Yuki's Mother

Day 65 + 66: Saturday + Sunday, May 14 + 15, 2011

Yuki’s mom came and stayed with us for a few days to help them plan for their wedding. The first night she was here I had the worst headache ever from staring at the computer all day. Later I had to go out, but got back home in time to join them for dinner. Hanging out with her and eating unagi (which she brought all the way from Nagoya and must have been expensive) made me feel much better.

After we ate, Ian said that I should show her Talking Barnacles, but I didn’t think she would understand. He kept pushing me, so I finally relented and got out my computer. Yuki, Ian, and I walked her through it from the very beginning… We told her about how crazy it was at our home during the first seven days after the quake; we showed her the photo of Ian and Willy on the shinkansen when we were escaping to her house in Fukuoka; the photo of her husband when we were visiting, Ian’s double chin, me with green hair, her daughter drunk on her birthday, Hayato and our neighbors shot from our window... It was interesting to see our life again with a new pair of eyes; and I think she understood most of it because she laughed at all the right parts.

Breakfast (Apples And Doughnuts)

Yuki’s mother stayed another night after that then left for Fukuoka the next morning. It was nice having a mother around because it changed the dynamic of the household and I think brought my roommates and I back closer again. The funny thing was, like most mothers, she was so hardcore about cleaning up that she would vacuum the entire house in the early morning and do the dishes if we left them in the sink for more than ten minutes, but Ian and I both noticed quickly that she didn’t do a very good job because all the cups were still dirty; and we had to wash them again when she was not around.