I woke up shirtless and bleeding. Nothing so serious but I was a bit disoriented. It was 11 am, earlier than I’ve become accustomed to waking up on days when I don’t have to work. I used to wake up 8 or 9 when I came back to Japan but this four way combination of work grind, social life, back issues and rich online life makes it a little difficult to sleep before 2 am.
So why was I bleeding. Now I promise you cupping isn’t as dangerous as some will have you believe it is. The only real danger for those without any medical conditions are cupping on some vital vein or artery. That being said, don’t fall asleep with the cups sucking your back, it’ll rip the skin and hurt.
For those who say it doesn’t work haven’t felt the difference between the spots that get purple and the spots that become light red. If it turns purple, try stretching and it’s like your body part has been replaced by a new one. I tend to get really purple at the tips of my shoulder and the top of my arm and it helps my neck mobility in a matter of minutes. Shouldn’t get wet, wind or cold on after that though according to the theory.
After I drank some tea and reoriented myself my mom sent a message looking for someone to talk too.
“I don’t have many people I like and I like you.” Was the first thing she said. Thanks mom.
I realized today how much we have in common. But she was a woman who grew up without the internet and so she found herself reliant on men more than she probably cared to admit until now.
She was also curious about the world and spent time in the Caribbean because it was the only place she could afford and wanted to be able to visit home sometimes. Back then it was only letters.
She always thinks I’m so brave for moving around so freely and smart for being able to adapt. Maybe, but today I realize that she was more impressive than me. “I don’t think I’d still be here if it weren’t for the internet. I don’t know where I’d be but it wouldn’t likely be here.”
We talk so much more openly than we used to. We agree on most political things (finally). She doesn’t get very defensive anymore when I tell her what I think of where she raised me (the snobby suburbs).
I told her I’m here to reprogram the system, not to be a part of it. I’m sorry I scared you when you thought I was running away from it, but I’m back now, as long as I have a means of making changes to the program, you know I couldn’t do that back home.
It took her 10 years but she finally appreciates the direction I took in my life. It feels good. She still doesn’t realize how oppressive she was but I guess that’s ok cause it’s all in the past and I’m over it, even if I still have a few lingering viruses in my OS due to all that. I know she did the best she knew how and she finally seems to know that I know that.
We are also similar in how we see the world, non-linearly, but perhaps because she spent most of her adult life as a housewife, she doesn’t usually have much of a goal for the conversation and so she tends to pull us from topic to topic aimlessly before I can finish saying what I’m saying.
I told her one of the hardest things about talking to Americans (and other English speakers) is that more often than not they don’t let you finish what your saying and talk over you to try and make their point. She didn’t get angry like she used to.
She’s curious about what I follow online and in politics and society now. She’s tired of CNN and that makes me happy.
I say “I criticize CNN first because they are the most respected and because I think a handful of their reporters are actually decent and intelligent people who are just deeply in denial because of all the slime that surrounds them” she agreed.
I told her to check out Joe Rogan, Dave Chappelle (post hiatus) and Andrew Yang and the Hill because I think these all represent a new kind of Got and thinking moderate that is a bit outside of the republican and Democrat paradigm and the socialist capitalist paradigm, same as crypto.
She said she’s impressed with my take on investment, how always keep some cash on the side and try to invest in things that have large potential for gains and small possibility of bust (bitcoin, and Square being my two main investments besides Hive)
We talked for 5 hours til she realized she has to wake up soon. I rolled my eyes because I wanted to go 4 hours ago but she couldn’t stop changing the topic and I wanted to finish what I was saying in every topic and let her finish too. I think I’m going to buy a bell and ring it whenever she is going too far off topic before we say what we want to say.
Now it’s 7 pm and I’m thinking of studying my new Japanese adverbs book for a while. Or possibly getting lost in hive I have a lot of posts at cross culture I need to catch up with but you know how it is. Hope you know I still love you.
That’s what she said!