There have been recent complaints about my nearly month-long hiatus. Let me start by saying that I have no major injuries to report. It's possible that they were source of my inspiration, thus, the hiatus. However, to appease my dear older brother, here are three embarrassing incidents, as well as a recent concern of mine, to hold you over until inspiration returns.

First, my younger brother and I were driving back to Tokyo from the mountains, and, finally making it to the tollbooth in Tokyo, we prepared to pay the toll (as you do at a tollbooth). Mishap substep #1: pull in too far away from the booth, poor man has to reach half his body out to take my ticket. Mishap substep #2: cannot find correct change, but somehow it seems incredibly crucial at the time to use up as many coins as possible. Drop half of said coins all over car floor. Mission accomplished. Mishap substep #3: drop a coin in the chasm between my car and the window. Poor man has to come out of the booth to pick it up. Mishap substep #4 (the finale): try to hand poor man the rest of the change and experience an awkward fumble wherein the man drops all the coins and has to pick them all back up again, then hurries back to his booth hoping that when he turns around I'll be gone.

Second, while eating dinner with my family tonight, my father mentioned some recent flooding in what I thought he said was Oklahoma. I had no idea why he would mention this, and then proceed to talk about rivers rising and nearly flooding bike paths, as though this was at all relevant to any of us (and really, out of all the states, Oklahoma?). Not that it's not important to be aware of current events, but bike paths in Oklahoma just seemed a little too specific. In any case, I decided this might be an appropriate time to belt out that song from the musical...you know the song. Luckily, someone asked my dad why it was flooding in Yokohama, just seconds before I would have started singing and thoroughly confused everyone at the table. So maybe that wasn't an embarrassing incident. More like a fortunate sidestepping of such an incident.

Third, whilst playing a game of hearts with my mother and siblings, someone says something funny and I let out a laugh unlike any you've ever heard before. It's the kind of laugh with different pitches, and the "ha ha's" are maniacally close together, and while you're laughing, in your head you're thinking, "WHAT is this NOISE coming out of me?" The worst part is, you can't just end the laugh and move on. You know it's echoing in everyone's heads.

Finally, my recent concern. For whatever reason, I have begun to lose a lot of hair. Perhaps I have a condition, or maybe the world is trying to restore equilibrium, since I probably have more hair than most. I need to get in touch with Locks of Love so I can donate all the hair I'm losing. And while I'm at it, maybe I should order a wig myself. If anyone has any inkling of why this may be happening to me, I would love to know. Preferably before I start getting patchy, or have to fashion a comb-over.