Domino's Pizza & a little venting

Who knew that the pizza chain I have avoided for 10 years {I worked for the football team in college and after each home game we would order enough Domino's for each player to take home a whole pie and we ALWAYS had left overs so I would ALWAYS go home with 3 or 4 pizzas and munch on it all week.  I haven't been able to eat it since} would be the one thing that would cheer me up when I was having a rotten day?!?  There is a small carry out/delivery location right outside the gate that we pass every time we walk to the train station and until now, we have avoided it.  I've heard awesome things about it and the one pizza joint we have on base is garbage so I have no idea why we waited over a year to try it but it's probably best that we did.  Now that I know how good it is, I doubt I'll be able to stay any longer!

The menu is huge and contains your traditional American style pies, like pepperoni {that one is actually called the "American Special"} and a deluxe with mushrooms, pepperoni, green pepper, and onion with cheese and tomato sauce.  They have a Margarita which is the pie our friends all rave about, so we tried on of those.  We also selected a BBQ garlic chicken pizza which was AH-MA-ZING!  It had chicken, BBQ sauce, corn{a little strange, I know, but it was good}, slices of garlic and cheese.  The menu also features some very not traditional {by American standards} options as well including a"Charcoal Grilled Chiki-Teri" with teriyaki sauce instead of pizza sauce, broccoli and mayo {I want to try this one next time} and a one that was topped with asparagus and eggplant!  They also have NY & Chicago style pizzas, salads, pastas, subs, chicken wings and nuggets, french fries, soups and desserts.  It was a bit pricey, we paid 3,500 yen {about $50} for 2 "medium" pizzas but hey, that's what COLA {Cost Of Living Allowance for you non military folk is money the military pays you to compensate when you live in an area that has a high cost of living} is for right?  We will definitely be going back to try some of the other options!  Luckily for our waistlines though, the cost is enough to keep us from making it a frequent habit.

They give you this super handy bag for carrying your pizzas

Their "medium" pie next to my {NEW} 15.5 inch laptop...not the same as a medium in the States

The BBQ chicken {my favorite}

The Margarita {Jason's favorite}

  Buster {out of focus} really wanted some but we were greedy and didn't share!

So what had me so irritated?  We just found out {ON FACEBOOK} that we will be making a THIRD trip home next summer!  {before I go any farther, I must say that I understand it is unreasonable of me to expect others to plan their lives around us, but these are my feelings and this is my blog so deal with it or leave!}  When we moved to Japan, our plan was to visit the States ZERO times with exceptions made for weddings&funerals.  We have all of our lives to live in the US but only 3 years to live in Asia so we wanted to spend all of our money&time visiting some amazing countries in this area.  As you know, I already made one trip to the US because it was free.  On top of that trip, we decided to travel home for Christmas to be with Jason's ill grandmother.  We also have come to terms with the fact that we would be making 2 trips home next year, once in June for my brother Craig's wedding and once in September for Jason's brother Nik's wedding.   3 trips to the States in 10 months is A LOT!  It's a lot of time, a crap load of money and an incredible amount of stress, mentally and physically but we don't want to miss out on these monumental moments in our siblings lives.  On Thanksgiving, we found out {ON FACEBOOK} that Jason's other brother got engaged.  We are thrilled for them and were extremely relieved when we found out they picked a weekend consecutive to the weekend their other brother is getting married.  Then yesterday, we found out {ON FACEBOOK...can ya tell that part REALLY pisses me off} that they decided to move their wedding to Aug.  I'm not sure if they think we are made of money or if they flat out didn't even consider us into their plans.  Since we've found out all of this info via a freaking social media site, I'm leaning toward the latter.  I'm so angry that I'm supposed to give up my plans for someone who cares so little that they can't even pick up the phone {I'd even be happy with an email!} to tells us. 3 trips between June-Sept , plus a trip this month is just insane!  Even if Jason only takes a week of leave for each trip, that's 30 days of leave which doesn't leave us with much for things we want to do.  PLUS, at $1500 a ticket, that's $12,000 in plane tickets!  {ok, so we have some miles and will be able to get 2 of them that way, but still, $9000 is SO MUCH MONEY I CAN'T EVEN WRAP MY HEAD AROUND IT!!!}  That's not to mention the money we will have to spend on dresses/tuxes, gifts and general travel expenses.  We had plans to travel and a goal to save $20K next year which have obviously gone out the window.  I know it's incredibly selfish of me but just as much as each of these couples have plans for their lives, so do Jason and I.  Where do we draw the line and say our needs must come first?  We could never choose to attend one but not the others so that isn't an option and not attending any isn't really an option we're willing to look at right now.  I guess I just have to suck it up and accept that traveling and saving money isn't the plan the Lord has for us.

If you made it through all of that, cheers to you, I owe you a beer or a brownie or something!

LOVE