Tuesday, July 10, 2007
In Which I Am Almost There And Back Again
Much has transpired, not to sound overly dramatic. I'm drinking a homemade Shirly Temple (and a rather unorthodox version) in my apartment a full seven hours distant from my family hub. However, as most of my updates go, the new information is soon to be outdated. Sometime between the 25th and the 29th of our month I will be packed along to home again. Then about two weeks later I will be here again. This time for a longer haul.
A short summer camp-esque sojourn into independence and buying one's own food was useful I think.-- despite the hardships of the people I had to leave behind. And the cats. When it came to acquiring last minute digs and the random-draw roommate, I think I came up quite lucky. Roommate is [was] friendly but not saccharine, clever and indulges in puzzles but also Neopets. Fun times were had. I walked just about everywhere. Perhaps a mile most days. Paul visited twice, and I hope realized how enthusiastically he was received. Our freezer is full of meat that needs to be eaten before we disband our little adventure. And yet for dinner I had a quesodilla, and she had a cheesey pasta microwave meal.
August will see me move back here to the mountains. A little more sunshine and Summer, then the colours of Autumn and the depths of Winter are to be beheld. I'm excited, and I hope there is cheese and tea in my future. Reading and warm blankets and snow. Frostbite is not so alluring though. All of my shoes are completely flat on the bottom. For the precarious seasons I will have to buy some shoes with traction. Never before have I really needed them. Decent running shoes might not be a terrible idea either, but I shan't tell you why.
Other things that have been left out of the blog... My childhood friend got married this past May. Well, April really, but that is a different matter. What is important is that in May I went to California and breathed the translucent air and watched the sun set in a murky blaze of orange. There is something about California that is unique and clicks back into place. I was afraid that I might not fit in anymore, that somehow I might have become a small town girl when I was thrust into the new goldfish bowl. California has the jumble of culture that I love. Everything a little rough around the edges and bleeding into eachother. Dozens of people on the street at any given time who don't interrupt your reality unless you interrupt theirs. I love the ability to disappear in the crowd. There were many things I thought I missed and wondered if they would be the same upon return. They were. I had my various kinds of food. My shopping. The mishmash of Tagalog and Spanish and whatever version of English happened to be the vernacular.
Of course home had changed; some hideous "improvements" to the middle school, which are illogically placed and absurdly ugly, a silly statue across from the City Hall that is oddly sized and also awkwardly situated, and the local mall has expanded in many areas. I don't think I need to live there again anytime soon, although I would like to return for another trip and see some places I missed and some people who I wasn't able to connect with. But all-in-all, I think that I'm ready to go. If I am taken back to California I know I can still exist, however new horizons like, say, Washington DC, would not be unappreciated.
For now I have to be ready for home, find a good feed of the Tour De France because we don't have cable, and prepare to come back here with a new set of girls to live with. Four girls. I hope this experiment in insanity will not cause trouble. Girls can be very trying sometimes.
Much has transpired, not to sound overly dramatic. I'm drinking a homemade Shirly Temple (and a rather unorthodox version) in my apartment a full seven hours distant from my family hub. However, as most of my updates go, the new information is soon to be outdated. Sometime between the 25th and the 29th of our month I will be packed along to home again. Then about two weeks later I will be here again. This time for a longer haul.
A short summer camp-esque sojourn into independence and buying one's own food was useful I think.-- despite the hardships of the people I had to leave behind. And the cats. When it came to acquiring last minute digs and the random-draw roommate, I think I came up quite lucky. Roommate is [was] friendly but not saccharine, clever and indulges in puzzles but also Neopets. Fun times were had. I walked just about everywhere. Perhaps a mile most days. Paul visited twice, and I hope realized how enthusiastically he was received. Our freezer is full of meat that needs to be eaten before we disband our little adventure. And yet for dinner I had a quesodilla, and she had a cheesey pasta microwave meal.
August will see me move back here to the mountains. A little more sunshine and Summer, then the colours of Autumn and the depths of Winter are to be beheld. I'm excited, and I hope there is cheese and tea in my future. Reading and warm blankets and snow. Frostbite is not so alluring though. All of my shoes are completely flat on the bottom. For the precarious seasons I will have to buy some shoes with traction. Never before have I really needed them. Decent running shoes might not be a terrible idea either, but I shan't tell you why.
Other things that have been left out of the blog... My childhood friend got married this past May. Well, April really, but that is a different matter. What is important is that in May I went to California and breathed the translucent air and watched the sun set in a murky blaze of orange. There is something about California that is unique and clicks back into place. I was afraid that I might not fit in anymore, that somehow I might have become a small town girl when I was thrust into the new goldfish bowl. California has the jumble of culture that I love. Everything a little rough around the edges and bleeding into eachother. Dozens of people on the street at any given time who don't interrupt your reality unless you interrupt theirs. I love the ability to disappear in the crowd. There were many things I thought I missed and wondered if they would be the same upon return. They were. I had my various kinds of food. My shopping. The mishmash of Tagalog and Spanish and whatever version of English happened to be the vernacular.
Of course home had changed; some hideous "improvements" to the middle school, which are illogically placed and absurdly ugly, a silly statue across from the City Hall that is oddly sized and also awkwardly situated, and the local mall has expanded in many areas. I don't think I need to live there again anytime soon, although I would like to return for another trip and see some places I missed and some people who I wasn't able to connect with. But all-in-all, I think that I'm ready to go. If I am taken back to California I know I can still exist, however new horizons like, say, Washington DC, would not be unappreciated.
For now I have to be ready for home, find a good feed of the Tour De France because we don't have cable, and prepare to come back here with a new set of girls to live with. Four girls. I hope this experiment in insanity will not cause trouble. Girls can be very trying sometimes.
Labels: California, Moving, Roommate, Wedding
-- G 'Bye, Sonya -- . ( 10.7.07 ) .