Ambushed

This week caught me off guard. I thought about just posting a series of punctuation marks:
0_0 … !!! … :’-(

Wednesday night I had a message on my phone. I’d been expecting an interview in three weeks, but the message was “I’ll be out of town for a few weeks, how about tomorrow?” — so I ended up driving to Atlanta at some ungodly hour Thursday morning. The interview went really well; apparently I’m a “perfect candidate”. Humorous moment came when he asked what I missed most from China, and I said “my cat”. It’s not that I didn’t miss my family, or fajitas, or air conditioning — I just missed my cat a lot.

Friday I drove yet again towards Atlanta; I’d had a trip planned in TN for the following week. Sometime while I was stalled in traffic I got another phone call from the same guy. “Usually we give you a couple weeks after the interview, but there’s this job…” I end up with an actual nomination less than 24 hours after an interview I didn’t expect until November. “And I know you asked for Asia, but…” In a completely unexpected location. “Oh, and are you really set on a June departure, or…?” Hm. At any rate, now I can officially put it in print:
I got a job with the Peace Corps.
In Africa.
Departing February.
My recruiter said to tell my cat ‘hello’ for him.

Friday-Wednesday I spent lost in the woods, somewhere in Appalachia. Some hiking, a lot of trail work. Good trip. Lots of trail built. “Camped” in an abandoned schoolhouse (former student body of 45; glorified homeschool was more like it). Making a phone call involved driving two hours up a particular ridge, standing on a truck, and facing Southeast. We were so isolated that the sun didn’t begin to show up until 7:30 or so every morning. Absolutely beautiful weather and view every day we were out.

I got back Wednesday night. My cat died while I was gone.

[Home]

I returned to the USA Sunday afternoon. (I think. I lost track of days somewhere along the way.) I spent an overnight in LA, and got home-home-for-real around 3am Tuesday. I then proceeded to sleep from 8am-7pm Tuesday, because I’m really brilliant and that was incredibly conducive to getting over sleep deprivation.

I am currently bummed because all (ALL) my photos are on a friend’s computer, and it’ll be at least a week before I can get to them. Apart from that I am doing well with reentry… but I think a lot of that is because I haven’t actually participated in the world yet. I spent most of my awake hours yesterday (this morning? Today?) catching up on emails, blogs, comics, and news (in that order). Sweet, sweet, unlimited intarweb. In a few hours I’ll actually head to town, run various errands, and generally see if the world of here is still there.

It is very strange to wake up, go outside, and have no light & noise pollution assault me (minus effect of on-again-off-again yard light and currently-nearly-deserted highway). If I were you, my response to that would be “oh, ha ha, yeah no doubt!” — but think about it for a second. I haven’t legitimately seen stars since May. This. Is. Exceedingly. Strange.

It is also very strange to be freezing in my own house. I had forgotten just how cold A/C dependents keep their habitats. Yay warm-bodied kitties and unlimited blankets.

Taking a shower - in my shower - was blissfully strange. Hot water and clean clothes and soap, oh my.

And finally… it is strange to have silence and solitude. And that in particular is a very, very welcome “strange”.

Huh.

[Yes… apparently it’s that time of season again: I’ve devolved into short, meaningless post titles. Hooray.]

So… huh. I had a good day today. Yes. Me. Myself. I did.

Apparently it’s good to get steaming piles of shite out in the open, instead of shoving bitterness down into your subconsious, where it’s free to fester unrequited. Who’da thunk? Also, acknowledgment of non-hatred is awesome. Yes, You.

Anyhow. In other news: my boss is a very good person… regardless of the fact that I didn’t request off days officially in advance, he gave me a 5-day weekend for spring break, to drive South and visit the peoplez. (And The Peasants Rejoiceth. Yay.)

Oh, because you all know you loves it: DOOM KITTY 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Mrf.

There are times when I am grateful to work at a Caffeine Surplus Centre Extraordinaire… I really, really need a dose of goodness today. I am entirely too old to stay up entirely too late/early/etc.

Also: my, dear, darling, deaf/dumb kitteee [yay, crappy new phone pic] has just this moment discovered the joys of following a text cursor and mouse pointer on a laptop screen. She is Completely Enthralled, and this is Utterly Kyoot. I humoured her for a moment, and when I next checked the screen — she’d typed the following for your mass enjoyment:
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I thought you should know.