I’ve been back a little over a month now, and really do feel like a normal person now. It is funny how much my life has come to resemble the one I have left with a few major exceptions
a) I currently reside with my mother, but hopefully that statement will not be true in the near future
b) A LOT of my friends have moved out of Chico
c) I’m unemployed
However this last one does not mean I’m less busy than before. It’s strange how being unemployed almost takes up more time than being employed, because if I have a “spare” moment, I feel the need to use it for job searching.
I feel like a normal person again because I have a car (which Erica has affectionately termed my birth control), a semi-schedule and all of the stresses and enjoyments of American life that I had before. However, I would emphasize the latter since it has been soooo great to be back and catch up with friends and family. Especially friends with new babies!
Also, I’ve come to appreciate things I forgot that I’d missed! Here are a few of those things:
- The view from my dad’s living room window
- Getting warm by a wood fireplace
- Bright orange Hachiya persimmons decorating now leaf-less trees
- Running in the rain and mist through the pine trees of Paradise, the only sounds being thousands of tiny droplets on beds of pine needles
- Garrison Keillor’s voice reading poetry on Writer’s Almanac every morning
- Browsing the new books at Barnes and Noble
- Snow!
- Road trips in a nice care with the proper number of people inside, and the ability to stop for bathroom breaks on a whim
Josh is not usually so ghost-like
What else is there to do on a road trip but try on cowboy hats?
Overall, though I miss Uganda terribly, being back has been great, and I’m terribly optimistic about the future. I really thought I would be a) bored or b) hyper-concerned about the consumerist American lifestyle. Right now I’m neither of those things and hopefully that will not change.
Happy Holidays!
