I did go forward with the lap top, and I must say, I already feel like my world has significantly changed. It reminds me a bit of how I didn't have a computer at my home in Korea my first 8 months and once I had one it felt like the world had kind of opened up for me. Actually, that might have been when I first started blogging. The biggest difference with having one's "own" computer is, I think, a sense of ease. There is no rush, and the hours can waste away with no one waiting to use their "own" computer that you are on, or with no fees or 30 minute time slots. Now I feel like I can blog :)

On that note...I have this random friend and he will know who he is... but this random friend who I met in the Peace Corps emailed me today. He actually reads this thing, and I always feel like I know he will be reading it. Most people know that I consider my friends from PC to be very close friends, especially all the Chuuksters. A couple others too, but especially the Chuuksters and even those not in Chuuk are special in this way that is so completely indescribable. Anyway, I have not seen this guy since I left Chuuk but I feel closer to him now than when we were there in many ways. I think partly because we stay in pretty good touch, and partly because we have taken similar paths since PC with the teaching thing and even with stints in the US. We just kind of did them in reverse order. Anyway, referring to my last blog he said he could see me as a carny, said he thinks I would be good at it. So ok, I could just email him back, lol, but it struck me as so peculiar that I wanted to blog about it. I mean, I don't really think it is every person's dream to be a carny or to be considered good carny potential. I am sure they are out there, but this too seems random. So of course I had to ask myself, what does this mean? What makes someone "good" at being a carny? What makes someone a good match for this position? Surely we all want our carny's to be good "people people" yes? Ok, check. What else? And how can I not think of the stereotypes from youth? Even my own family say "yeah Mis, just knock out a tooth or two and you can get a job as a carny". Where did this stereotype start I wonder? Anyway, back to serious considerations...I think of ride operators and parents putting their children's lives in the hands of these operators... so maybe someone with some attention to detail, someone able to learn the intricacies of appropriately operating machinery. Ok, Umm, well, I CAN do that. Oh, and of course... someone willing to travel. Someone with no roots :) Someone who doesn't mind bumming from town to town. Check. Apparently. So, now that I have processed this out a bit, ok sure, I get it. And as I know my dear friend is even more rootless than I; I further understand his rather tentative statement along the lines of being somewhat envious of my future carnyness.

A couple random thoughts and then some not so random... I haven't been traveling with my brother long, but long enough to remember he is my brother and can annoy hell out of me. Interestingly though, things that used to annoy me about him before I started traveling overseas are really just no longer applicable. And some things, for example, one's ability to make plans, now annoy him where his ability or lack of used to make me nuts. Now it seems I am the less organized person plan wise. Regardless of changes, regardless; I think, of who one travels with 24/7, people are bound to get annoyed. But there are moments in the annoyment that rock. For example, we were driving and both kind of crabby and we passed a sign for "Monkey Jungle" (a town I think) and we both kind of glanced at each other to see if the other noticed and then we both just cracked up laughing. We do this a lot with silly little things. It makes me happy to have a companion on this trip. Another thing, we were marveling at the fact that there have been no speeding tickets; but then we noted how my car shakes in convulsions if you get much over 70 and we were like "oh yeah, that's why we haven't got any speeding tickets" (knock on wood).

Being in Florida, near the sea, makes me miss (I almost wrote "home" omg, what is that?) Pollap and Chuuk. I love the sea and I am always thinking I am going to do all these things with her. I think I will swim with her currents, dive within her depths and enjoy her holdings, fish for the sustenance she may offer... and then I get a reality check... those things are not as easy here in the US as they were in Micronesia where I first truly met the sea and got to know her a little. It's frustrating, but I know I will strive to continue this relationship. I remember the rewards, and even here in the US I get tastes of those rewards. It's worth it. But I do miss my sea home, where all I had to do was wake up, throw on a snorkel and walk 15 yards to the shore and stick my head in the water to see wonders. That's a far cry from a $70 snorkel tour where you have be hauled out to sea to where things are not so damaged and the sea life isn't non-existent as a result. Lol. I am spoiled so bad. I know this to be true, but I can't help it when so many of my firsts were in such a wondrous place, ya know? I am spoiled. I must constantly remind myself I am truly blessed to have had that experience... but still, it shouldn't be that way, should it?
Off to the carnival ;)