Everyone Loves a Boston Girl

“Right now I am watching Punky Brewster, the dog is lost. And after Punky is Small Wonder and then Family Ties is on then Alf then Cheers.”

About a year ago, I bought a book titled “Japanese for Busy People.”* How appropriate, right? I want to learn Japanese and I am a busy people, so this is perfect. However, little did I know, the book still requires that one takes the time to actually read it. No matter how busy you are, you need to find at least a few moments to glance at the pages. They should put a disclaimer on the book or something.

Upon my massive amounts of research, it was brought to my attention that buying the romanized version of the book wasn’t a good choice. I needed to buy the “Kana” version so that I could learn to read Japanese while I was learning to speak it. OK, done. But herein lies the problem.

I cannot read the book.

Because the book is written in Japanese.

Japanese symbols.

That I cannot read.

So the logical thing is to learn to read Kana, right? Well sure, it

sounds all easy. But Kana is actually made up of two alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana. And it’s not exactly a snap to learn them. But I started trying about a year ago. There are lots of fun little cheesy tricks you can memorize to learn the symbols. Like this:

This is “Ni” in Hiragana. Because it looks like someone on their “KNees.” “NI” Right? Right?? I told you this wasn’t easy. Anyway, I actually got a majority of the way through, save for a few characters that constantly tripped me up and had no fun memorization tricks. Like this one:

Which is “Wa.” Really? How on Earth do I remember that’s “Wa”?? Any advice is appreciated. Maybe you see something I don’t.

Then like got a bit busy, otherwise known as I took a little break. And when I went back I had to start at the beginning.

And that’s where I’m at now. The beginning. I have about a million flashcards I made last year and now I need to re-utilize them until I have everything re-memorized.

This is incredibly frustrating to me because hiii, I just want to read, speak, and write the language, but I don’t have millions of hours to spend. You see, I am essentially TOO BUSY FOR JAPANESE FOR BUSY PEOPLE. And I need a book titled so, “Japanese for People Who are Too Busy for Japanese for Busy People,” yes? I think that one would sell quite well.

OK, I’m back. I know, I know. I kept delaying writing a post because it had been so long. And my first post back really needed to be super good, right? Well, I kept starting it and then stopping it. And then I decided I was just going to jump in and start blogging here again. So I am.

I missed it here! Here are some quick life updates so we can get this show on the road:

We are not Martha:

Still going fabulously! I’m sooo happy Chels and I decided to start this venture a little over a year ago. It’s already brought us SO many awesome things, like being able to attend a Martha Stewart Show taping; getting to meet tons of awesome food bloggers; and having the opportunity to try a whole lot of fun products. Also, we were recently featured in the Boston Globe. And we just did a taping for How2Heroes, which should be up on their website soon. The other day, Chels and I said, “I wonder where we’ll be a year from now…” I’m excited to find out! In the meantime, you should follow us on twitter (@wearenotmartha) and join our Facebook page.

My jobs:

Still have a bunch of them and still always looking for more (Boston rent+grad school loans+sister’s wedding+having fun=not cheap)! Since I know you all lurvee hearing about my jobs I’m going to tell you about a couple. Really, I’m telling you because this blog is titled “Everyone Loves a Boston Girl” and therefore I have a duty to tell you all things important in Boston.

Important in Boston like going out to eat, shopping, and having spa days? Well, kind of. I know the economy sucks right now, but you can still do these things! How? Well, with the new company I just became Community Manager for. It’s called Groupon and it basically offers a deal-a-day on something cool to do in the city. Yes I work for them, but I’m also partaking in tons of the deals. Like the deal the other day for the Savant Project in Brigham Circle. You only have to pay $20 and you get a $40 gift card. I’m also psyched to use my 2 mani-pedis (for $39!!) at CQI salon. There’s also a Groupon for Chicago!