Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!
Today was Mother’s Day…
So Sabby really doesn’t like it much when I do stuff for her for Mother’s Day. She says it’s a hallmark holiday and setting that day aside just gives people an excuse to ignore their mother the other 364 days of the year.
But… I said this before. This is another last. I’m going to Japan. I might not see her for a long time.
So I did anyway.
I’ve been practicing in secret (turns out the community college has a piano tucked away somewhere and I’ve been practicing there) and I sand a couple of songs for her, while accompanying myself.
Yes, I can sing. No, I can’t sing well. I sound like a particularly competent frog. But… I managed.
And I sand an English translation, which I did myself. I sang U&I, Tenshi ni fureta yo, and “I want to be a constellation”.
She was crying at the end. aww.
She’s done so much for me, really. She (and Dave, of course), took me in, bought me clothes, fed me, adopted me, and never, ever tried to get in the way of who I am and what I could become. She’s let me go to Japan, to perform, to practice… she’s always only wanted me to reach my full potential… and I’ll always be grateful to her for that. I’ll always love her for that.
And she never hesitates to go Claire Huxtable on me when I deserve it. Thankfully, it’s not that often, but when she does, I always do.
She’s always protected me but never so much that it hurt me. Like when she kicked that karen between legs a couple of years ago. I guess I could have taken care of myself… but I didn’t have to. Because she was there. She’s always there.
I can’t really tell her that. Like Hachiman said in Oregairu – How can you say all that in just a word?
You can’t. So I chose a few. And added some notes to it too. And tried not to make Marie howl with my voice.
(She didn’t. That would have been embarrassing).
Maybe someday I’ll sing “my graduation toss”, but I dont’t think I could hold it together through that.
Anyway… otherwise… it was a bit of a rainy morning. They got some pretty awful hailstorms up north, but we avoided them… this time. We went to church, and otherwise just basically had a pretty quiet day (except for the idols in the garage dancing up a storm again. I swear – where do they get all that energy? I run every day and I don’t think I could keep up!)
“The idols in the garage dancing up a storm”… what a weird life I have that I can even write that sentence and mean it seriously.
Haruna seems a little better today. She’s starting to think seriously about her future. Not just being scared of it… but owning it. I don’t know what she has planned… but I’m sure she’ll succeed. I know she will.
Love you all!!! ❤️
From the creator:
It’s funny. I hate the sound of the name “Haruna”. For some reason I just don’t like Japanese names that start with H. I like the ones that start with M, R, or S.
And it’s worse because they actually can mean really beautiful things. I think (think) Haruna means something like “spring vegetables”. And Honoka, another name I hate the sound of, has something to do with nursing or flowers. It’s not that I hate the people behind the name or anything, it’s just the name doesn’t sound good to me.
But… Haruna is Haruna. I didn’t name her. Okay, well… I did, actually, but that’s her name. Just because I don’t like it is no reason to withhold it from her.
My favorite Japanese name? Minami, I think. It just has a very pretty sound. I also actually like Yuriko, but I think that’s because it’s become associated in my head with lilies, not because it’s Lily’s name.
In English, my favorite sound is a long “I”. I don’t know why. Place names with a long I just give me this strong sense of adventure and nostalgia. Rock Island, Moline, Salina… I’m just weird. I don’t know anyone else with that kind of preference outside of a Monty Python skit (TINNY!!!)
Oh well, enough of that.