Tag Archives: minneapolis

Happy Birthday to us!

That’s all my husband put on his Facebook status with this photo. Our first child was born on August 22nd, 2013 at 6:40am and with her, my lifestyle, my mentality and my whole surrounding will change, again.

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I live fast, I think fast and I never really stop. When consider my life so far and who I’ve been it seems that I’ve already lived several lives or at least several childhoods and several teens, and several college years, etc. I’ve been the shy, reserved one; the loud, outspoken one; the strange, perverse one; the Jesus freak; the stoner; the wild child; the free-spirt; super green; super cynic; vegetarian; cut-throat. One consistency is that I always wrote. At one point I had 7 journals all for different topics and audiences. I have one journal for my daughter, that is un-edited and un-censored just so I won’t become that “Mom” and I remember what being 16 was for me. It’s my longest journal since I wrote in it for 16 years. So when I took a job in Japan and came to the land of the rising sun, for the third time, I started a blog for family and friends. I wanted to have that connection so that people could keep up without needing to actually keep up. Since I had no idea if I would ever return, I thought that would be the easier way to let go. I named it mpls_tokyo for my home city and my new city. It still exists on livejournal (www.livejournal.com/~mpls_tokyo) and I considered continuing it instead of starting this new one, but the gap of 3 years is intimidating and I don’t want be begin that way. I did like the title though.

When my husband started a live music bar in Tokyo he asked me to write an English blog. I didn’t keep it up. Somehow it wasn’t inspiring to me and I was also working 7 days a week at the bar and keeping my day job; IT recruitment and contract services for International ERP projects and companies with ERP and Cloud needs (i.e. every company).  I thought about reviving that blog since my husband has a new business under the same name, but I didn’t want to commit to a topic yet and writing a blog under that business seemed unfair to the rest of my life and work.

When we got pregnant, I decided that I need to really step back from work. I am a workaholic. I give everything 110% and I usually take on several things. I don’t want my child to be another one of those things. I can ease into juggling her, I don’t want to throw her into what I’ve already committed. So I told my company I would take 6 months off after birth. However, as a busy bee and work-aholic, of course, I immediately started thinking of projects to fill the time: blogging. So with the birth of my daughter and a major shift from work-aholic to super mom. From late night drinking and entertaining to late night feeding. From advising companies on hiring and managing major IT projects to advising on (well prego and mommy stuff is messy, so I won’t say). As I start a long maternity leave and begin a very different lifestyle and mindset, I will also start a new blog. OH, and I forgot to mention, my husband who has lived in Tokyo his entire life running small shops and bars, decided to sell his successful live music bar in Tokyo and buy a fixer-upper on the top of a mountain to try his hand at running a lodge in a ski resort. So we are completely changing our lives with a child, why not change EVERYTHING?!

So I left Minneapolis, my first love and moved to Tokyo, a neurotic metropolis that I learned to love and now I commute between Tokyo and Madarao and Madarao is my main home for the winter and the majority of my maternity leave. From Minneapolis to Tokyo, Tokyo to Madarao and back. Happy Birthday to my new life, my new mindset, my new child, my husband’s new business and my new blog!

Minneapolis –> Tokyo <–Madarao