Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

It's good to be home.

One week back and I'm relearning how to do things in the US. And redomestcating myself. I'm watching the World Cup while eating my barbecue chicken and corn. When I left a few months ago, my grill was packed away neatly in my shed to protect it from the endless snowstorms and a week in January with excessively cold temperatures. I was very happy to bring it back out into this absolutely beautiful weather. I also managed to cut my grass today, and I don't know why it felt so good to push a lawn mower around, but it was an amazing feeling. I never thought that that would be something I'd miss.

My recently mowed lawn :)

In addition to cutting my grass again, I'm slowly letting Americanisms reenter my vocabulary. When I take food away from a restaurant, it is now "to go" or "take out," not "take away." It's not a big deal, I'm sure everyone understands take away, but I'm finding myself pausing before some of these words, although, thankfully, the American English phrases are finally creeping back in. I'm also seeing friends again, and I had forgotten how nice it is to be able to text or call people at any time. And see people. I went into DC for burgers and trivia with a couple of friends, and earlier in the week I spent a few hours after work with another friend. People are around, and I can see them almost any time. It feels GREAT.

One weird thing is that I don't completely feel like I'm back yet. It's usually after a jet-lagged induced sleep that I fully feel like I've returned (or arrived somewhere else), but the jet lag never set in. I think this week--two full weeks back--will fix that, but because of that, it's been a weird week of adjustments for me. One thing I'm REALLY enjoying is hearing all the new music on the radio, much of which I really like.

Perhaps this is bandwagon-ing, but A Great Big World is good, and this song is now on repeat for me. Oh, and fun video too.