Back in Houston, now.  It’s so HOT and HUMID here that just walking around, you feel like you’re standing behind a car’s exhaust pipe – know what I mean?  Well, I AM inside most of the time so can’t really complain.

A few more days til I head back to Uzland.  When I first came, just over 6 weeks ago, I was like “huh?  where?”, having almost forgotten entirely about what my life was like out there.

Now, I’m ready to get back to work again.  Ready to go back to la vida loca in Uzland!  Ready to speak Russian…??  4 more months and then it’ll all be over.  I can’t even imagine. So I won’t!

Here’s a fun/funny pic taken at the Grand Junction Farmer’s Market:

 

And a reminder of what I’m missing:

Years and years ago, I came to Colorado for a ski trip, but it’s not like I saw anything like this!  This is the Colorado National Monument in Fruita, CO, just a few miles from Grand Junction, CO (where I am).  We drove up it and — yikes — it was S-CAAA-WEE because you’re driving along the edge of the monument with a sheer drooooooop on the right side.  But it WAS very purdy, indeed!   

 

 

 

Fruita is also known for this.  ???  Strange, indeed.

SHOUT-OUTS!

• CON-gra-tu-LATIONS to my cousin KYURI-sama, who got engaged this past weekend (“but this is only the second time you met him”! – uh, said to me by her, not the other way around!!!)…


• Also, CON-gra-tu-LATIONS to my other cousin, AMY, who got engaged a few weeks ago…(jazznraindrops)


• And CON-gra-tu-LATOINS to my OTHER cousin, Jen, who is unofficially “engaged”…(who isn’t reading this, probably)


• HELLO to all the xanga peeps I didn’t get to see on this tour, even though I was nearby or in their cities… (you know who you are!)


• HELLO to all of those who read this but don’t leave comments and are afraid to enter the land of Xanga.. (or are too cool)…

RANDOM TIDBITS!

Did I tell you how my Michworld and non-Mich world (Houston, New York, etc, etc..) keep colliding?  Notice:

• My friend S – Michigan - and my friend Kyle – New York City -got married.


• My friend DTK -Michigan  – and my friend R – New York City – are getting married.


• The husband of my friend L - Houston – and the brother of my friend J – Michigan  - are working on a film together…


• My friends S and G – Michigan  – came to Uzland on a m.trip from their ch a few years ago…


• At the birthday party of the son of my friend C – Michigan  – I saw a guy I had known YEARS ago in Houston.  He didn’t remember me, though.

 

Here are the CITIES I visited in the past 2 months:

Osaka
Kobe
Tokyo
Hiroshima
Miyajima
Nagoya
Kyoto
San Francisco
Chico
Los Angeles
San Diego
Flagstaff
Phoenix
Houston
Portland (Maine)
N. Lovell (Maine)
Naples (Maine)
N. Conway (NH)
New York City
Richmond (VA)
Arlington (VA)
Falls Church (VA)
Philadelphia
Grand Junction (CO)

I am now in Colorado, visiting my friends/boss Bob and Cathy H…. and trying to get some work done.

Cathy took me to Palisade for their famous peaches!  (www.palisadepeachfest.com)  The lady selling them to us carefully hand-selected the ripest ones.  They were YUMMY.  Did you know that each peach variety lasts only about 10 days?  I’m sure you did and you never told me.

I also ate some delicious Olathe Sweet Corn.  (www.olathesweetcornfest.com). 

DEEEEE-licious.

We also bought Ben and Jerry’s Vermonty Python, and I loved the description on the back:

“And now for something completely euphoric.  We interrupt ourselves with much hooting through tin horns to bring you this brilliant new ice cream made from dried shrubbery & old cereal packets. Don’t be daft – we’re just having you on a bit, all right?  This is a ripping good flavor, really, so buy it quickly now & run away, silly person, or we shall taunt you a second time!”

It’s coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl & FUDGE COWS!

Oh, I’ll miss these little things when I’m back in Uzland next week!

 … there’s nothing better than good food…

… and good friends… GOOOO BLUEE!!!!

 

 

Double tagged!  so here goes…

from drtaekim:

“Top 10 Websites that bring me simple pleasures in life.”

1. xanga

2. cnn

3. slate.com

4. imdb

5. www.songmeanings.net

6. allrecipes.com

7. www.pluggedinonline.com

… can’t think of any more

NAME 10 OF LIFE’S SIMPLE PLEASURES THAT YOU LIKE MOST, THEN PICK PEOPLE TO DO THE SAME. TRY TO BE ORIGINAL AND CREATIVE; TRY NOT TO USE THINGS THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY USED.
 

1. sharp cheddar cheese

2. when you are carrying something REALLY heavy and then you can finally put it down

3. cleaning up after a succesful party

4. dancing — like crazy — to hip hop

5. hugs from little kids

6. laughing so hard you cry or snort

7. the farmer’s market

8. coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee

9. someone smiling at you randomly on the street (girl or boy) — just because!

10. New YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tag: azngirl723, ckimchi, dontletmedown, loydsrus,gnusharas

from twofishoutofwater (can your xanga name be any longer?):
1) One book that changed your life?
the bible

2) One book you have read more than once?
little women

3) One book you would want on a desert island?
my utmost for his highest

4) One book that made you laugh?
he’s just not that into you

5) One book that made you cry?
The oath (book about Chechen doctor)

6) One book you wish had been written?
Cheap Intimacy – the scourge of the Christian dating world

7) One book you wish had never been written?
any Jane Austen book. I can NEVER finish one.

8) One book you are currently reading?
just finished: the confessions of an economic hit man by john perkins

9) One book you have been meaning to read
Under the banner of heaven

Since I am totally obsessed with food, and chances are, so are you, devoted readers of my xanga, I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve eaten (that I remember) since my time in the US.  Here goes:

• SPICY Thai noodes in Chico, CA - they were so spicy that I was turning red and dying while eating them


• KFC  in SF- those biscuits!  Oh those biscuits!


• Uzbek food in West Hollywood, LA!


• a melon bar in LA, bought from a Japanese super market next to the karoake place we went to…


• Poppy seed and everything bagel from Ess-a-Bagel in NYC, both with vegetable cream cheese (eaten on separate days, of course!!!!)


• Sul-lung-tang at Kam Mee Ok in Koreatown in NYC


• Luby’s cafeteria mac-n-cheese in Houston


• Cha-jjang-myung in Houston (North China)


• Yummy clam chowder in Naples, Maine (Charlie’s, where I met the girl from Uzbekistan!)


• Countless burgers – in Maine;  in VA; and atMcDonald’s, a 1/4 pounder with cheese…


• Payard Hedgehog Cake, made by Juddi


• Yummy whole wheat pasta ziti, made by Arisa


• Coke float, in Arlington, VA


• a really nice steak salad in NYC


• mae-oong-tang, made by my mom in Houston (hot Korean-style seafood stew)


• chicken rice crepe, ordered from Lannam (Vietnamese!) at 11:00pm in NYC


• yummy “momofuku” noodles, in NYC

Other things to note:

• I LOOOOOVE TARGET!!!

Headed back to Uz-land in about two weeks! 

Spent a weekend with some lovely ladies in RichMOND, VA.

 

We’ve had get togethers before, but this was the first time we included children.
Well, I guess none of us even HAD children the last time we met (May 2002).
They were a fun addition!

JUDDI and CK

 

Me and Lyla

 

Baby CK and Sonia

Barefoot and pregnant (some of us) in the kitchen, where we belong.

 

So, I’ve been on the E. Coast for less than week, now… and already, some interesting encounters:

• One taxi driver I talked to – his name was Shovkat, the same name as my Uzbek neighbor’s husband!  He was from Pakistan, but we had a lively discussion about current events. Even though Uzland is not that religious, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about Islam and understand things from the perspective of Muslims just a little bit more than I used to.


• My mom and I were in Maine, visiting my sister, and we went to a restaurant in Naples, Maine.  There, our waitress happened to be Russian.  She asked my mom where we were from, then of course my mom asked where she was from… and then she came over and said “so, I heard you speak Russian!”  So we spoke a bit.  THEN, our hostess came over and said “I heard you live in Uzbekistan?  I’m Tatar and I’m from Tashkent ! I live near TSUM!”  Amazing, eh?  I spoke in Russian with her a bit as well. Random!


• Another man I met was from the country of Georgia, which was part of the Soviet Union and is a part of the region know as the Caucasus.  He actually DID look like American Caucasian, i.e. light hair, light eyes,light skin..  and not like a typical Caucasian, which is typically darker hair, olive skin… remember my entry about how we call white Americans “Caucasian”, even though REAL Caucasians, from the Caucasus, don’t look like white Americans.. though parts of the Caucasus DOES include Russia as well, so maybe that’s where the terms comes from?

Spent a few days in Phoenix, AZ at the HQs of Food for the Hungry (www.fh.org)… my favorite Ch. Development organization… it was energizing being there, talking to people about life in Uzland… then I went back to Houston for a few days.

My mom and I arrived in NYC yesterday (Saturday) and then I rushed off to see my friend Connie get married to Marshall!  It was a great wedding and a mini-reunion for the amazing and wonderful folks of Operation Exodus, the mentoring program I was involved with when I lived there.

This afternoon, Mom and I arrived in Portland, Maine and drove our *kind of big* SUV rental car to Fryeburg, Maine… a nice little town.  My sister is working at the Quissisinsianainana (or something like that) resort and we came to visit her.  I’m excited to see her performing as the fiddler in … Fiddler on the Roof!

I’ll be here til Tuesday.

Then Wed/Thurs, I’ll be in NYC… then Friday – Wednesday, I’ll be in VA, then DC, then Philly!

Not tired of travelling, yet… it’s energizing to see family and friends… and some of them are STILL interested in hearing about my life in Uzland!