Two and three quarters Japanese people vs. the Chicago Cubs

While Dad was at the Tigers-Cubs game yesterday Zo took her Mom for a joy ride to Toronto. It was her first time driving and, well, the car made it home in one piece so obviously le Zedder managed the trick. June said that it got a little sketchy in the heavy traffic around Pearson Intl. Airport but other than that the Zed did just fine. She did happen to mention that Zo has a dangerous habit of not paying any attention to where she's going but for the most part she's a cautious and diligent little driver.



June and Zo scooped up Baachan along the way and shot up to T-dot to hook up with Aunt Netta and then pick up a friend, Yuka, who was flying in from Japan. If you do the math that means that on the way home from the airport there was officially two and three quarters Japanese people in the car (two native Japanesers, one half Japaner, and a little quarter Japaleno, Zoey). They were driving a German car and speaking English, or at least two of them were speaking english. Yuka is still learning and no one understood a word the Zedder was saying so it doesn't exactly count as english per se. In fact, Yuka maybe had the best odds of anyone of actually understanding Zoey since she's less encumbered by conventional anglais (see how I mixed a little french in there to make this truly a multicultural blog post). Regardless of who was speaking what little Zo loved the trip into the city and was as happy as a puppeteer with 12 fingers.



They made the trip in good time and got home just as I was sweating away my soul and about 14 lbs down at Comerica Park in Detroit. With a night free for the funifying I bolted for the second game of the Cubs - Tigers series with our friends Joe and Erin, and soaked in my own sweat and the sheer unencumbered joy of harassing a native Chicagoan as your Tigers take two of three to make all that sweat worth while.

It felt pretty weird to be down at the ballpark without June and Zo but probably not as weird as it would have been to be the only occupant of a car filled with Japanese people of varying levels of heritage. There'd have been an awful lot of Japanese baby talk going on that I'd have suspected was belligerent talk about me behind my ignorant out of whack back. There was a lot of hanging out at the airport that I suspect I wouldn't have enjoyed very much, but the girls made the most of it while waiting for Yuka.



Zoey kept it together for most of the trip and seemed to have a damn good time at the airport June said, so good of a time that she wasn't the least bit upset when all two and three quarters Japanese people jumped in that German car and headed home without Zoey behind the wheel. Yuka's here in Canada for awhile so we're going to enjoy her company, let her influence Zoey as much as possible and then maybe let Zoey show her around a little as long she promises not the wreck the car.



It was a long day for everyone. By the time I got home from the ballgame I was a sweaty, stinking, tired mess, and June and Zoey had driven approx. 6 hours to end up exactly where they started. In the words of the immortal Harry Caray, "Cubs win! Cubs win!"