It's Tuesday

at 2:09pm, 5:09 in Chattanooga.

I miss friends at home. I'm very ok, but I have a genuine longing to see familiar faces. Bellingham is wonderful, but I feel the tension between wanting to be 100% here and knowing my obligations to keep in contact with family and friends. I feel an obligation to call people probably more than they expect, but I almost feel like I've failed before I've even started because I always should have called yesterday. So family, friends, new friends reading this... please know that even if I fail to call you, that means things are great. That means that I'm busy and meeting people and building relationships with people here. I'm exploring and keeping busy. It does not mean that I don't think about you. I do. A lot. But if I called everyone I was thinking of, when I was thinking of them at all, I'd be on the phone all day, and I wouldn't be living. So be patient please. We will talk. I'm sure of it, but for now I'm trying to create my own space here as much as possible.

In other news in Bellingham, I had a delicious Indian dinner with my co-INNtern Emily Nelson last night. Yum! I made a new friend named Earl, a friend of the family's. I totally thought he was 31 or 32. Nope. He's 23, and I didn't find that out until after hanging out and eating frozen yogurt and trying to make 30-year-old conversation. Oops. I have not hung out with the INNterns much since I moved in with the host family. I'm just a little farther away now. We're going to be spending close to 27/7 together soon enough though. I'm babysitting Milan and Chase tonight for the fam so they can go out of town. I think we'll take a bike ride to dinner somewhere fun so as to not mess up the house. I know I would spend most of the night cleaning up after them! Tomorrow I'm going to have coffee with Lindsay senior-staff-but-oh-so-young Anderson, and Thursday night go see Paige in a ballet with Emily. Good times here... minus the 90 degree weather. 100 tomorrow! Very un-Bellingham weather I'm told.

Anyway, I've posted some pictures on my facebook, but I'll repost them...