alive in the dead of night

After all these years of hearing it, I finally understand the phrase "don't quit your day-job".

Having never really had much of a so called 'day-job' --which shall be defined as the regular work done for money that the average person typically grows to despise or resent to a certain degree--I never had the opportunity to spend my nights expending engergy in creative experiments.

Now that I am gainfully employed, however, I spend nearly all of my nights engaged in one of these three activities: 1) designing and editing lessons for upcoming classes using the programs that I once used to produce my architecture projects, 2) revamping older garments into better ones that I'll actually wear and sewing new ones, or 3) baking.

Baking seems to be the most popular choice.

Japan has a gift-giving culture that even Christmas can't out-do. Every once in a while, I am delt a favor (a translation here, a translation there) or given a gift (fresh vegetables from a garden, invitation to a friend's house) and simply must repay my benefactor. I've found that the best way for me to do this is through baking. It's positives abound: the recipient get's to taste a different 'culture' that they most likely have never experienced, the recipient is not burdened by the possession of yet another object, I am not burdened financially, and I get the mental and physical health benefits of letting my creative juices flow uninhibited for a few hours (or more, as is often the case).

My mother, bless her heart, felt taxed last fall by my repeated requests for recipies from home and simply sent me a Betty Crocker cookbook. Because things never turn out as anticipated from the book's textual and graphic illustrations and because I think I am smarter than The People Behind The Betty, I've taken to not actually following the recipies. I prefer to use them as a launching pad.

Most recently, I made petits fours. Orange-zest pound cake, cut into 1 inch cubes, glazed, and topped with a pinch of finely chopped orange-rind. Normally, I wouldn't feel so pleased with myself, but petits fours and I have a history.

This was my second attempt to make petits fours. My first attempt was some time in early high school and resulted in the most disagreeable cake and sugar-based rocks the world has ever known. The whole process had been a terrible waste of time--and powdered sugar--and left my mom and I at odds. The entire time she had professed that petits fours were messy, difficult, and a time consuming. Well, she was right.

But I digress.

I am writing this entry because I want to share with you how absolutely thrilled I am to have discovered that I have a night-job--or two, or three. Night-jobs that I have made a pact with myself never to relinquish. I am thrilled to be here in Japan, feeling alive with creative juices at 3 am, and all the while having the sense to truly appreciate the fact.