did not end up using those names.
- She likes to be carried around like a princess.
- She like when I su--
...

I mean my darling wife Ashley is the most beautiful person in the world and should be treated as such. Also it is my fault that we aren't expecting another bundle of joy and I should get right on that baby making.

Signed Brian Arakaki, 11/9/09.

Job in Japan.

If you remember, I was offered a job tentatively of course. Now I won't be teaching, but I will be somewhat working in my field and I would enjoy it. Now, I called the man back and he was delighted to hear I was interested and so began the weird employee courtship that has become my life. I won't say what we arrived on quite yet, but just know, I won't be uprooting the family and I won't be leaving my current job for the time being.

Sadly I had to compromise on something and that was an inevitable trip to Japan and meeting. Which sadly falls on Thanksgiving break, so I won't be able to enjoy food induced happiness with the family. Ashley and my Brother-in-law will be on traveling baby duty while I am gone. Ashley has stamped her approval on this decision and further details will be coming shortly, once the finer details are all worked out.

But let me just say, downtime is for the weak and if this all works out, work will be my life.

Choices.

Ashley and I arrived here in Savannah a year and a half ago. We have been married for a year of that time. We have lived with our girls for 8 months and all of us couldn't be happier. I have been thoroughly enjoying my job and my overall status in life.

It's no secret that I may not be the biggest fan of working and living in America, but I enjoy it. Off the top of my head I can think of two places I would rather live and work, both for my family and me. It was a pipe dream though, but I could always dream a little bit. Sometimes fate throws you things you don't want and sometimes, like right now it throws you something that seems great, but could be a problem.

You see through a combination of smart saving, a generous gift beyond any I can imagine and the combination, we outright own our new home. It's one huge money-saver, and probably the biggest gift we could ever receive from someone.

A week ago I got a call before I was going to head out on my jog. Which was at 6 in the morning, I picked up the phone and tried to calm Kasumi down before we went out. It was a call from Japan, when I heard someone talking to me in the Japanese language I thought it was a family member. Turned out to be a contact that my Grandfather had made. I was getting offered a job opportunity in Japan.

I was blown away.

Not only could I work in Japan, but I would be making just as much money as I am now, but we would have to move to Japan.

I need to make a choice by the end of the year and I don't know... Ashley wants me to go for it, but I know she doesn't want to leave her family. I don't want to pressure her into anything, but I don't know either...

Oh Dear God...

The topic comes up with friends and family. Who do the girls take after? Well we've always stuck with, they look like their mommy (except the chin, that's mine), but personality wise they are more like me. Ashley was a rather subdued baby and didn't make a lot of noise. On the other hand, I liked to scream and explore whenever I had the opportunity. Of course the girls are little explorers and love to babble nonsensical words at us.

So I was pleased that work ended rather early for me today and I came home for lunch. Ashley had to run some errands, so I plopped on the couch with the two girls and proceeded to watch some Twilight Zone episodes. We have a rotating schedule oh house languages and today is Japanese and they seem to prefer that language over others. Uttering "fu's" "ka's" and a few others. Today they seemed to setting on "fu".

So they were chirping away as I leaned back to enjoy my show. Ami clambered over to sit on my lap and I played with her a little while I watched my show. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention at that moment in time or maybe it was just bad luck.

Somewhere in Ami's mind "fu" and the "ck" sound joined into one.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"

No matter what I could say, I was quite taken aback by her statement. She smiled at me and uttered it a few more times before going into a giggling fit. I'm assuming because of my face at the time. Now of course she had no idea what it means, all she knows is that it got me to give her a lot of attention.

Then a little further down the couch, "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" Oh god, now they're both doing it. My mind was racing, got to fix this problem before Ashley gets back.

NAP TIME! Thankfully it was close enough to their nap time to put them in their cribs. I put them down and turned on the baby monitor and sat down, hoping they would forget after some sleep. I kept hearing the occasional "fuck" now and then, until they fell asleep.

Ashley came back an hour later, carrying bags full of baby supplies and stuff for dinner. I helped her by putting the food away while she went to go check on the babies. A few minutes later she came back with a most hateful look on her face and carrying Katie.

"Brian, why are my baby girls spouting profanity?"
"I dunno."

Katie looked around at all the attention she was getting and spouted out another loud "FUCK!"

And no, we aren't counting this as their first word. It was a fluke.