Wednesday, July 02, 2003

I'm not exactly the first person to notice this, but we are creatures of routine. Life may be more interesting when it's unpredictable, uneven, and changes day to day, but it's pretty damned exhausting. We have no real routine here in the US. Melissa goes to work, but she can cut out when she needs to. We have doctors appointments. We have shopping to do on odd evenings. We have had two weekends with friends in town and tonight we are flying to Kansas to see my family for a few days. We have social obligations, fulfilled and unfulfilled. No day is the same. This is taking its toll. The girls are not sleeping particularly well, and there's a lot more fussing than usual. We all feel discombobulated. For my part, I'm finding that I'm having a hard time getting it together to do things like read the paper, answer emails, or write on Hyperbole. My computer just got back from Compaq, so that's part of it, but it's more than that; lack of a regular routine makes it hard to do routine things. As a result of all this, these 2 1/2 weeks in the States have thus far been nice--particularly as it relates to seeing friends here and there--but sort of a pain in the ass, too. I still haven't settled in entirely, and I probably won't. If I do, then we're simply off to Dubai, and then it's a pain in the ass all over again. Except it won't be--we'll arrive in Dubai and be in our own house and know that that's where we'll be for two years. And we'll find our routine. So while there are things I'm loving about being back here--friends, family, availability of tacos and good beer, digital cable--I'm strangely anxious to get to the Middle East, where things will be normal again.   1:48:57 PM    Let's hear it. []