8:06

too much to write, getting too behind.

i did get and start the other job i mentioned. so now i’m finally more or less fully employed with around 40 hours a week combined. it’s keeping me nice and busy. i like my coworkers, mostly, except that one girl who decided she hated me within 10 minutes of meeting me (???)

man there’s a lot to catch up on… um. i went up to dallas for the last time… i won’t be going back again before my parents move to nebraska. it was bittersweet… my mom and i took one final walk around the neighborhood, reminiscing… and i helped them repaint parts of the house. we had an early thanksgiving dinner as well, so that they can do their moving thing smoothly in november, and we’ll probably have christmas at their new home in january. i’m used to weird expat holidays so it’s whatever. when i left, it was with my sister’s beautiful maine coon cat maya, who will be staying with me until may, when my sister will come to get her and take her to tokyo. (since japan is rabies-free any animals you take over have to go through a rabies quarantine procedure — so it’s 180 days here still for miss maya… and down here to san antonio was a shorter drive than the one up to nebraska)

we haven’t introduced maya to my roommate’s cat max yet, we’re keeping them separated… i’m HOPING for a friendly, or at the very least tolerable, first meeting… gah! all in good time. you have to take these things slow. max is a sweetheart, it’s just maya that can be a bit territorial.

now that i’m so busy i’m really relishing my days off. i had one yesterday, it was LOVELY, i woke up and did some yoga and stretching, then puttered around all relaxed-like… finally decided to go downtown and see the sunken gardens (free!), then once i got there it turns out you can just walk right over to the zoo so i went and did that too. an okay zoo, nothing to write home about, but they DID have a nice variety of things, including some i’d never seen before. and lots of birds, including those enclosures you can just walk around with all the birds in there too, i love those.

on tuesday, my other day off, i went to the botanical gardens, also lovely. looked up in a tree to see a BIG old owl staring back down at me, it was really cool. 

i feel better about having income now too, so i don’t feel bad about spending money. i think i’ve written before that i have plenty of money from japan, it’s just i was so BORED that i wanted to work… but still, it’s nice knowing i’m not just casually burning through all my savings anymore. hoping to try a lot more restaurants from now on. got some lamb vindaloo from the indian place near me yesterday for dinner!!!

there’s so much spanish all around me, i never knew just how mexico san antonio is until i got here. looked it up, whites are 25%, hispanics are 50%. i need to relearn my spanish!!!!