We Live Where We Are

This Country Will Know Us By Name

We're back. Maryland has welcomed us into her arms and we are, at present, nestled in the rural bosom of Washington county. The past two months have been an uneasy vacation. A vacation because we're unemployed, and uneasy for the same reason. I've put out my job-hunting tendrils, waving them blindly, but I know I could do better, be more focused. Yesterday, we went out to Chinese with Clint and Jenni, and my fortune cookie read: "You have many opportunities. Try harder." Being nagged by a cookie is something of a new low for me.

I'm not really worried though. I've got high hopes for a few of my cookie's prophesied opportunities. Right now it's just the boredom that's getting to me. I'm not sure what to do with myself. Part of it is geographical I guess. I'm not used to being here, being back in a place that was marginally "mine" eight years ago, a place where I had only lived for two years before heading west. I miss the predictability of a routine. I drift through the day hoping to accomplish something, feeling too lazy to push and too guilty to relax. I never thought I'd pine to wake up early and go to work.

There's so much going on right now--the economy, the elections, the great Hagerstown stinkbug infestation--but it all seems strangely distant, a news broadcast bounced off the atmosphere and down to this little island where I'm camped out, hunting meaning.

It helps that we have friends here. They've all gotten older, gotten married, but they're still the same, cracking wise and making beautiful things to see and hear.

On an administrative note, I'm not sure yet where this blog will go now that we're back from Japan. I do know, though, that we're going to try to live here, in the States, much like we did in Sendai. More adventuring, more exploration, and more nights and weekend trips with friends. I've got a list of places I want to go in the coming months, so I'm sure we'll have lots to report on. Later!