Be Yourself

An open letter to my amazing niece about becoming a woman:

Even though she was my sister, when I was really little, your mom was like a mother to me.  I have vivid memories of crying myself to sleep on the couch many nights after she left for college because she left such a void.  When I was a little older and she was married and had children, I would come and stay with her for a while sometimes.  During those long visits she became more than my sister, she became my friend.  I enjoyed each visit more than the last and never wanted to leave.  When I became an adult, she became my best friend and mentor.

When I was little, I loved her because she was my sister.  But as I grew older, I began to respect and admire her as a woman as well.  She was everything I thought a woman should be and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.  For me, she was the standard, and I gauged everything I did by her example.  As a new wife, and then later as a new mother, I often felt like I didn’t measure up.  I struggled with feelings of being overwhelmed and under qualified.  I would think to myself, ‘If I could only be more like her, I would know what to do and everything would be better.’

Now after almost 20 years of marriage and over 10 years of parenthood, I have realized a few things.  First of which, is that I can never be just like her, because God made me differently.  I'm louder, crazier, more opinionated than she is.  My perspectives, experiences and capabilities are different too.  I still think of her as the embodiment of the Proverbs 31 woman, and the fulfillment of the fruits of the Spirit.  For sure, she is an example to learn from.  But I have realized that I don’t have to be just like her to be those things as well.

Often, we struggle as women because we think we don’t measure up to someone else’s standard.  We think there is something wrong with us because we are different.  But God made each of us differently.  And He did it on purpose.  All of us are all different parts, and we need each of those different parts to function as a whole.  There are things we have to learn from each of these differences, and the differences in each of us are what make life interesting.  And while there are some amazing women that we have to look up to and learn from, (your mom is one of those for sure) we don’t need to feel like we don’t measure up because we are not just like them.

As you are on your way to becoming an adult, you are discovering who you are; who you want to be.  While you are on that path to self-discovery, I want you to keep in mind that God didn’t create you to be like someone else.  He created you to be different.  So find those women you look up to, women who embody the traits that you desire, and learn from them.  But don’t try to be like anyone else; because God created you to be you.

Things I know about life

When I was asked to write about what it meant to be a woman, my first thought was, What do I know about life?

Nothing.  That was my second thought.

But then I realized, That is what I know...

I know that the more you know, the more you know you don't know.
~And those who think they know, are usually the ones who don't. 

I know that knowledge is power, but wisdom is knowing how to use knowledge.
~A smart person knows what to say, a wise person knows whether or not to say it.

I know that your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does.
~And no one will care what your beliefs are if they don't believe you care.  And they will not believe that you care unless you show them that you do. 

I know that it is good to be right, but better to be kind.
~No one will care that you are right, if you are not kind.  I often say to my children, Was that necessary to correct?  If it wasn't, then don't. 

I know that comparison is the thief of joy.
~You can't be happy with what you have, if you are too busy being unhappy with what you don't have.

I know that gratitude turns what we have into enough. 

'It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.' ~David Steindl-Rast

~Gratitude is key.  It gives us perspective.

I know that perspective makes all the difference.
~How small are we compared to the vastness of the world.  It is only when we are able to see past ourselves, that we are truly able to see. 

I know that you should never judge someone, because it doesn't define them, it defines you.
~You might be right.  They might be right too.  Sometimes different is not right or wrong, it is just different.

I know that you should never worry about the opinions of those who have no importance in your life.
~You are the only one that is responsible for the choices you make.  Make the one you think is right and don't worry if someone who is not important to you thinks differently about it.

I know that you can never be perfect, but you are never closer to perfection than when you are trying.
'Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better.' ~Maya Angelou
~And forgive yourself for not doing better before you knew better.

I know that you never fail until you quit trying.
~Never give up.  Stay the course.  There may be times that you will need to reevaluate, maybe reroute, but never stop.  Never give up.

No laughing matter!

I know it seems like it should be easy not to laugh at your kid when they are upset, but it isn't always.  Sometimes it is really hard.

My shy child was in Math Olympiads one year.  He really loved it, but a few weeks into the program he came home crying.
"I can't be in Math Olympiads anymore."
What?  Why?  I finally coaxed the following explanation from him...
"I farted in class and everyone laughed."
Oh, honey... No one will even remember by next week.
(Insert story about a parent's embarrassing public fart to make him feel better.)
"But the teacher told me if I farted again, I couldn't come back."
Okay, no way is that the whole story...  Tell me 'exactly' what happened.
"I accidentally farted in class and it was really loud and everyone couldn't stop laughing.  The teacher was trying to get everyone to pay attention again, so she told me that if I had to fart again, I had to leave."
Honey, I think the teacher (who had a heavy French accent) was trying to say, If you need to fart again, step out of the classroom for a moment so as not to cause a disruption.  And then come back in.

I really felt bad that he was so upset, so I really tried hard not to laugh.
But it was REALLY hard.

Spring Fling

Of all the holidays, Easter is the one that I have the most fun with.  We take our kids to a community egg hunt or two where it is a free for all.  Plastic eggs filled with sweets are just lying on the ground.  When they get the signal, the kids run around grabbing as many eggs as they can before another kid does.  There are tons of kids at these events, getting tons of candy and tons of happy.

Then we have an egg hunt at home that is just for our family.  We hide our eggs and vary the difficulty by age.  Each kid has two colors assigned to them and they can only collect eggs with their colors.  Each kid also has the same number of eggs to hunt so all is fair and square.  …except for the golden egg with cold hard cash in it.  There is only one of those, and finders keepers.

Since the kids have already gotten more sugar than I would ever wish for them to have at the free hunts, our family hunt is a sugar-free event.  Instead of sweets, I fill the eggs with little toys and trinkets I have picked especially for them.  I enjoy the challenge of shopping for fun things to put in their eggs.  I try to be as creative as possible for as cheap as possible.

Last year while shopping, I spotted some ceramic eggs.  They were pots that were pre-packaged with dirt and seeds, just add water.  Oooh, they were so cute!  And I was so tempted!  But $3 per egg filling is my limit and these were $5 and change.  It gave me the idea to use seed packets as an egg-filler though.  Those are under $1.  I picked out the perfect one for each kid; cucumber seeds for Ethan, sugar snap pea seeds for Daniel and wild flower seeds for Asha.

As expected, the kids were super excited when they found seed packets in one of their eggs.  They wanted to plant them immediately.  I told them to wait and finish up what we were doing and then we would head out to the back yard to plant them.

Asha did not hear this because she had already ripped open her packet and, in a flash, was twirling around in the middle of our front yard, squealing with delight, as she flung the seeds across our lawn.  I looked at her in stunned silence, my mouth agape, as she excitedly asked, "When do you think they'll bloom?"

The Persuit of Perfection

If I'm honest about it, New Year's Day is always hard for me.
I've never been able to make New Year's resolutions because I am a perfectionist.  I don't hold others to an impossible standard, but in myself, I have trouble not seeing anything less than perfection as failure.  I don't make resolutions because you don't set a goal to be so-so, and I already know that I could never live up to any goal I would set, so why set myself up for failure?  Add to this the fact that taking stock of where I could improve is in essence taking stock of where I have failed.  Ouch.

I don't know that I will ever make resolutions, but this year I have decided to make a few goals.  I have decided to set them while keeping this quote in mind:

You have not failed until you quit trying. ~Gordon B. Hinckley

Because you can never be perfect, but you are never closer to perfect than when you are trying.

Happy New Year 2014!

I would be a much better parent if...

...it weren't for my children.

It is much easier to know how other parents should parent. And it was much easier to imagine how I would parent before I had my children.  Before having children, it was easy to imagine the perfect scenario: This is what I will do, and consequently, this is what they will do. And then I actually had children. As it turns out, you may or may not do what you imagined based on what you and your children are actually capable of doing. You are busier than in your perfect scenario. You are way more tired than in your plan, your kids more active and less compliant than the ones you parented in your head. And consequently, they may or may not do what you imagined either.

There is a LOT of parenting advice out there; books, articles, seminars. I have found that people are very fond of giving unsolicited parenting advice too. But often the advice they give uses their family as a base line, and doesn't leave room for variation. This can make the person receiving the advice feel like they are doing something wrong if their experience doesn't measure up. Or make them feel superior if they think their experience is better. But let me suggest that maybe it's not better...or worse. Just different.

In general, people are all the same. But individually, they are all... well... individual. And individuals are what make up a family. And that makes each family individual as well. There are parents (mom and/or dad) who have different personalities, capabilities, responsibilities, etc. Then there are kids with different personalities, capabilities, activity levels, etc. Consider how the combination of all those different qualities makes each family unique, or... individual.

My brother's daughter was one who would announce that she was tired, go to her bed and sleep. My daughter views going to sleep as just shy of torture. The more tired she is, the more tortured she feels when I tell her it's bedtime and a 'take-no-prisoners' bedtime battle ensues. Both of our daughters go to sleep, but how they get there is a very different experience. So if my brother were to give me advice on bedtime based on his family make up, I would fall short of living up to his experience. He obviously does a better job than me, right? Sure, I could improve my daughter's bedtime experience. But there is nothing I could do to change her into a person who says "I'm tired so I'm going to put myself to bed." instead of one who says "I shall never surrender!"  In this case, it is not the parenting skill that is the difference, but the personality of the child that is.

I'd like to give some unsolicited parenting advice here. My parenting advice is this: Take it all! Listen to all the parenting advice... and then sort it out. Is there anything in that advice that you can apply to improve your parenting?  Use it! Then set aside anything that does not apply to your family and leave it for the family that it does apply to. Don't let it make you feel superior if your parenting surpasses it. You may have more capabilities and/or easier children. On the flip side, do not let it sit on your shoulders as guilt, thinking that your parenting does not measure up. You can only do what you can do. So if you can do better, do it! If you can't do better, then you may already be doing your best parenting. Your kids are blessed to have a parent who is doing their best. Just let parenting advice be what it is. Advice.

I do see you.

My daughter earned a dollar the other day.
She was very excited to go to Walmart with me to see what it would buy.

It bought...
a notepad and pen set.

After we got home, she wrote as many notes as she could think to write,
and then tore them all off and put them in here.

Once or twice a day she brings it to me and tells me to
close my eyes and pick one.

This is what I have picked so far...

The last one is by far my favorite.

I do see you too, honey...
and I love what I see.

Pennies for Peace

Taking my three VERY energetic children to Wal-Mart (or any mart for that matter) is a challenge.  By the end of this challenge, I am always ready to throw in the towel.  I have already been through all the challenge hurdles:

Please stop climbing on the cart.
No, I will not buy that for you.
Please put that back.
Please stop running.
Please don't touch that.
Stay on this isle so that I can see you.
I cannot push with you hanging on the cart.
Please come back over here, you are in that person's way.

Multiply that by three kids, then multiply again by every minute we are in the mart, and by the time I reach the checkout lane I am done.  D-O-N-E.

Except I'm not.  I'm not done.  I still have to check out.  I still have to unload the cart onto the conveyer belt, swipe the card, push yes, then no, sign on the line, and get all the sacks into the cart while simultaneously telling each of the three kids:

Please stop climbing on the cart.
No, I will not buy you gum.
I will not buy you toys either.
Please get off that.  You will break it and/or get hurt.
Please stop hooking and unhooking the belt that closes the lane.
The cart will tip over if you hang on it while it's empty.
Please stop twirling the sack turn-table.
Please come back over here, you are in that person's way.

I'm not calling my kids straw or me a camel, but it's enough to threaten what little is left of my patience and tip me over the edge.  In those last few moments when the finish line is so close and I feel closer and closer to the end (the end of my sanity that is), I dig out every penny that I can find in my purse and buy myself just enough time to make it.

I hand over the fistful of pennies to my oldest and send all three kids a few steps away to support the Children's Miracle Network.  Their focus on this kind deed is very short lived (depending on how many pennies I had), but it is just enough time for me to cross the finish line in peace.

Pennies may not buy much these days, but they buy enough for me.

Kidipedia Addendum 1

Addendum 1 to Kidipedia

Kidipedia   noun   kid·i·pe·dia
: a reference listing alphabetically the words and phrases of one language (the one my children speak) and showing their meanings or translations in another language (English).

bemember   verb   be·mem·ber
: to recall to the mind by an act or effort of memory    [I bemember when we lived in Korea.]

fighter-fighter   noun   fight·er·fight·er
: one who fights fires

karating   verb   ka·ra·ting
: to make quick or repeated hand strikes and kicks as if employing the Japanese art of self-defense

keyweed   noun   key·weed
: the edible fruit of a Chinese vine having a fuzzy brown skin and slightly tart green flesh

leprecan   noun   lep·re·can
: the smooth thin-shelled nut of the pecan tree   [Look how many leprecans fell from our tree!]

literal   adjective   lit·er·al
: of a size that is less than   [Yours is literal than mine.]

saustrage   noun   saus·trage
: a very large bird that runs very quickly but cannot fly   [Can we go see the saustrages at the zoo?]

tomorning   noun   to·morn·ing
: the time from sunrise to noon of the day after today   [I want donuts for breakfast tomorning!]

worldworm   noun   world·worm
: a long slender worm that lives in damp earth

Stranger Danger

"There are no such things as strangers, only friends we haven't met yet."  ~Unknown

My quite gregarious daughter struggles with the definition of a 'stranger.'  I was asked by a teacher once if Asha would go with a stranger if they had a puppy.  I laughed.  A stranger would not need a puppy, they would simply need to say, "Hi."  We've gone over it with her often, but it is often quite clear that she does not understand the parameters.

She came home from Kindergarten one day last year in Korea and began to tell me about the 'Stranger Danger' lesson that had been taught in class.  She told me all about how strangers don't always look like bad guys, that you should never take gifts or rides from a stranger, and that you should tell your parents or teacher if a stranger tries to talk to you.
I was elated!  Finally!  She gets it!

...or maybe not...

Two days later she was shopping with me outside the Osan Air Base gate.  I was standing just inside a shop door and she was a foot away from me on the outside of the open door.  While I was speaking with the shop owner, my daughter says to me, "Mom, I'm going to go say 'Hi' to this man."  She's pointing to someone just out of my view and turning to go.  "No, Honey."  She protests, "But he wants me to come over there."  I quickly grab her shoulder and turn her to face me.  "Honey, you don't talk to strangers without mom, right?"  She looks at me completely bewildered.  "But Mom, he's not a stranger!  Look!  He's smiling!"

Perfect.

The very scruffy looking old man with missing teeth sitting in the alley is not a stranger because he is smiling at her.

Recently, my daughter learned our phone number.  I was delighted because this could help her if she ever got lost.  She was delighted because she could tell her friends so they could call her.  I was not delighted to discover that she defines 'friends' as the two boys she just met at a McDonald's playground.

Oh, and on the way home from school today, she informed me that her "best song" (favorite song) is the Maybe song.  You know,

♫ Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy,
But here's my number, So call me, maybe? ♬

Perfect.

Shopping at my own garage sale

Reposted blog entry from May 2, 2008

I love garage sales. I have scored some major finds like a playhouse that retails for $500 -I got it for $40. And this toddler car bed that retails for $200. I got it for $1. (not a typo!) I've also gotten a barley used trampoline with enclosure, two park benches, a desk, 3 motorized Fisher Price ride in cars ($5 each!) and various other big items for cheap, cheap, cheap. My latest find, was a 5 piece all-wood bedroom set for Asha. We are getting it painted, but it was in otherwise perfect condition. $250 score!


(There's also a hutch, a desk and a long dresser)

But I will confess that I have a problem. No, its not spending money. I usually spend less than $5 on any given day of garage sale-ing and many times come back without having spent any money. My problem is that I'm a hoarder. Which is kinda of ironic since I'm also a bit of a minimalist. I told a friend once that I was having a garage sale and she laughed and said, "What are you going to sell? You don't have anything!" Not true. Even though my house is so empty that I can often hear an echo when I talk in the living room (I'm really not kidding about the echo), my garage is packed with stuff I don't need/want/use.

I blame my parent's for my problem, so lets start there. My dad used to work at a retirement home and whenever there was a funeral, the family would sift through their stuff and toss all the junk. My dad would then sift through the junk and bring his finds home. While my mom hated that my dad brought all this stuff home, she couldn't bear to throw any of it away. So growing up we just moved all of these things that we didn't need/want/use from spot to spot.

Back to my problem...all the stuff that I don't need/want/use any more I can't bear to throw out either. Here's how it goes through my rationale: if I want something like it in the future, then I will have saved money by keeping the one that I had, right? And even though I don't want it, it is perfectly good, so someone else might want it, right? And if they do, they might even pay me money for it! So I store it all in random boxes in the garage for a garage sale that I might get around to one day.

Believe it or not, my "one" day is actually coming this Saturday. I decided to break down and force myself to have the sale to get rid of stuff that I don't want to cart to Hawaii. But as I am picking through boxes marked Garage Sale, I found myself taking things back out! At first it was just innocent, like a few toddler boy clothes that had put in before I knew we were having another boy. But then it started to get ridiculous. I've got a huge box of sweaters from North Dakota that I haven't worn since moving back to California -and will of course not need for another 3 years in Hawaii -and I know they will be sorely out of style after that. But then I think to myself, no one is going to buy these here in semi-sunny California...so I take them out of the sale pile. But there's nothing wrong with them so I can't bear to put them in the trash either. So there they still sit in my garage. Ahh! I was so disgusted with myself that I just closed the garage and came back into the house to see if I could muster up the courage to toss them in an hour or so. I had a whole pile already designated for the sale tomorrow but it seems to be getting smaller.

Now I know a lot of people who have garage sales complain about early bird shoppers who stop by hours before the sale is set to start, but its kinda sad to be the early bird shopper at your own garage sale.

The Long Road to Paradise

(The Air Force stationed our family in Hawaii from the middle of 2008 to the middle of 2011.)

Reposted blog entry from Sept 4, 2008

Now that we're here, we are never leaving. I don't say this because Hawaii is considered to be a paradise, but because of the 8 hour plane ride it took to get here.

A road trip is my idea of fun. Strap the kiddos in and there's no more need to chase them, separate them, or clean up after them (at least until the end of the trip :). They make a lot of noise in such an enclosed space, but since I don't mind and no one else can hear them, its not a problem. The best trips even end up like this...



A plane trip, however, is not my idea of fun and I don't relish the thought of doing it again any time soon. The kids are still in an enclosed space but now its with lots of other people who DO mind their noise. They only have to stay strapped in until we're flying high and I spent the whole trip cleaning up after them. We also don't get to stop every so often to stretch and get out excess energy. The kids didn't misbehave and we even got comments at the end of the trip from fellow travelers telling us how well they did on the plane, but we had to spend the entire trip actively trying to make that happen and that is very tiring. Jet lag was not fun either. my husband and I only took a couple of days to adjust, but Asha took a whole week and Daniel took two weeks! Ugh!

But we are here and it is beautiful. It has been sprinkling on and off for the last week or so and we have seen so many beautiful rainbows. We happened upon the famous beach in Honolulu just as this rainbow was over it. The photo does not do it justice. We could almost see the end of it on either side.


I think I'm going to like it here :)

Conversations with Asha

Asha: Are you going to tell them I'm your son?

Me: You're not my son.

Asha: (Looks at me very confused.)

Me:  You're not my son, you're my... (Pausing for her to fill in with....)

Asha:  Honey?

Me:  (Smiling)  Well, yes, but...  (Let's try this another way.) Boys are sons and girls are...

Asha: Honeys!  (What?  No!)

Ethan:  Sisters!!

Me:  No, she's your sister but she's my...  (Looking at Asha and pausing for her to say...)

Asha:  Brother.

Me:  (Staring at her blankly for a moment... )

Asha: Husband?

Me: uh... (Really?)

Asha: Honey!

(It is now that I realize just  how much I call her that.)

Merry Christmas!

Family Pictures Christmas Eve 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Things I can't remember

My friends might expect the top of my list to be getting groceries, but that isn't something I forget, it's just something that I don't get around to, which is a different problem altogether.
The top of my list does involve the grocery store though.

Top Ten Things I can't remember:

1. Most of the things my husband asked me to get at the grocery store.

• So sad, and so very true.  This would not be a problem if I could remember to write them down.

2. To write things down.

• If I don't write things down, I forget to do them.  Which is a catch-22 since I also forget to write them down.

3. Where I put my keys.

• This would be a bigger problem if I wrote things down and then got around to going to do them.

4. To charge my cell phone.

• My phone is always almost out of battery when I go out.  But since I can't find my keys and didn't write anything down, I don't need to go anywhere anyway.

5. My phone number.

• I doesn't really matter that my phone is always almost out of battery, because I can't remember my phone number so no one can call me anyway.

6. To move the clothes to the dryer.

• This is only a problem when I write stuff down and find my keys therefore having somewhere to wear the clothes.

7. How old I am.

• The older I get, the less of a problem this is.

8. My youngest child's birthdate.

• The older he gets, the less of a problem this is because he can remind me.

9. To take the trash to the curb.

• I can never remember that it is trash day until I hear the garbage truck driving away.  I should set an alarm for it on my phone.  When it gets done charging, of course.

Ethan’s name

Reposted blog entry from July 31, 2008

With my husband being gone the for most of this entire pregnancy, we didn't have much time to talk over baby names. Not that it would have mattered, Daniel didn't get his name until after he was born either. Both times we have known the gender since week 16. But even though Ethan was not named until several hours after he was born, his name was not pulled from a hat. He was named on purpose.

Ethan Raj means "Strong King". But the purpose of his name is because of who he is named after. We knew all along that our baby's middle name would be 'Raj' after his father. In the end we also thought it would be fitting that his first name would be Ethan.

You see, in the old testament, Ethan was a Levite assigned to be one of David's music leaders. He is the author of Psalm 89 which declares, "I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations." So we thought it was appropriate that the son of a worship leader would be named after a worship leader in the Bible.

(On a side note, when telling of how wise Solomon was, it is said that "He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan" -that means Ethan was well known for being wise too.)

Click on the image below to see the announcement for Ethan Raj.

Conversations with Ethan

Mom, can you buy me this?
    ~No.

When can you buy it for me?
    ~I'm not buying it for you.

No, when can you buy it for me?
    ~I am not ever buying it for you.

Can you buy it for me the other day?
    ~No!

Then when can you?
    ~No, not ever, no.  Which part are you not getting?

What is it?

There are questions and appointments.  There is waiting.  There are phone calls and paperwork.  There are referrals, and more appointments.  And more waiting.  There are symptoms or causes that may or may not be one or the other.  There are nurses, and doctors, and specialists.  Then there is waiting.  There are timelines and deadlines and stress. And lots of waiting. And lots of time to wonder, is it this?  If so then what?  What if it isn't?  What next?  There really is no point in those questions until we know, but until we know, all we have is questions.  The biggest question is when.  It's not waiting that I struggle with.  It's the not knowing.  And especially the not knowing when.

I should have known better

Reposted blog entry from Jun 7, 2008

I'm a white girl. A very white girl. (except when I stand in the sun for 10 minutes, then I'm red) I know this and yet still...!

Ok, let me back up. My husband's Weapons School graduation is on Saturday. Its a very fancy, formal affair and everyone will be dressed to the hilt (not a "slightly dressier than Sunday" occasion). So I had to find a formal gown that would fit over my baby belly and make a cute bump rather than a whale bump. As difficult as it was, I did manage to find the perfect dress (well, it will be perfect after quite expensive alterations to accommodate said belly). Its very sleek -almost slimming- and though not strapless, it is fairly backless.

So why did it not occur to me that sitting in the sun in a square neckline for 45 minutes the day after I bought this backless dress might not be a good idea? I don't know, but the bright red square that extends a third of the way down my back might as well be a huge sign that reads "moron".

Weapons School Graduation
8 months pregnant with Ethan

Embarrassing moment #3612

Reposted blog entry from Feb 8, 2010

When I see tourists taking pictures of each other, I like to offer to take a picture for them so they can both get in the shot. I've never had anyone turn me down and so far this has been a positive experience. Today, however, it was not.

We were visiting the Dole Pineapple Plantation with my sister-in-law and an older Japanese couple was taking turns posing in front of the pineapple plants. I offered to get a shot of the two of them and they were very pleased. The wife handed over the camera and went to stand by her husband. The problem was she hadn't taken the strap off of her hand. So when she moved toward her husband the camera pulled out of my hand, fell off hers, and smashed to the ground. I quickly picked it up and put the battery pack back in. While closing the battery compartment, I see the big chunk missing out of the battery flap. Oh, no... I handed it over feeling horrible. The sweet couple turn the camera on, hand it back to me and pose again. Nothin' doin'. I can't read it cause its in Japanese, but the picture says it all. The camera will not work because it thinks the battery compartment is still open. I tried to fidget with it to get it to recognize that it was in fact closed, but it wouldn't. They tried turning it off and on and handing it back to me, but no such luck. The camera just kept swearing at me in Japanese. At least that is what it looked like to me. I feel even worse than horrible now.

I had to leave with them staring blankly at the camera screen and all I can think to myself is that I just ruined someone's Hawaiian vacation. I was just trying to be nice but from now on I'll pretend to look right through the tourist like everyone else. Maybe even learn a few Japanese swear words to use while pointing at the camera if anyone does ever dare to ask.

残念に思う。あなたの良い自分用です。