I thank you, one and all, for your helpful and encouraging comments about the removal of wisdom teeth. Just reading them made me feel sick. I don’t have a single day off till after Christmas, so the earliest I can go to the dentist is mid-January. That’s soon enough, isn’t it? But then, I can’t take 1 or 2 weeks off from work until at least February, so I suppose it’ll have to wait till then. But then, if I’m going to the history conference, I should probably not go all drugged up on painkillers, so I guess the teeth will have to come out in March.

We had our annual concert at our house on November 23rd. To prepare for the concert, my parents, my brothers, and I stayed up all night moving things so there would be room for 80 or so people to cram into our tiny little apartment. Our bathroom and my parents’ bedroom were filled with stuff to the ceiling, and what wouldn’t fit was moved outside. The concert went really well, and it was wonderful to see all the kids, big and little, playing their various musical instruments. I was the MC. Every year, I find it interesting how it can be so obvious when people are playing because they love the music or because they love to show off.

Anyway, I hurt my back on Friday night, and by Saturday night, it was horrible. The pain throbbed with every heartbeat. Every move I made, every breath I took, I felt like the upper left side of my back was being stabbed, over and over again. Kudo-san, one of my best friends, and Papa’s secretary, put some shippu on for me. I don’t know how to say shippu in English. I don’t even know if you have it in America. It’s like a cold compress, something you put on sprains and suchlike injuries. On Sunday morning, I was fighting tears during most of the service, but not from the sermon (I barely heard a word Papa said). I was just trying to sit through the two hours without actually crying. Kudo-san changed my shippu again and Papa took me home right afterwards. I collapsed in bed and slept pretty much all day and all night on Sunday. I felt a bit better today, well enough to teach most of my classes today. I had to cancel one class … and of course, my ballet lesson. It’s still a bit painful to walk, but it’s healing faster than I expected.