Thursday

Re: Thursday

• Casadena member

  

  July 24

  I have been in a MOOD this week. Not sure if it's a side effect of the muscle relaxers but yikes. I've just been crabby and scowly and pretty impatient which i feel horrible about. Had a fun chat with the boys last night at bedtime though, which i love. I despise telling stories, so after books i've started "question time". They ask the sweetest most random stuff and it spurs some good discussion  
  
  H is home super late tonight and i have to pack G for staying with my parents this weekend! Need to plan a couple things that we can do with N while he's got us alone for a couple days!
  

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• CharmedPam member

  

  July 24

  Never heard of wondery, let me know how it is @VarunaTT.  I only really listen to morbid but I should span to my “trivia” podcasts and I do like dumb blonde and smartless, I just never get around to them because I have 5 years of morbid to catch up on! I’m only into late 2021. 

  
  

  Is $2,500 a good price for an 8 day (3 city) Japan trip? My friend called me and said Gate1 had a sale going on till Friday. This includes: hotels, tours, some meals (not all - I didn’t look at how many were included) and a transfer from Tokyo airport to the first hotel.  Now, their trip has a flight going from a Japanese city that’s not direct and takes about 23 hours to get back home to. So I excluded the flights and said it may make more sense to take a bullet train back to Tokyo and do a round trip that way. That flight is 11-12 hours instead of 23. But a lot of planning. 

  Flights for Nov in 2025 are about $1,300. Who knows what they’d be next year?
  
  i don’t know. We’re talking upwards $3,800. We first made plans to go in the spring for the cherry blossoms which sound amazing, but that’s even higher so she looked at Thanksgiving 2026 (when it’s cheaper to travel) and I still think $3,800 is a lot! WITH a shared hotel room too.
  
  Anyone ever been to Japan and can tell me it’s worth it? It’s not looking worth it to me…

  
  

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• banana468 member

  

  July 24

  DH had endocrine and cortisol bloodwork today after he laid his symptoms out for his doc.  He is NOT someone who gets overly emotional most of the time and he's cried so much in the last few months.  I'm hoping his doc is onto something.
  
  Chiquita had a week of soccer practice and tonight has a summer game.  I'm excited to see it!  

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• charlotte989875 member

  

  July 24

  It’s my birthday! Big 4-0. 

  
  

  At work, but taking off early. Should have taken PTO but since I was off last week I didn’t. Wishing I was napping instead of doing stupid work. But I’m going to get a cookie from the good coffee place across the street for lunch! 

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• banana468 member

  

  July 24

  Happy birthday @charlotte989875!!

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• VarunaTT member

  

  July 24 edited July 24

  @CharmedPam I have not been, but it's on my bucket list.  I think that's an incredible price for an 8 day trip.  That's $312 approx per day for preplanning some of the things that are the biggest PITA to me but must haves (the hotels, transfers).  I also like the idea of taking the bullet train and experiencing Tokyo too.  I want to go to hit up the Studio Ghibli park and then just experience Japan.
  
  ETA:  So far Wondery seems basically like Apple's podcast interface.  It has the podcasts grouped into similar types, producing company, etc., so things are a bit easier to find.  I seem to respond mostly to those that are investigative journalism more than anything.  I haven't really found a "talk show" type one that I listen to regularly, though I'll find specific subjects/episodes that I'll enjoy.  And I just don't connect with the storytelling ones.  I've tried so many different ones and it's just not my thing.  I think it harkens back to not enjoying being read out loud to.

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• CharmedPam member

  

  July 24

  Happy Birthday @charlotte989875! 

  Ugh, I’m frustrated for your H, @banana468, hope answers come soon
  
  @VarunaTT, yes, Japan will be awesome. I just asked her if we can do spring of 2027 though - because I really want to see those cherry blossoms and I’ll have an extra year to save. It’s just a couple hundred more for the next year

  
  

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• ILoveBeachMusic member

  

  July 24

  Happy Birthday @charlotte989875! 
  
  I have book club this afternoon. It is a pool party at one of the gal's houses. The book was The Music of Bees. I liked it and I'm sure we will have some discussion while floating! It is hot and humid here. I hope it cools a little for when the grandboys are here next week.
  
  We have friends arriving this afternoon for Nascar weekend. I've been cleaning and getting the house ready for that. 
  
  My hip and leg are slowly feeling better. I'm still not at 100%. I have a follow up with the PA on Monday to discuss where I am and what next steps may be. We are going to France in October which will require walking and standing. I want to be back to normal by then! 

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• VarunaTT member

  

  July 24

  Happy birthday, @charlotte989875
  
  

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• MNNEBride member

  

  July 24

  Happy Birthday @charlotte989875!
  
  

  

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• MyNameIsNot member

  

  July 24

  Happy birthday @charlotte989875!!
  
  @CharmedPam - I haven't been to Japan, but I've always wanted to. That sounds like a good price for 8 days, especially if it includes some meals and activities. Everything in Japan is expensive. Totally random, last night H found a bottle of Japanese whiskey that his cousin brought him (she lives there). It's super smoky, like mezcal. 
  
  Nothing much going on here. I'm going backpacking with my sister this weekend and trying to get my shit together. I'm hoping it won't be so ridiculously hot. It's dropped down below 90 the last few days and we'll be in some altitude, so there's a shot. Or it could be thunderstorms and I could get struck by lightening. So we'll see. 

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• short+sassy member

  

  July 24

  @charlotte989875, Happy Birthday!
  
  @banana468, I hope the medical issue is finally found and it's nothing serious, as well as treatable/easy to treat.
  
  @CharmedPam, I haven't personally been to Japan, but previously worked at a company where a number of my coworkers went for 4-6 week assignments.
  
  When the project started, they had to go to Yokosuka, Japan and Rota, Spain about once a year each.  They were all really looking forward to seeing Japan and more "meh" about Spain.  But their experiences were the opposite.
  
  They LOVED Rota and where "meh" about Yokosuka.  They said the sushi was the best ever but, other than that, it felt and looked like any other big city.  In a nutshell, it wasn't the unique experience they were expecting.  Most of them also stayed in Tokyo for a few days before or after a trip to check it out also.  They said the same thing about it.  They also complained about how tiny the hotel rooms were.
  
  Yokosuka was HIGH COL and I assume Tokyo is even worse.  The food and hotels are expensive.  The hotel per diem at the time was $123/night and that was 20+ years ago.
  
  --------------------
  
  Now my "GTFO" story about one of my coworkers who bold-faced lied to me about his upcoming Japan trip.  He was a tall guy and I know you're also tall, @CharmedPam so it might be pertinent to you.
  
  One of my responsibilities was processing expense reports.  He (Smith, fake name) gave me a heads up ahead of time, that he couldn't find a hotel within the US government per diem rates.  His rate was about $10/night over.  This didn't make any sense.  I asked him a number of questions about it.  I also let him know we would need to get the client's...that would be no less than the US effing Navy...approval.  And they would require a mountain of red tape and extensive documentation that multiple hotels did not offer a per diem rate for most of the six weeks he was going to be there.  A big festival for a few days is understandable.  But I knew weeks worth was a lie.  Oh no, he still stuck to that lie.
  
  I was about to tackle this daunting process, when I suddenly had a better idea.  I called the hotel he was staying at, which was the same one our people almost always used.  "Why yes, Ms. Short+Sassy.  We do have per diem rate rooms available for the entirety of Mr. Smith's stay.  But that's for our standard room.  Mr. Smith booked a standard room plus (whatever it was called)."
  
  I e-mailed Smith with the "good" news!  He just needed to switch his reservation to a regular standard room which was at per diem.  The hotel would do this at no cost.
  
  Now the real truth came out.  He didn't like the standard rooms.  They were too small and the bed wasn't long enough because he was 6'1".   I expressed my sympathies, but the Navy wasn't going to approve the overage for that reason.  This guy previously served in the military, he knows that (eyeroll).  But if he wanted to keep that room, we would absolutely still reimburse the full per diem rate and he would only need to cover the overage.  Nope!  He didn't want to that.  I knew this guy's salary.  I'd be shocked if he couldn't have comfortably afforded the extra $450 if it had really been THAT important to him.

  

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• CharmedPam member

  

  July 24

  Oh that’s a great tip @short+sassy! I think when I see the beds, I’ll just laugh it off. I think it’s just something I have to come up against when traveling. And ugh to sushi! I didn’t even think of that being a main dish there. I don’t like sushi or seafood.
  And I will be seeing those beds! We agreed on Spring of 2027 to help save more but also help spread PTO days around. 

  
  

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• levioosa member

  

  July 24

  Happy birthday @charlotte989875!!!
  
  I think that's a decent price to go to Japan @charmedpam. 
  
  I did Pilates yesterday and I liked it! I'm really toying with signing up. It's $99 monthly for unlimited classes at one gym and $120 for unlimited classes at all of the gyms so not cheap, but actually super reasonable as far as Pilates goes. My calves are really sore today and they're never sore. I'm just torn because money is pretty tight right now and that's for sure an extra expense I don't need. The girl math part of me is thinking "well you're canceling the pet insurance, so it's not like you're spending mooore money." 
  
  Otherwise, SSDD. I booked a conference (down in your old neck of the woods! @short+sassy) in September and am pretty excited about a little trip. Vegas will be fun but this will be a couples trip after my conference is over and the area is super beautiful. 

  
  

  
  

  

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• short+sassy member

  

  July 24

  CharmedPam said:

  Oh that’s a great tip @short+sassy! I think when I see the beds, I’ll just laugh it off. I think it’s just something I have to come up against when traveling. And ugh to sushi! I didn’t even think of that being a main dish there. I don’t like sushi or seafood.
  And I will be seeing those beds! We agreed on Spring of 2027 to help save more but also help spread PTO days around. 

  I'm glad you all opted for that.  Seeing the cherry blossoms in Japan is on my bucket list.
  
  I had another coworker at a different company who was from Japan.  Unfortunately, he was only on a temporary work visa.  The day came when it was time for him to head back home, but I think he got a tourist visa to stay in the US longer.
  
  He used that time to go on a driving tour of the US for an entire month!  His final US destination was going to be Seattle, where our company headquarters were.  I think he had a few days of final stuff to do, but nothing time critical.
  
  He left NOLA and went in the opposite direction first.  Originally, he was going to hit Washington DC because their cherry blossoms were going to be in bloom. 
  
  But by the time he made it down to the Keys, plus stopping other places along the way, he reevaluated how large this country is, lol.  He cut visiting the northern part of the East Coast.  But had many other adventures as he traversed across the US.  He loved it.
  
  The best part for us was he would send a nightly email almost every day to the NOLA office, telling us about what he had done that day and included pictures.  It was fun to live a little vicariously through him and those e-mails were the highlight of everyone's morning!   

  

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• ei34 member

  

  July 28

  Happy belated birthday @charlotte989875! Hope that you had a celebratory last few days! (Or at least the boys slept and ate well and no illnesses.)

  
  

  That sounds like an awesome price for 8 days in Japan @CharmedPam. If you could make it work, I think Spring 2027 cherry blossoms sound incredible. Years ago, in our happier days, ExH and I used to go down to the DC cherry blossom festival each April, it was absolutely incredible, and of course I always heard that it didn’t hold a candle to Japan’s.  Whether spring 27 or winter 26- how exciting! 

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