Doctor's Appointments and Geisha

I know! Two totally unrelated subjects, but I have some catching up to do!

Yesterday, I spent the entire day going to appointments…again! In the morning, I took M to see Dr. Han for her 15-month well baby visit. She weighed in at 23 lbs. and is 31-1/2 inches tall – in the 90th percentile on the Asian Girls Growth Charts! She screamed the entire time that Dr. Han examined her and screamed even louder when the nurse gave her three shots. Poor baby! From there, the two of us headed over to the opticians office to get her new frames. She bent her frames so badly about two weeks ago that we had to order replacements. Thankfully, the frames can be replaced as often as needed over the next year at no cost. We got home just in time for lunch and naptime. Then, Chuck and I were off to see his surgeon. He showed us photos of the inside of Chuck’s shoulder where he removed about 7 mm of bone. He said that Chuck is right where he expects him to be at this point and that he will experience pain for quite some time since he went right through a muscle to get to the area where he needed to remove the bone. From there, we headed to physical therapy where his therapist once again worked him over. I like this girl! She’s tough on him and doesn’t let him slack off. After PT, we met my parents and the girls at Luigi’s for pizza! Whew! What a day!

Once the girls were in bed last night, we watched Memoirs of a Geisha. I just finished reading the book earlier this week and LOVED it. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that fast! Before children, I would stay up all night reading a good book. I just got so engrossed in the “flower and willow world” of the geisha society. For the past three years, I’ve been reading books mostly about China and adoption. Once I find a subject that interests me, I tend to want to soak up as much as I possibly can about that particular subject. I am now engrossed in another book about life as a geisha. The book is written by Liza Dalby, an American woman who was allowed to see the geisha world from the inside during the 1970s. The book is simply titled, Geisha. At the same time that I checked out this book from the library, I also checked out Geisha, A Life written by geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who Arthur Golden consulted for Memoirs of a Geisha. Back to the movie…it’s no surprise that I found the book so much better than the movie because there would be no way – other than making a six hour movie – to capture everything from the book. I had to explain a few scenes to Chuck and my parents because without reading the book some important details were vague in the film.

Chuck and I have talked about spending some time touring Japan whenever we make a return trip to China with the girls. Now that I have an interest in geisha society, we will definitely need to include Kyoto in our travel plans!