I used the bathroom after 5:00, then went back to bed. But I was fully awake and I knew it. My heart rate had been steadily increasing since last week and I wasn't too keen on that. But I’m sure I knew why. I started my devotions after 6:00 and got that reminder that God is wonderful but we should not make any mistakes to think that He will share His glory with anyone. “Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” Isaiah 44:6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.44.6.KJV. After my devotions, I did some back stretches as I could feel my back and neck becoming tight again. Following that, I made sure to have my shower even before making my smoothie. I thought it was important to get those nutrients in and not the bread and cabbage I had planned before. Once my smoothie was ready, I put on most of my work clothes, including pants this time and sat by my work computer. It seemed as though I had a lot of time and so I spent some of it deleting the duplicated imports on WordPress. Seems I overdid it and deleted some unrecorded April posts. At almost 9:30 this morning, I packed the cooler box with mostly frozen items. I was tempted to wait until 9:45 but that would be cutting it too close. I took everything out of the fridge and packed them in another bag. And then I got a great idea. The fridge was now empty and there was enough space for the whole bag once I reorganized a shelf. And so I did just that. So the cool items stayed in the fridge until I was leaving my apartment.
I was off the computer at 11:44 and through the door by 11:50. It was no joke with my backpack, cooler box and another heavy bag in my hand. I got the 12:04 bus and managed to toss the two loose bags in the corner seat before settling down with my backpack, trying to calmly get it off my back without any disruptions in the bus. Things went well and I had enough time to walk to the station, charge my pass and wait another 4 minutes for the train. I had another 20 minutes to get to my second job. Thankfully it was lunchtime when I got there. And guess what I had for lunch? Yup. Yesterday’s order that I received while I was over my friends apartment. Unfortunately, there was no microwave there and I had to eat the food cold. It was still quite delicious. I spent too much time exchanging pleasantries and by the time I started eating, my direct supervisor came. He’s pretty cool though and I could continue eating, while catching up with him. We always have a good time catching up. I had two classes of elderly retired women who seemed to enjoy my class. And then there was a break which I used to finish my lunch. For some reason, like mi lik mi head, I had put the food into the fridge. So it was so much colder than at the beginning. Oh Stace. I had another student and then a much longer break. I felt really tired, but for some reason I wanted to explore the area a little.
After looking at Google map, I turned left from my office and walked toward the green area. I was entranced by the architecture of the nearby university. To get a better view, I decided to go up the bridge nearby. I realized that I was afraid of heights. I clearly haven’t had enough exposure to heights. But I braved the climbed. It was so beautiful and the angle perfectly lit by the sun. I found myself walking through a cemetery. It was like a sea of death. Cemeteries are all so huge in Japan compared to what I’m used to seeing in Jamaica. I wasn’t seeing any green area as the map was showing and so I started to make my way back. When I returned to work from my mini walking tour, I still had an hour and a half to go, but my sinuses had been aggravated. I suspected it might have been from walking through areas filled with marble dust. That was my conclusion because that’s when it started getting unbearable. I walked past many marble memorial stones, if that’s what they are called. I noticed that most of the shops surrounding the cemetery sold products specifically for it. The marble stones, things to clean them and flowers to leave on days of visitation by families. My next class started at 19:15. I was finally finished and so happy the last student had cancelled. I was feeling so tired though, but I couldn’t sleep during that two hour break. Crazy right? I know. Originally, my friend was supposed to pick me up from work and I thought since they’d wanted to leave earlier, that would have made more sense. Instead, I found myself with my heavy bags traveling to their apartment. I didn’t ask for any reason for the change, even though I was trying to make sense of it. I was tired and I didn’t have the strength to fish for information. Turns out they wanted to catch the toll road from a certain section. At least that is what I deduced from it. I’m hoping to have a good camping experience after all the setbacks endured for this one. As I walked towards the parking lot of their apartment, I noticed some flashers. When I entered, I saw they were already by the vehicle navigating it out the parking lot. That was a welcomed sign as my arms were about to fall off. They said they were coming to meet me at the station.
We set off for our destination and got there in less than an hour because we took the toll route. Once we got to the area by the river we had the task of offloading the vehicle and walking down to the river, making several trips, to get everything to the riverside. It was a long night. I spent some time trying to clear the area for my tent and setting it up. This was the second time that I set up this tent, but the first time I would be using it. Initially, I had set up the tent in my apartment room when I had just gotten it. It was my first tent and I was excited to see how it worked. We finished setting up our tents after 23:00. You can imagine we were hungry and so one person made some food for everyone and I really appreciated that. We had beef patties with bread. It was a really long night and when I finally got into my tent, I spent another hour almost arranging inside my tent. I had so many bags and it annoyed me a bit to think that the biggest bags I had seemed so small and insignificant now. I almost wished I had packed a suitcase instead. My friend had suggested bringing things inside the tent to prevent animals from being attracted to our area. Only my cooler box could close completely and it didn’t make sense to leave it out. It was and exhilarating first camp night experience. I got a Coleman sleeping mat to help separate the Slightly rocky area from my sleeping bag while my friends used an air mattress. It was a cosy time, until I started feeling like the princess and the pea. LOL. I went to bed sometime after 1:00. Tired but thrilled.
Thank you for journeying with me on today’s entry. Please support by leaving a comment below or sharing this with someone who might enjoy the journey. Follow my blog at stacypersonallyapeaking.wordpress.com to get posts directly in your inbox. You can also watch me on my YouTube channel Stacy Personally Speaking to see me in person. 22:35