Inspiration?? Hello? Are you out there???

OK fine..... according to the comment Aaron just posted about my last blog, I need to stop posting pictures of an extremely gorgeous baby that no one but my family knows. Fine. I get it. Ive just been extremely uninspired lately, as we all have apparently and so I figured posting those pics was better than nothing.

Whatever. Nothing much interesting has happened since we came back from Kobe, which turned out to not be very interesting in itself. However, last night I went to Karuna's house (indian lady i visit every Weds and Thurs) and we had a very interesting discussion about homosexuality. Since shes from a village in southern India, there are a surprising number of things she just hasnt been exposed to but is very curious about. Luckily, she feels comfortable enough around me to be able to ask questions about certain potentially touchy subjects. Weve talked about religion, divorce (couple times), marriage, homosexuality and dating to name a few. Its really interesting to see how she views these subjects and how interested she is in knowing my opinion. Anyway, as one could imagine, she grew up in a pretty conservative society where dating was forbidden and arranged marriage the norm. She had an arranged marriage like everyone else she knew but she wishes things could have been different. She sees many marriages that would benefit from a divorce, but in that society a divorce is rather taboo and only for special cases. In India you can only get divorced for a certain 12 reasons if I remember correctly, not just because you dont love each other anymore. You dont love each other to begin with so this concept is completely foreign. Also, when a couple gets divorced the man is required by law to continue supporting the ex-wife for the rest of either of their lives! Pretty harsh. Its probably because a divorced woman in India is usually severely looked down upon and might not be able to remarry.

Anyway, her views about homosexuality were pretty much well.... non-existant. She had never met anyone who was gay and had never really had any contact with the society. Its also most likely a taboo subject in India so she probably hasnt heard much of anything positive about it. So I gave her my opinions and told her I had many friends who were etc. She seemed very surprised that I had so many gay friends and that I knew so much about the subject.... Anyway, I did my best to show her that being gay is really no different except that you happen to like the same sex and that politically in the states they still dont have as many rights etc. Of course she asked me all the questions one would expect (I guess...) like "why cant they just change or try to be straight?", "do they really like having sex with the same gender?", "why would they chose something like that?", "What? Theres a gay district in Osaka???" etc. And of course, I told her that it wasnt a choice. I said that to them, being with the opposite sex would be as uncomfortable and strange in some cases as straight people being with the same sex. Its not in our genetic make up and therefore doesnt feel... right I guess. I did my best to ease her discomfort about it all and hopefully with another few discussions (there are always a few) she'll relax about it.

I guess the only other thing new thats happened is that on Tuesday I came home all excited to try out the new pilates style aerobic dvd Id ordered off amazon. So as I was doing this routine which is based on squatting a LOT, I realized that despite my excellent toilet-squatting technique that Ive gotten down to an art, that my thighs are WAAAAAAAY out of shape!! Result = Ive been barely able to walk any faster than a hobble in the past 2 days cuz every, I mean EVERY muscle in my upper legs and butt scream at me every time I move a milimeter! Needless to say the longer Im idle, the more it hurts when I decide to move again. Ive never felt so old in my entire life! Not only to I look 90 years old as I hobble down the hallway to my classes but I have to hold the railing as I descend or my legs just might buckle underneath me! But I have to say the absolute torture is having to squat over the squatter toilets here. And if you know me and my miniscule bladder, you know I must endure this torture every hour almost.... if not more often! I guess the only good thing about all this is that, well, I actually did something that should turn out to be productive, AND since the video is so damn hard, I actually have something to work towards!

AH!! I also have now moved on to the intermediate pilates AND Karuna now wants to begin pilates as well!! woohoo! OK iijo desu!

OK Sam... Ive done my part! Now its your turn!