Back in the US of A

I forgot how small our little supermarket is. I went to Wal-Mart today, and they had more than five kinds of deodorant. I bought my favorite hair stuff and my favorite (expensive) face stuff, and boy, did I feel lush.

Since my return to the USA, I have been followed faithfully by two furry creatures: a mostly-white calico cat (she weighs probably about 15 pounds) and a Jack Russell/Dachshund mix. Cali, the kitty, sits on my lap and happily sheds wildly on my black skirts white Copper lies dejectedly on the floor while I study and cannot play with him. I have awoken to both sleeping on my bed in the mornings, Cali near my head and Copper in between my feet. It is good to have some non-human company.

Well, one nice thing about being over here is that I got paid without having to work all week. Mwahaha. . . Checking my bank account this morning perked me up considerably after sleeping in until 10am and feeling rather disappointed that I'd missed the best part of the morning. Adapting to US time is harder than I remember. I've been going to sleep at 8 and 9pm. The latest I've stayed up so far is 10pm. I feel awful because Brendan works until 5, so when he comes home at 5:30, it's dinner and then I go to sleep. We haven't had time to hang out at all, except when we drove Morgan to dog training on Wednesday and we went to the mall to visit the GameStop. Usually we are up at six to play MarioKart and asleep at 12 after playing GuitarHero. However, the upstairs is just as unbearably hot as usual. In addition to the heat, it's stuffy and humid from the recent storms.

Ahh, the storms. The entire area flooded (not near as bad as Iowa or some other areas), and certain areas of the town are so smelly from the standing water we roll up the windows in the non-air conditioned mini-van in order to avoid breathing in the mini-Bog of Eternal Stench. It has been raining all afternoon, and is currently drizzling miserably outside. However, the air is clean and the animals are cuddly, so life is good. Also, I have Ovaltine. And Lavazza Blu caffe on its way here.

Okay, so far the best part of being here has been. . . realizing that I don't have to keep my purse on the non street-side of my body. The worst part has been waiting until the WALK light goes on to cross the street. *sighs*