There's something oddly satisfying, but at the same time considerably gross about spending your entire weekend in the comforts of home. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy lazy weekends at home, but at the same time I think that at least 1 day of that weekend should be spent outdoors, well just out of the house anyway. This weekend I spent far too much time in bed I think. The weather here in Indiana's making me lazy and lethargic. After a Saturday morning of doing domestic work, I found myself uncontrollably sleepy. I eneded up taking a long nap, thus spoiling half the day away.

Back home, it's a miracle if I even get a full 30 minute nap on the weekend. Because I work at night pretty much the entire week, my weekends are booked for Gavin. So it's become quite a stretch that my body's become used to. I guess I'm making up for those lost hours of sleep now.

So I guess I shouldn't complain. It IS making me FAT though. I mean, pretty much all I did this weekend was eat, drink, and sleep. So yeah, I'm complaining now.

My precious video iPod crashed last week, and at a time when I had really needed it as well - which was on a plane to the US. That was a total travel time of 18 hours without any music.

I haven't had my music for the past 2 weeks now. I am just about ready to teeter on the brink of insanity.

Thus, iWant..

This red one.

I had meant to work on some things tonight (US time) before I hit the sack, but I guess loneliness in an empty house in a rather cold state had me doing otherwise.

I willed myself to brave the cold and windy weather by having a smoke out back by the patio decked in nothing but a tank top, my oldest (and apparently thinnest) pair of jeans, and flip flops. Well I braved it all right.. sort of. I think I'm adjusting quite nicely.

The back deck has a nice view of the autumn foliage, and if anything, looking over at it was the reason why I even stayed out that long. I love the fall season. It's absolutely breathtaking seeing the changing of the leaves, and the way they just seem to float to the ground. I wish we had that back home. It's just beautiful. It makes for great "reflective" moments, which is what I ended up doing.. in the cold.

I never thought I'd be where I am right now. Never in a million years did I expect to be working with this industry that I'm in now, and liking it as well. It's great how everything just seems to fall into place when you least expect it. I never planned out my future, I always believed that you just sort of would have to go with the flow. One thing that I did learn though, is that you always have to leave room for life to kick in. The best plans are almost always redirected because of something outside our control.

It's been 3 years now since the so called biggest crisis of my life happened. Back then, questioning my existence and everything I held dear and true in life felt like the most important thing to do. I felt neither here nor there, and knew that no one but myself could pull me out of the hole I was in.

All of us more or less goes through some kind of transition from kid to adult I think. It's that phase where we're confused because something happens that just breaks down everything we built for ourselves.

I'm lucky I had that crisis. Although I should probably clarify why I called it a crisis. Having Gavin was the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to wake up and grow up. If not for him, I would have stayed in my little world of self-absorption and confusion. Going through everything alone though was the crisis. I don't think I've ever felt such pain and betrayal in my entire life.

But that was then, and this is now. It's amazing what time can do to heal. It's been one hell of a journey.

As of now - maybe not happy, but definetely content..

Yesterday I moved into my new "temporary" place for the next 3 months of my life. It's a nice place, cozy and warm and quite honestly, much better than any hotel right now. It was really nice to unpack (finally) and just settle in.

With that said, I did a bit of grocery shopping yesterday as well and ended up buying what I thought was um, healthy. So as you can see, I have a variety of TV dinners stocked. I've only seen 1 Strabucks around here (can you believe?! it's sacrilege!), so I stocked up on that as well. Hey, I did at least get some juice and milk and stuff...

Sigh, what I'd give for any of the home cooked meals that our cook back home prepares.

These are the words printed on the hot water cups in my hotel room. The cold water cups read, "Some Like It Cold," like wow, could they get any more creative than that.. In a bustling metropolitan city (which is where I'm from), I would normally not have the time of day to even think about something like that, but out here in the country (which is where I am), these things just pop out at you like something from the twilight zone. (Trust me, you gotta be here to understand what I'm saying)

So here are some pictures of the inside, and the outside of my hotel room. (If you'll look closely enough at the third picture, I believe you'll see a barn. Yeah, it's right next to the freeway across the cornfields and lakes.) Hehehe..

It's awesome though.

I have always been amazed at the ingenuity of the Japanese. Especially when it comes to turning simple objects into the most spectacular things in the world. I had to catch a connecting flight from Nagoya earlier this week, and because I'm scared to death of the way aircraft toliets flush (I always feel that its annoyingly strong suction will suck me into the unknown), I decided to go to the little girl's room before boarding. I was looking for the usual hand dryer by the wall, but there was none, and before I could wipe my hands on my jeans, I spotted this. All you do is stick your hand in and it dries it for you. And you don't even have to shake! Fabulous, wouldn't you agree?

(And yes, that really is my hand, and yeah, I really did take a picture despite the pitiful laughter coming my way from the Japanese ladies who thought I was provincial. No one knew me anyway..)