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I have just received word from Grandma-Over-The-Ocean that my younger brother’s baby has been born, which means that my kids now have a cousin! Congratulations to Jesse, Jana, and little cousin Jamie. Pictures should be available as soon as GOTO has a working Internet connection again.

Can’t hurt to have another Jamie Beatty in the world, I guess. 

For the past several weeks, as part of her involvement in SEIU, my mother has been canvassing six days a week in the heart of pro-Bush territory in her home state of Ohio, a task she likens to being in a “secret society.” The Democratic party is in shambles in Ohio, so she has a lot of work cut out for her.

Because canvassing in the suburbs involves a lot of walking, I’ve decided to offer her a political bribe: If Kerry wins in November (and he will need to take Ohio to do it), I will fly my family back to the States for a vacation, so she can play with her grandkids while I give her a well deserved foot massage.

On the other hand, she probably already knows that if Bush wins, I will be a lot less inclined to go back—and may end up staying here for good. Not that I want to put any pressure on her or anything.

For my part, I keep sending money to those awful 527s Bush hates so much. I would like to be able to be more active in the campaign, but the only significant contributions I can really make from Japan are financial ones, it seems. I really wish I could be on the ground over there. I’ve got two really great reasons—one age 4 and the other now at 9 months months—to encourage people to vote for Kerry.

For now, though, it seems my money and my foot-massage bribe will have to do. 

There’s an interesting discussion going on at the Gaijin Parents Mailing List (which you should feel free to join if you qualify—or even if you don’t but are interested in the topic) about the decisions involved in choosing to settle permanently in Japan. When I first came here, I thought I would be staying just long enough to pay off my college debts and set aside a little bit of money for the future. That was more than six years ago, and I’m still here.

The last time I went back to the States, my friend Dan asked when I was planning to come home. “Or has Japan become your home now?” he asked. Although I rejected the idea at the time, the longer I stay here, the more I have to accept that I am evolving into a long-term resident.

When I came here initially, I was determined to go back to the States within a few years. During those few years, though, a lot changed. These days I’m still somewhat inclined to return to the States, but I’m warming up to the idea of settling down here for good.

In any case, for reasons that relate to my job and current visa status, I will be looking into permanent residency soon. And if George Bush manages to win reelection in November, I think we’ll also look into buying a house here, because America probably won’t be worth going back to for years to come—but that’s less about warming up to Japan than it is about cooling on the U.S. 

Recently Zak and his wife welcomed their first child (who, I have just learned, has a name with the initials N and G for the first and middle names, respectively—in a country where “NG” is widely used as shorthand for “No Good") into the world. Congratulations to the Bravermans!

Anyway, not long ago, Zak was commenting on his primary parenting goal, that of not screwing up his kid. This prompted Les of Stupid Evil Bastard to remark in Zak’s comments section that “[Kids] do listen even when it seems like they don’t…”

I’m sure this is true some of the time, but an incident that occurred just today in my family suggests otherwise. To understand it, though, you need to know that my daughter was born in 2000, which means that George Bush has been president for as far back as her memory goes. For as long as she can remember, she has heard her father complain about the president, make exasperated sounds and roll his eyes whenever the president is on TV, and occasionally yell at the screen during the president’s infrequent press conferences. Still, this afternoon when she saw George Bush on the TV news, she said, “Look, it’s Daddy’s friend!”

Well, no, dear, not quite. 

In my previous entry, I made reference to a newcomer in our home office. It has now arrived:

Now that our daughter has started taking piano lessons, we decided that she would need a piano of her own; so now she has one. Not surprisingly, a piano costs about as much as a high-end Mac, which is why our Macquisition will have to wait until later in the year. (I hope this doesn’t get me into too much trouble with UltraBob, who made it very clear that he would only give up Dweezil if he could be sure that it wouldn’t hinder my purchase of a new Mac.)

In making room for the piano, I had to get rid of a lot of things, most of them being things that were once very important to me. In that sense, I felt that I was clearing out my past to make way for her future. Isn’t that the main task of every generation, to make way for the next?