January 2009

There’s a little over 2 weeks left before our baby Hannah’s due date. Yuka and I have had some good talks about becoming parents. We’re very excited, but at the same time quite nervous. One of the biggest concerns I have had recently is what we’re going to teach her in terms of faith and morals. Yuka and I, coming from very different cultural backgrounds, naturally have some differences in opinion when it comes to that stuff. My guess is that all parents go through that same struggle. No matter how similar two people are, there are going to be differences. I’m worried though that Hannah will ask some big question to Yuka and I separately, and we’ll end up giving her different answers. Does that happen to everybody? Are different answers ok?

I see little children around town (in parks, restaurants, etc) and my heart just fills with excitement about our baby. When my mom died from breast cancer nearly 10 years ago, I thought I would never feel ‘complete’ again in my life. After marrying Yuka, I have experienced true happiness and contentment again. I know that baby Hannah will bring even more joy into our already happy family.

As some of you may know, I was in a band called the Billions (myspace.com/thebillionsband) for about 10 years. My brother and I started it back in 97′, and we toured a little bit and released a number of albums independently as well as on the small, Californian record label Northern Records (northernrecords.com). About a year and a half ago, we finally realized that, now that we are all growing up with kids and ‘real’ jobs, etc. we simply don’t have time to dedicate to this dream anymore. We’re all still very close friends, but we simply can’t play shows anymore since we’re all so busy.

Enter reunion concert: a good friend of ours, Martinez Hillard, is playing in a band called Cowboy Indian Bear and has been booking some nice shows around Lawrence quite a bit recently. He contacted us to see if we wanted to put together a reunion show and we thought it was a great idea to have one FINAL Billions blow-out show where we could gather all our old friends and relive some great memories. At this point, it looks like it will be at the Bottleneck in downtown Lawrence, KS on Saturday April 18th starting around 8pm. We’re going to try to keep the cover charge cheap and make sure it’s all ages so everyone can come. Mark it on your calendars and I’ll keep posting about it as more info comes to me. Hope to see you there!

Ken and Jocelyn came to spend the night last Friday and we were all playing the wii together. When you first turn the wii fit game on, it kind of goes through a few welcome screens (interactive stuff where it asks you questions and involves other people’s profiles that use the wii).. Anyway, one of them started to play it and as they were ‘logging in’, it was like ‘Did you know Sam’s birthday is coming up?’.. (next screen) ‘Have you thought about throwing him a surprise birthday party?’ – right when it said that I looked over at Ken and Jocelyn and they looked at each other like deer in the flippin’ headlights. I was like ‘Oh crap! I have got to pretend like I didn’t see that.’ Then Jocelyn (in my mind at least) sheepishly asked me ‘… so what are you planning to do for your birthday?’ By this time, my beautiful mind started rolling.. I said ‘ Oh, I don’t have anything planned…’ knowing well and good what I had coming to me. From that point on, I had hint after hint that I was getting a surprise birthday party. On Sunday, Dan and Ken showed up to record and video tape. As they were coming in the front door, I noticed a box leaning up against the window. I asked ‘What’s that?’ Ken and Dan immediately looked at each other, again like deer in the flippin’ headlights.. Dan was like ‘It’s your birthday present, dude!’ At this point I’m thinking.. ‘OK, he must have been leaving it outside so when the party happens later tonight he could give it to me then.’ We go down to start recording and I’m thinking the entire time that Yuka is upstairs getting set up for a party. Everytime I hear a little creak in the stairs I look over at Ken and his eyes dart suspiciously to mine. In my mind’s eye: ‘At this point people are probably sneaking in the front door to surprise me when we finally go upstairs – this is going to be so fun! I have to pretend like I have no idea.’ (side note: I even had to go to the bathroom and I held it in because I didn’t want to leave the room and spoil the surprise) At one point, Ken even opened the door and smelled Yuka cooking something sweet upstairs and said ‘Dude, is she making puppy chow again? Do you think she’ll let us have some?’ – my interpretation: birthday cake!! Finally, when we got done recording around 8:30 or 9, Dan said, ‘Well Sam, in the words of the Billions, ‘everybody’s waiting!” At that moment I thought, ‘Don’t make it so obvious, Dan!’ but I only smiled and was like ‘OK.’ I slowly ascended the stairs glancing this way and that, just waiting for my glorious praises to be sung by all my friends and family. Nothing.. In my mind I said, ‘Maybe they’re hiding outside – I’ll go to the bathroom and make it easier for them to sneak in.’ So, I went into the bathroom. Right when I got in, I heard Dan and Ken yell ‘Sorry Sam – we’ve got to go! See you later!’ I quietly smiled to myself thinking, ‘Sure, sure – I’ll see you guys in 10 minutes!!’ and verbally responded, ‘OK. See you later!’ I went back out and sat down at the dinner table with Yuka where she had placed the most awesome quiche she had just graciously created for our dinner. We ate, and my eyes wandered from clock (thinking ‘How late are they going to wait to start this thing up?’) to window to door. Finally, around midnight, I realized – the only ’surprise’ I would recieve for my birthday this year around was a solid realization of my beautiful mind.

Every time I tell that story, I seem to get different reactions. Sometimes people cry, sometimes people laugh. I hope it brings a smile to your face – I don’t want people to feel sorry for me – I just think it’s funny that I’m so crazy!

Along with many ‘artists’ out there, I have a day job. I work in the Office of Study Abroad at the University of Kansas. My position in the office is basically a hodge-podge of random things – I came into the office right after they created my position, so in a way, I am a trail-blazer. For about 6 months I have been enjoying my job, sitting in a cubicle in a large room shared by another co-worker and used as the community hallway/gathering place for all other co-workers. That never really bothered me – anyone who knows me knows that I’m a social person! Well, a few months ago, I found out that some re-arrangements in the floor plan of the building were going to allow for me to have my own office. Yesterday was the BIG MOVE. I have to start by saying that I have one of the two smallest offices in the building – but I have to finish it by saying that it is awesome. I haven’t had a chance to fully decorate it with lava-lamps and incense burners yet, but I really hope to score an old arcade-style Galaga or something to put in here soon.