being home

It ain't all roses, coming home.

Don't get me wrong - I can cite murder statistics with the best of 'em, but I love New Orleans. I love how people wave at me, say "how you doin" and mean it, and invite me inside to see the colors they painted their house. I love hearing music wherever I go and the amazingly beautiful houses. And so much more do I love. Brenda letting me store my truck at her house, neighbor Carolyn feeding me all day yesterday after she picked me up, etc. etc.

But I'm tired and my back hurts, and working for a living sucks. I was half an hour late for a meeting that *I* had scheduled (and actually rescheduled), and the prof I'm working with was gracious enough to say, "It's ok."

Why was I late? I got my legs waxed. Poor women tweezed around my mosquito bites rather than waxed, but they were good sports about it. And it hardly hurt (in fact, I fell asleep). I'll post here about any difficulties encountered ... but honestly it was so untraumatic that I'll go back next week to have my armpits waxed. And I ran into the woman who colored my hair, whom I really liked on both a professional and personal level, and I'll go back to see her to fix my stupid hair.

On the good side, it's cool today. I guess it hit about 90, but there's a breeze so now that I'm home I just have the doors open and it's good. If I could reach up (without falling over in excruciating backpain) I'd turn on the fan, but even ibuprofen isn't helping now. I'll be fine - just a lot of sitting still and not a lot of sleeping make me a hurtin girl.

The boys asked me what my favorite part of my visit to Alaska was. Keegan said our mosquito killing contest (he kicked our asses), and Rohnan said watching Shrek 2 together (and what we did before that; I forget what it was). They are such teachers' kids. :) (And it's so interesting how they have such different personalities! I'd think that two people born at the same time to the same parents with the same experiences would be so much more alike.)

My favorite part? Wood chopping. I'm totally jonesin for it.

And no, I didn't give up coffee today yet. But I will - I bought no half and half, so as soon as I run out of coffee or have no interest with soy milk in my coffee, I'm done. I went to bed about 8 pm last night because I was so freakin tired, and woke up several times in the night because of temperature issues. It's effing hot in my room, and the window now opens but my screen is only about 6 inches tall. The fan can be a bit gusty, and the A/C ... well, I just can't run it at night without screaming in agony at wasting all that electricity.

The Landlord did everything on my list, and there were no cockroaches to be seen any time I came downstairs in the night. Sweet. Now to get him to put on screen doors and a room A/C in my bedroom. I'll probably offer to pay for the doors & A/C if he'll help me put them in - I have a pretty good rent deal and these are things I wasn't promised. But they'll improve the quality of my life and save me significant electricity.

And because I haven't given up coffee yet, I think I'm going to walk down to CC's and enjoy a decaf latte while I read. I really need to exercise at least a little, and that will be a good motivation to walk a couple miles.

The worst part about being home is that it gets dark here. I so miss the skylight of the yurt and that constant daylight. I wasn't sure I had any interest in returning to Alaska, but that summer light makes me much more interested.

So. I'm happy and sad to be home. I had great travels all along the west coast and am very grateful to have such wonderful friends in my life. And now that the cockroach battles appear to have been won, y'all can come visit!