Month: March 2014

Dear Preston

Posted on by Kyra Nelson

Dear Preston,

You don’t know me. You don’t know that I spent 12 hours on campus today or that I only managed about 5 hours of sleep last night. I was dead on my feet when you ran into me.

To start off, I’m sorry I’m a dork who doesn’t check the weather forecasts in the morning (was snow even in the forecast this morning?). I’m sorry that today was the first time in probably five months that I left the apartment without bothering to wear something heavier than a T-shirt. And I’m sorry that I looked so pathetic as I walked out of the Tanner Building that you felt that the need to let me borrow your jacket.

Being the thick-skinned Montanan that I am, I assumed I could make it home in the snow just fine, and I couldn’t just wear some stranger’s coat home. But you insisted, and about thirty seconds into my walk home, I was glad you did. Even I’m not tough enough to brave that weather in short sleeves.

Preston, people like you make the world go round.

I’ll get your jacket back to you as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Warm thoughts,

Kyra

Dear Miranda: Facebook FTW

Posted on by Kyra Nelson

In response to Dear Kyra: A Massage Memoir

Dear Miranda:

You know when you make a super witty comment on Facebook and it’s awesome? Yeah. And what’s even better is when other people also make witty comments and you start building off each other. This has resulted in some of my favorite conversations, as listed below. Alas, I don’t always catch the full conversation in a screen shot. You get the idea, though.

Everybody (20 people) quote The Emperor’s New Groove 

Screen shot 2012-07-25 at 11.23.30 AM

 

The Most Vehement Facebook Debate Ever

Screen shot 2014-03-17 at 7.38.07 PM

 

Dating is Hard

Screen shot 2013-12-24 at 1.05.57 AM

 

Dating is Hard, but Batman is Cool

Screen shot 2012-07-26 at 9.54.07 AM

 

That last one is all variations on quotes from The Dark Knight in case you didn’t catch that.

Yeah. I think those pretty much speak for themselves.

Love,

Kyra

P.S. I noticed you changed your Facebook password. It’s like you don’t enjoy unexpected birthdays or something.

Adventures in a Fake Japanese Bakery

Posted on by Kyra Nelson

ネルソン. カイラ

That’s my name in Japanese, because nothing makes you feel like a kindergartener again the way relearning to write your name does. But truth be told, Japanese class is very fun. We do a lot of play acting, and reading katakana is a lot like playing Mad Gab.

On the other hand, it can be very difficult to enact a realistic play acting scenario with a severely limited vocabulary. Which leads to conversations like these (translated back into English for your convenience):

Cameron-san goes to the bakery to pick up a pie for Liz-san and a strawberry cake for Kyra-san. Michelle-san helps him at the counter.

Cameron-san: Sorry to bother you.

Michelle-san: What do you want?*

Cameron-san: Pie and strawberry cake, please.

Michelle-san: Sorry. We don’t have strawberry cake, but we have cheesecake.

Cameron-san: Is the cheesecake good?

Michelle-san: It’s totally good!

Cameron-san: How much is the pie?

Michelle-san: It’s $50**

Cameron-san: That’s expensive! Do you have anything cheaper?

Michelle-san: We have cheesecake.

Cameron-san: How much is the cheesecake?

Michelle-san: …$15?

Cameron-san: …Is the cheesecake good?

Michelle-san: It’s totally good!

Cameron-san: Cheesecake, please.

Cameron-san pays and returns with his purchase.

Liz-san: What is this?

Cameron-san: It’s cheesecake.

Liz-san: It’s not pie.

Cameron-san: Sorry. The pie was expensive.

Kyra-san: Is it strawberry cake?

Cameron-san: It’s not strawberry cake. It’s cheesecake. There was no strawberry cake.

Kyra-san: Is it good?

Cameron-san: It’s totally good!

 

 

*This sounds rude in English. In Japanese it’s more like “How may I help you?”

** We don’t really know how to do dollar/yen conversions. So when asked what something costs, we just throw out a number. It’s usually either 50,000 or 50.