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May/June 2002
The year marches on. Tony & I finally got the electricity in our house upgraded after 5 years living in our house. Thanks to Mike for hooking us up with his electrician, German. My nephew Kieth's first birthday! WOW, the year goes so fast. Photos to come soon. Some random thoughts and activities during this period:
MANZANAR...On May 23rd, Sue Embrey and I went to Sacramento for about 7 hours! We went to the Calif. Civil Liberties Public Education Program orientation meeting. It was great to hear about the other projects that got funding. Manzanar Committee got funding to expand the Manzanar After Dark (MAD-ness!) program that I've been running with young people for the last 6 or 7 years.
GREAT LEAP...Great news, we got this awesome $65,000 grant to hire a producer for 2 years. Nona, who worked for GL back in 99 came back. She's handling our residency programs (Watts, Detroit, Boyle Heights) and helping with development ($$). I'm thrilled. Our Watts residency culminated on June 1, and exceeded our expectations in many ways.
LAKERS 3-PEAT...Didn't see a single season game, but obsessively caught almost every game between Lakers v. Sacramento and Lakers v. New Jersey. You should have heard me & Tony scream when Robert Horry made that 3 pointer, beating Sacramento in the last fraction of a second.
JACS...I joined the Japanese American Community Services funding board a few months ago. JACS/Shonien was founded in 1912, Shonien as a Japanese children's orphanage. When the Shonien house was sold many decades later, the money was put into a trust and the interest was used to fund projects. JACS was founded in 1961. This year, JACS added 5 new board members, I just became the 2nd VP in charge of external/PR/ fundraising. We are revamping our funding guidelines, mission, etc. I created and launched their website this June. It's simple, and needs more content.
VINCENT CHIN... Finally saw "Who's Killing Vincent Chin?" on the 20th anniversary of his beating. In case you don't know, he was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two white auto workers in Detroit who thought he was "Japanese." The killers served no jail time, and were fined less than $4,000. As a result, the Asian American community organized around the legal cases around the country.
TONY...Tony's last day of school at Wilton Place with 3rd graders was June 28. They made KIWA Just-Ice Water labels for water bottles, wrote a "How To..." Book, a Memory Book, ASSI Workers door hangers, and much more. I'm so proud of all his work. In August, Tony will move to a continuation high school in LAUSD.
LISA... Lisa & Jay had a baby boy on June 29th! More news on Baby Boy Rosenthal to follow...
WEB DESIGN...Geocities is charging for FTP access for uploading pages, so I am considering alternative web hosts, and possibly our own domain name. I'm thinking about kuidaosumi.com. Created and launched the JACS website. It's a very simple website. We need photos and content. Spending time working on the Manzanar Committee's website.
April 2002
April 3 - Breathe In, Breathe Out
Staying healthy, keeping in shape, eating right is a constant effort. Especially in the middle of grant season. Got to keep on going to the market. Just finished 3 grants in 2 weeks. Burning the midnight oil. Coming home, playing Diablo, spending time with my hubby. Going to the Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings. Walking. Eating right. Keeping Great Leap afloat. Things to do for Manzanar, press releases, outreach, program speakers, content. Starting work with JACS. Doing my column for the Rafu. Ayako's getting married on Saturday!
March 2002
March 20 - Passages and Rebirth
Sad news, Kathy Masaoka's sister Judy Ota, passed away last week after a long battle with cancer. She made the connections for the first Japanese American delegation to Cuba for us. She was instrumental with the rehab of the San Pedro Firm Building in Little Tokyo. Also, Fred Okrand passed away this week. He was a friend to Japanese Americans, protecting our civil liberties from the 1940's to 1990's, starting with opposition to E.O. 9066, and more recently on behalf of Japanese Latin Americans struggle for redress. Closed since the Northridge earthquake in 1994, LTSC held a Far East Cafe Groundbreaking last week. Seeing the salt n pepper shakers and shoyu bottles on the table swung me into a swirling of memories from my childhood. Check out the photos from Wataru Ebihara.
March 19 - Westlake High School Reunion?
Kris Lee, who lived a block away from my parents in 5th grade, called my mom's house the other day about our 20th high school reunion. Tony thinks I should go, and even offered to go, if Maria didn't go with me.
A full circle kind of thing. Maria's game, I doubt Jackie is. Not sure who else I'd want to see. It's been a long time since high school daze. If it were a college reunion, I think I'd be much more interested. Besides, I've been on classmates.com.
March 14 - Diablo Freaks and Geeks
Diablo has taken over the kuidaosumi household. Mike brought over Diablo2, a computer game for freaks. Busy as we are, the other day Tony played for 9 hours straight, until I came home from work, then I played from 10pm to 3am. Afterwards, my pupils were fixed and dilated. This has to stop. I put a stopwatch next to the computer to limit my game playing time. At least it got us to stop playing that darn Harry Potter Game Boy.
March 7 - Update
This is kind of a crazy month, especially with the Manzanar Pilgrimage coming up. Three big grants due this month at GL. Arghh. I've been trying to walk several times a week, do my mantra, eat healthier and yoga stretchies. I need to get back to yoga class on a regular basis. I am going skiing next weekend with family up in Mammoth. It'll be my first time skiing in possibly two years. Tony came home with Gameboy the other day. We are hooked on the Harry Potter game. I know I need to cut back b/c my arms, neck and back were sore after playing for several hours, and it's been pretty good lately. So, I do a little good for myself and then a little bad. Got to make it to the next level!! This past weekend Tony & I hung our laundry in the backyard to dry because the weather was so nice. Trying to save some energy.
Feb. 2002
This month marks my 10 year anniversary working in the J.A. community, and the 60th anniversary of J.A. internment. The Day of Remembrance was pretty good this year, afterwards went to Lily's parents house for Chinese New Year (of the Horse). The Nanka Nikkei Voices Turning Point publication came out this month. Yesterday was the JAHSSC installation/book signing party. It was pretty fun. Working on the Manzanar Pilgrimage, trying to get things going for this year. Tony bought a motorcycle. It's a 1971 BMW 75/5. He's been pretty excited about it. Baby Kieth and his cousin, Ronnie were both baptised at the Spindler's. He's started crawling. Tony & I went out to Desert Hot Springs with Fran & Don to meet his Grandma Shereley's sister, Jeanne and her husband Fritz Hartenstein. They were very fun to talk with.
Jan. 2002
Bay Area trip. On January 12-13, Tony & I drove up to the Bay Area for two "Report Back" presentations on our trip to Cuba. There were 12 of us who came up from LA. The San Francisco JCCCNC report back was great. We had a great turnout about 70-80 people, and saw a lot of friends like Dick Kobashigawa, Dina, Jason, Mariko, and other LA transplants. Later that night, we drove across the Bay Bridge to Oakland, and did a 2nd presentation at Pro-Arts Gallery. We were all pretty tired, and a little draggy. Stayed with Mary & Doug, and their beautiful baby Lauryn Emiko, who has two names in common with me. The next day, we met Kaz & Chris for dim sum.
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