Yes, I am back in the US of A.  And, it’s completely strange, but not altogether horrible.  I don’t think it’s quite hit me though that I’ll not be returning to Russia; that’ll come later, I suspect.  Right now, I’m visiting some dear friends, so the excitement is a distraction from my having to contemplate such things.  When I get back to home home I’ll probably feel more of the culture shock that people mention after having traveled/lived abroad for an extended period of time.  It will be interesting, for sure.

For the time being I’ll be updating on my other blog, wherein I describe my experiences and suchlike in Russia.

It’s August now.  I’m not sure what I was doing those few weeks of July, but I woke up this morning and saw I have lots of piles of junk I don’t really want sitting around my room.  It probably had been a part of my plan to get rid of these piles, yet now it seems they’ll sit around for some indeterminable amount of time.  I have rearranged my bookshelves.  They look tremendous.  I also uncluttered my corkboard while keeping that haphazard, cool look that hip teen catalogues promote.

Well, it seems I’ve already exhausted myself having written an entire paragraph.  Until we meet again, keep a keen eye to the eastern horizon.

This past week I’ve really taken to practicing Japanese, something I’ve neglected since being home for the summer.  And what-ho to my surprise and joy, I still think it’s fun!  I was pretty convinced I’d still like it, seeing as how I’ve decided to study it particularly at school, but since my mood can be as predictable as the weather forecast I couldn’t be entirely sure.  Rosetta Stone is truly a great language learning tool, and even though version 2 isn’t nearly as streamlined and pretty as its successor there’s a lot of great information packed into it.  If I keep at it I just may be able to speak Nipponese one of these days.  ばんざい！

Today, rather, yesterday I hiked a lovely little offshoot of the Appalachian Trail.  What makes this one especially nice is the waterfall at the trail end which flows majestically off a large rock face into a crisp, refreshing pool.  I’ve thought occasionally that it’d be a nice routine to start every day with a little jaunt up to the falls followed with some morning stretches in the water’s mist, but only occasionally.  I guess my desire to spend mornings in bed trumps my ambition.  But honestly, I do love a good hike, so maybe I’ll at least try to make it a weekly to biweekly event.

Speaking of things I love, The Little Mermaid is an awesome movie.  Even 20 years later the animation still holds up while the characters have actual personality.  It’s nice to see after being plagued by less than sub-par animated films from more recent years.  Really, what happened to quality?  But I am looking forward to The Princess and the Frog, especially because it marks a return to 2D animation.  It looks like it just might be a revival of the entertaining, clever, good Disney movie.  Here’s to hoping.

I spent almost the entirety of the day shoveling piles of dirt from one place to another as part of the larger process of building a rammed earth house.  It’s a pretty cool project, one that’s been in the works for the past four months, I’d say.  Construction began with the laying of a river rock foundation, piece by piece, stone by stone.  I mostly avoided this portion of the work because it was frustrating and slow, like if Tetris were a game that wasn’t fun and didn’t have the catchy yet paranoing tunes playing in the background.  But that finally got done and the whole thing was capped with cement, so now the actual rammed earth part of the building begins!  A better, more complete explanation of the “Boden Haus” can be found elsewhere for those whose interest has been piqued by my riveting prose.

So, as for shoveling, it’s an incredibly exhausting mode of physical exertion.  Not to sound too much like a wuss, but I’m more sore from one day of this than, oh, nothing else I’ve done in the past year.  In a way I’ve found the experience refreshing, and I’ll probably put in a few more days worth of digging before everything is said and done.

Yesterday was the 4th of July, a day of great import to the history of the United States.  Tommy J. completed his draft of the Declaration of Independence, AKA Georgie, go f*** yourself, and we New World colonists went out for a round of Sam Adams and shot off some Big Cat fireworks.  So, in keeping with such grand tradition I spent the evening part of yesterday nursing some pale summer ales and watching a colorful sky show put on by the neighbors.  I think it’s also appropriate to mention, and somehow foretelling of the direction this country’s headed these days, that my Independence day supper was a delicious chorizo quesadilla followed up with some teensy burgers (sliders in TGI Friday talk).  Really, it was a great day.  Happy America!

This’n is gonna be a quickie, just to break myself from the cleaning semi-spree I finally started this morning. It’s helping a bit with the bogged down feeling I’ve had coming on for a while, so I’m hoping results will be even more outstanding after more tidying. Vacuum, ho!

My room is an absolute mess.  As a result I’ve avoided spending too much time in it except when I have no other options, like if I want to brush my teeth or sleep.  The easiest, quickest solution would be to clean, but there seems to be something keeping me from springing into action.  I think it’s the much more interesting prospect of just spending the day goofing off with people I enjoy.

But I can’t let this go on forever, so I’m resolving in this very moment to get up tomorrow and attack this disaster head on.  It’ll probably ease the slowly growing anxiety I’ve felt since being home.

As often happens, some considerable amount of time has elapsed for which I’ve failed to account.  Chock it up to negligence, forgetfulness, or just plain laziness.  In brief, these past few months I have managed to accomplish a few more or less important things like completing my first year of college and, well, that’s about it.  After a few weeks of being home I’ve fallen into a schedule of waking up no earlier than 10:15 a.m. and retiring only after 1:30 a.m.  I wouldn’t call it the most efficient paradigm, but it does offer pleasure in that my lifestyle seems to resemble the luxury and intrigue of the 1920s socialite more and more every day.  All that’s lacking are the extravagant dressing and evening gowns and the overabundance of alcohol.  And the handful of handsome suitors to take me out for a night on the town.  Is it really so much to ask?

These days I’m also suffering mild frustration owing to a lack of close physical contact with other people.  Now, I’m very an acknowledge-others’-personal-space kinda gal, but sometimes I just have the urge to be in very close proximity with others.  And not under any spectacular circumstances.  Sitting side-by-side with someone whose arm lightly presses against mine –that’s all it takes.  Maybe that’s sounding desperate and pathetic, but it’s just how I feel.

So, with 8 minutes remaining ’til the third hour I’m going to call it a night.