My daughter, Raven, will be 14 years old tomorrow. She is leaving tomorrow morning at 4:30am to go to Washington DC for her class trip. She won’t be home until 11pm tomorrow night so we are celebrating her birthday Thursday. Also she does not have to return to school until May 2 because of Easter/Spring break.

My daughter is a talented artist who one day wants to be a manga artist living in Japan. She lives and breathes almost everything Japanese. She can speak and understand a little Japanese right now. Nothing major but it is enough for her to communicate and understand a short conversation with the only Japanese student in her school.  She has been immersing herself in the Japanese culture since she was in the 4th grade (she is now in the 8^th grade and will be starting high school this fall).

I love the fact that she is into the Japanese culture. I may love it more than most since I am a huge fan of Asian movies (especially J Horror). However, many people in the family are not. I see my daughter’s talent and love for all things Japanese and want to help her achieve her dream. Some family members do not agree.

“She is too obsessed with all this Japanese stuff!”

“You need to nip that in the butt, NOW!”

Those two quotes above are the two most common things we hear from family members about Raven’s obsession with Japan. For some reason, they have a problem with my daughter’s interest.

Does Raven take her interest a bit too far? Maybe. But it’s no different than the diehard Twilight fans or this whole Bieber Fever thing. And in actuality, her learning about another culture (including their language) is a rather educational activity. Something that these asshats don’t seem to realize. They would much rather have her lusting over the latest heartthrob than exercising her brain and following her dream.

However, since she is not their child, they do not raise her nor do they support her in any manner what so ever then they have no say in how she is raised, what we allow her to do or not to do or what her hobbies or activities are. If they do not like it, they can shove it up their ass. I have been pretty damn polite to these people when they say their ignorant comments. That, however, changes today. I don’t care who they are (or who they think you are) but I will tell them exactly where they can stick their opinions (which we never asked for but they seem so inclined to spew out of their mouths) about Raven or her interest.

I really wonder if it makes these adults feel better about themselves when they try to crush a 13 year old’s dream? Well, I have news for them. Raven knows that these people do not truly care about her. That me and her father want her to follow her dreams and will help her anyway we can. She is not going to stop her love of Japan for these jackasses.  And just to prove how much more grown up she is then these supposed “adults” she knows that going to college in Japan and breaking into the manga industry is a tough task. Therefore, she has a backup plan.

The funny thing is. Nobody on my side of the family has said any negative comments about Raven and her Japanese obsession. It is always people on my husband’s side of the family.

I have some possibly extremely good news but I do not want to jinx it so I am keeping it under wraps until I know for sure if it actually happens. I am ubber excited and know there is a big possibility that I am getting my hopes up for nothing but I cannot help it. But since I cannot go into details right now I will just move on to something else.

Four days ago, I started Couch-to-5K and I am actually enjoying it! So much so that I have done it 4 days straight (even though the plan is only for 3 days a week) and hope I continue it every day. I need to get a better pair of shoes (running in my old Converse does not feel very good) but so far haven’t found anything I really like. I actually don’t like the look of running shoes but am hoping to find a pair that are comfortable without the look of running shoes.

That’s all I can muster up right now because I am rather tired and just want to get some sleep.

Yesterday was my 31^st birthday. I can honestly say I do not feel that old. I still think of myself as being in my mid twenties with my life all planned out. How things have changed since I was 25. My life is nowhere near how I want it to be but I’m working on that.

Anyway, Friday night me, Mike, Raven and my Mom went to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday dinner. This was the first time my Mom has ever been to Texas Roadhouse (hell, this is the first time she has been out to eat in an actual sit down restaurant for years) and we all had a great time. It was nice getting my Mom out of her house and treating her to a fun evening with us. The rest of the weekend was spent as usually.

On Monday (my actual birthday), my Mom called me down to her house and gave me my birthday card (with some money) and 2 solar flower stakes that I wanted. After Raven got home from school, she gave me my birthday drawings that she made me.

While Mike gave me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (yummy) and a “I Love Zombies” bracelet.

For dinner we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and I was finally able to try fried pickles which btw where delicious and I will defiantly have them again.

I got a phone call from my Aunt Lois and Uncle Jerry singing “Happy Birthday To You” and many birthday wishes on facebook. All in all, it was a pretty darn good birthday.