Environments

Current environmental state:
--I'm in my bedroom at my sister's house in Louisville. It's a big comfy bed and I have four pillows. To my right is a GRE study book, my cell phone (yet to have voicemail, since I keep forgetting to make one of those.) I have a Cody McFadyen novel by my lamp, my notebook and a pen on one of my pillows, clothes in my floor, and hats, boots, and belts hanging on the closet door shoe-holder thing. I love sleeping with no mosquito net.
--A tissue box full but two weeks ago is now down to half its capacity due to my continuous Snotty McDroolface alias. I'm wondering how much blood coming out of your nose per blow is actually okay. This began on my flight back to LA.


Current state of affairs:
--I live with my sister and her fantastic family. It's fun to wake up in the morning to two adorable blonde nieces who throw down Cocoa Puffs in their cute onesie PJs and say, "Hi JJ!" Who knew I'd look forward to morning cartoons? (Unfortunately, it wasn't really my thing in my own childhood. Sad day, I know.)
--I have a job at a make/paint-your-own-art studio called The Artist in You. So far, I love it. I don't sit in front of a computer all day; instead, I greet customers, watch kids paint pottery, clean up after them, unload kilns, glaze stuff, make calls, la dee da. I even once pulled a small piece of glass out of my scalp! (Due to sanding down some sharp glaze.) It's really fun, to be honest.


--I've joined a gym. My sister is helping get my butt back in shape. My upper body strength is equivalent to that of my 4-year old niece who could pass for a two-year-old. My younger niece, Kendall, is definitely stronger than me.


--I went snowboarding for the first time last weekend. I'm pretty sure I bruised my tailbone. It was...fun? I enjoyed learning something new, and it was definitely awesome to learn from Kelly and Ronnie, but by the end I couldn't even pick myself up off the ground. In the last course, after crying once already, realizing my knee was three times its normal size, and being soaked through my shirts, I told my sister with weepy eyes, "I just want this to be ooooover." She was an all-star.
Luckily, my soreness has been replaced with that from the gym.
--I'm currently looking for a car. I'd hoped to just get a bike and use that as my be-all-end-all of transportation matters. But I've fallen into convenience mode rather quickly.

Current Entertainment
It's crazy how quickly I've developed a TV schedule. I've never watched so much TV in my life.
--Nightly Programming is as follows:
Monday: The Voice, followed by Smash
Tuesday: (formerly) Glee, American Idol, Parenthood
Wednesday: The Middle, Modern Family
Thursday: Awake, if I think it's as awesome as it looks
I also like to watch Big Bang and How I Met Your Mother whenever it comes on randomly. AND I'm catching up on Downton Abbey. It's fantastic.
Other entertainment forms include:
--Flipping my nieces onto the couch. It's really quite fun. They're like rag dolls.
--Lots of music, of course! I've even been asked to play/sing "Over the Rainbow" at a wedding this summer. Sah-weeet! I'm also planning on investing in a mandolin once my paychecks get to rollin' and I'm not as freaked out by loan and car payments.
--Watching my brother-in-law's saltwater fish tank. The coral reminds me of Tonga.

Well, friends, that's the update. Perhaps this sounds a bit like your own lives, which is why I've debated my motivations for keeping this blog. If I'm no longer int in third-world life anymore, will you still be interested?
Perhaps I'll have no more awkward encounters with men yelling "Hey baby," or of kids throwing sticks into my bicycle spokes, but I am in a new city, I have a new job, and am contemplating a strange haircut in the near future.
And, of course, I'll always have third world stories to tell.