TGIF

I was lazy last night and didn’t write a blog post. Actually, nothing much happened yesterday, and I decided to write something else.

Real Simple has a life lessons contest each year, requiring a themed essay. Each year, I promise myself that I am going to enter that contest, and each year, I let myself down and don’t do it. So this year, working some during each night over the last week, I wrote a 1500-word essay on the decision I have made that I most regret. I worked and worked and was not happy with anything that came out of my fingers. Furthermore, the words were hard to find. When I write to you, the words just rush out, finding their ways to the screen; what happened last night was nothing like that. I searched for words, tried them this way and that, but they just didn’t come out right. Now I know how some of my students feel when they complain about assignments.

Specifically, I understand what the feel like when I pick their topics for them, because it finally occurred to me that one of the reasons I couldn’t get the words to come out right is because I don’t truly regret any of my decisions and therefore could not become impassioned about what I was writing. I sometimes wish I might have done something a little differently, but as far as regrets, I feel pretty fortunate that my life has turned out the way it has so far. As I have grown older, I can look back to see that, given enough time, what has happened in my life has been for the best, one way or another. That makes me feel very blessed. And the things that I wish I had done differently are things that I continue to try to work on to make right.

So even while I sit here, in a country far from home with bathrooms that are just not right, I think that I am here for a reason, although right now, today, I have no idea what that reason is. Maybe later I will figure it out.

Oh, and though I wasn’t happy with the way the essay turned out, I sent it in anyway, and while I was at it, I told the editors about my blog and invited them to read it. I wonder if they will?

It’s Friday, and my day off, so I cleaned my little room, did my time and a little extra on the treadmill, lifted a few weights because I had the gym to myself, and just pretty much did very little after that. I did listen to the news all day, and I want to tell you that I am safe and sound in the compound. I think I heard that the embassy in Kabul had some demonstrators, but nothing is happening in Herat. And we are not to travel except for necessities for a day or so – but who wants to go anywhere now? Certainly not I!

Tomorrow, my cute little colleague is going to bring me a SIM card for my two-card phone so that I can take and make personal phone calls. This is great news for me, because though Skype works fine most of the time, many times I am on my lunch hour or finished with work, and Max and Emily and my mother aren’t home. It will be nice to be able to call them on their cell phones to touch base. Also, I won’t have to rely on the internet connection all the time. It can be quite spotty.

Because of that spotty service, I was reminded today about how lucky we are to live in the United States. I am grateful to have been born there, and to have been offered the opportunities that I now have. I am glad we have telephone service (even though AT&T and I often are at odds and I think they often times participate in highway robbery!), our internet service (ditto Charter), our public utilities, our opportunity for a free public education (which could be better, but at least it is available, though teachers are grossly underpaid), our roadways and infrastructure (which need updating and repairs, but still offer us the opportunity to get from one place to the other), our public transportation (we need more), our fire protection and police protection (who need to be paid more), the services we have available to care for the elderly and incapacitated among us (“the least of those”), and the armed forces who keep us safe in these times of turmoil (who also don’t make enough money for their time and trouble). Oh, and our bathrooms.