I hate leaving depressing posts up for too long. Not that it was necessarily depressing as much as it was just reality, and some times reality isn't flowers, hearts, bunny rabbits, and rainbows. But the past twenty-four plus hours were definitely an encouragement.
First, I do have to mention the e-mail responses I got back from my newsletter, because hearing from people back home is always awesome. It makes my day to know that people at home are thinking of me (even if they're just thinking of me because they opened their inbox and found a page-long e-mail from me). I appreciate it a lot, so thank you (and keep them coming).
Yesterday was relaxing. I read a little. I went to the dentist...for admittedly the first time in a while...and the dentists were from home...the next town over or so from me, so while I was laying there with my mouth open we talked about home (well, they talked...you know how it is). And no cavities, which was nice. Maybe not so relaxing, but nice. I watched a movie with my roommate. And, I got invited to play Settlers of Catan with some of the other people on the Ranch. I've been invited once or twice before but never went. Well, yesterday I figured it sounded like fun (and it was). The game "started" at 8...rather board set-up started at 8, which for those of you who play know something of how that goes...and we weren't playing the original, we were playing with an expansion set, which includes building ships to explore the ocean...so the set-up was a little more involved than usual. But still, fun was had and the game eventually ended shortly after 11. When I was walking home, I noticed it seemed rather bright out and looked up to a rather spectacular display of stars. It was a completely clear night...much clearer than we've had lately. So after I got home I put on a sweatshirt (it was a little chilly out), went back out and spent another 10 to 15 minutes wandering around and staring at the stars. The moon was bright enough that I didn't even use the flashlight I had brought with me.
Today, driving in to church in the busito also was good. On the way, we pick up a family who lives about a mile or so from the Ranch. Bienvenida almost always comes, and some of her children and grandchildren...which changes from week to week. At times there are two or three people we're picking up, at times there are six. Today it was Bienvenida, three of her children (she has 8 or 9 I think...but I don't know for sure), and two grandchildren. One of them, Valeria, comes often...and today she was the first one on the busito, and picked the seat next to me. She just turned two last week, and she's adorable...just saying. Within ten minutes, Valeria started nodding off, and leaning against my side...which with the bounciness of the busito didn't really seem that comfortable for her, so I picked her up and put her in my lap...and she promptly fell asleep. She slept until after we were in the city (while we were picking up other people...it's a 15 passenger busito...and usually it's pretty full by time we get to church). There's something restful about a child sleeping in your lap. And considering Valeria was super shy and refused to make eye contact with me for the first month or so after I got here, it was encouraging. [After church I got a chance to hold Bienvenida's other granddaughter, who is 4 months old. She fell asleep against my shoulder...it took her about three minutes after we left the church. She slept all the way to the mall, where we stopped to eat...about 15 minutes later...and considering all the babies I'm missing at home who were just born or will soon be born...yeah, a baby fix today was a good thing.]
All that to say, today was a good day. Hopefully tomorrow will be good as well. But for now...bed should probably happen sometime soon, because I do have school tomorrow...it's the beginning of the second-to-last week of school for the semester. No small amount of excitement there...it's just a matter of trying to end things at a "natural" stopping point. Hmm...about that...
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