The right to say No

The declared theme for this upcoming year is I will not do things I do not want to do.

On Friday my supervisor called me, at the elementary school, to ask if I wanted to be in a kimono contest. She was excited and began to make plans as to where her friend could meet me to try on kimonos for the contest. I was not sure what any of this really meant. So she gave me a link to last years contest.

I looked at the site and looked at the 24 year old secretary. The secretary told me that she could call my supervisor for me and tell her that I am "very busy."

Perhaps my supervisor and her friend are disappointed that they cannot dress the foreigner up in a kimono. But I decided to say, "No."

Of course, I cannot just throw around the word "No" too easily.

For example:

On Saturday, I went over to Sarah's house to drink the ume-shu (plum liquor) that had been sitting under my sink for three months. Slowly exchanging the flavors of cheap liquor, plums, and sugar making one large jug of ume-shu.

And it was delicious.

The delicious ume-shu even made it's way to the karaoke room.

Then the ume-shu somehow made it back from the karaoke room and into the cab.

After a late night (or early morning) of the sweet liquor I really did not want to get into my car and drive to watch elementary school kids run around the field. I wanted to say "No."
But I would also like to maintain a good relationship with the school and the community that surrounds it. So I went to the elementary school sports day.

I did not regret, for a moment, that I had previously told this school "No" when they asked me to be the mother chicken while the 1st-3rd graders did the chicken dance.
Instead I just watched the events.

If no one else around here is going to use that word directly, I will be happy to introduce it.