a crazy post with lots of pictures!

Painting away on my book... I finally received notes back on the other manuscript and have some small re-working to do on the storyboards before I can start painting that one. Phew. It's a crazy world we live in!I am sure every illustrator is familiar with the crazy juggling act we must do with our personal life vs. our careers... Having a day job as well makes it hard too! But I won't complain too much about that...
I am wanting to post more of these paintings, but I also don't want to show too much yet!Here is a snippet of one of the pages... sketch-phase... just to give a little more to look at.... it's funny how different every character I have worked on has been so far... I wonder what it would be like if little did we know, but they were all in the same class!! Could they all be friends? Hmm, some are a little more out-going than others... some a little more girly than others ;) but for the most part, I think they could?
I keep trying to tell myself that all of this will pay off... I tend to trust the world to send me where I need to go, although I know you have to do your part to get there, too... Isn't life nerve-wracking and wonderful at the same time? Wouldn't it be nice if I made any sense and my thoughts actually connected?
Anyway, it's getting warmer and warmer! I also know that last night around 4 am there was an earthquake that woke up many of my co-workers last night. The odd thing is that I was awake and felt nothing? I keep waking up around this time (as I have tweeted) and can't seem to fall back sleep until around 5 am.... so these past few mornings, I have been a zombie!

I keep fantasizing about Japan... I should post a picture of Japan so we can all be jealous of my twin who was able to visit a few years ago with my bestest buddy, Christine...Here is a picture of my two cousins (my mom's sister's girls) and their children. In the middle with a hat and green shirt is my twin, Mei, next to her is my mom, next to her (the only caucasian) is my best friend Chris. (from the left: Kaori, Chieko, Satoka, Mei, Shinji, Mom/Keiko, Yuuki, Chris, Shintaro)This is a typical scene from the train in Shizuoka/Mieken (near my aunt's home)-- pretty rural but beautiful!! Rice fields- whoohoo!
Here is the street leading up to my aunt's house (the gray brick wall is just in front of her home on the right there).This would be the view leaving...

And this would be the view toward sundown...

Anyway I miss it quite a bit... it's very beautiful there.

Just felt like sharing those pics.
Meanwhile, this is what me, Mei, and Chris normally do to make up for not being there: