Wait for the curvature of the sideline to appear

I'm going to try something a little bit different in my blogging today. I'm originally composing this message in the middle of the day (while I wait for some graphics stuff to render for this website I'm doing), and then review it later today, edit, and then publish it.

Yesterday, work-related, was kind of long, I was trying to read up on Ruby on Rails for this project I'm going to do at the school, and I just wasn't in the reading mood. So I let little things distract me too much. Although, around ten, I was in one of the admin building offices working on a computer, and one of the other guys in the office says, "Hey, is [the science teacher] bringing his class out to play packets? He is!" Sound of door opening. "Hey, we want to play too!" "Come on down!" So we played a couple games of packet wars with the physics class. It was some lab experiment on projectile motion (the science teacher is good at making stuff up.), but it was fun.

I went out questing for various and sundry things at local merchants, most of which I found, so that was a success.

Last night, after supper, a few of us were kind of goofy, we 'played' 'air hockey' on the dining room table. See, it started out as an attempt to see how close to the edge you could slide the (Plexiglass, don't worry) salt and pepper shakers from across the table. Well, we started going cross-ways on the table, then hit shakers mid-slide a couple times, then took the plexiglass covers off of the shakers and tried those, and then... 'air hockey' was the inevitable result. Nobody won, but we had a lot of fun.

This morning has been busy already. I went out further questing for nan this morning, and fairly successfully made my purchase with my limited Dari skills (especially since I have had some of our local staff teach me numbers.), which gratified me immensely. Then I had a friend over for breakfast this morning, I had asked the cook for a simple, local recipe that I might have a chance to make and not screw up. Well, I messed it up, but from the standpoint of I didn't make what the recipe suggested (I scrambled the eggs instead of frying them with the yoke and white separately) not from the standpoint of it tasted bad. We agreed that it turned out OK, and I don't think my friend was only trying to make me feel better.

Later today, I have to do more website consulting work, I double booked myself over a thanksgiving party our Adult English program is having that I was going to go helpish with, which I didn't mean to and wish I could have changed, but I couldn't, and I want to get this website finished. So I guess I just live with it. They told me they are gong to take me out for dinner afterwards, which doesn't thrill me but I'll deal with that too.

(written later in the day)

Well, after waiting 15 minutes for the driver to go to meet for the website, I called and got informed that we weren't going to meet for some reason I couldn't really determine. So I went to the thanksgiving party, it was neat, I mostly mingled with the students, talked to them some, explained some about Thanksgiving to some, played ping pong with a couple. Now, you may be wondering, "What, Russ, you doing small talk and party mingling? That's crazy!" In reality, I can do this fairly well. My dad calls it, "working the room," and I can turn on the gene that does it when I want to. It's just a lot of work, and it is tiring in its own way. But it is for a good reason, and the students seemed to really enjoy the party. So it was a success.

We had steak for supper, I feel like all I did all day was eat, eat, eat. Especially since I don't usually eat breakfast and I ended up having a fairly big one since I didn't want to have lots of left over food (with no microwave, leftovers become more problematic than in the States.) Then lunch seemed to be right after breakfast (since I finished around 9:15), and then the party had some food and desserts. Add in steak for supper, and oreos while I was playing games later, and I'm pretty full.

Today was a good, relaxing day. A day with nothing seemingly done of permanent significance, but a day to remember and a day to be thankful for. I told the voice of loneliness and fear to disappear, and asked for other voices to take over. I know I don't always do what I should, I know I lose sight of the goal sometimes, I know sometimes I look back and wonder why I came here and why I have been changing, and I know sometimes I wonder how this is going to end. But I don't mind the uncertainty. If it makes You happy, that's fine.