the abandoned _________

Despite life moving at a rapid pace the last three weeks, there still seems to be an alarming lack of things to report.

In fact, everything settled into such a rhythm that I eventually took my camera out of my bag and realized: what would I be taking a picture of?  And of course, as I write this, I am wishing I'd had the foresight to take a picture of the two rooms that have been my life the last two weeks: my training space where I lead about seven hours of sessions each day with 29 fresh (and pretty fantastic) new trainees and my hotel room where I eat, sleep and plan said sessions.

But good things that I didn't yet share? That guy up there got home, safe and sound.  And he's been having a grand time, though he kindly doesn't regale me too much with many stories of the awesomeness of the U.S.  Funnily, Topher did take a trip to visit my parents and our dog, while I watched from afar.  As strange as it was to have my husband with my parents without me there, I think everyone had a great time, dog included.  I am already looking forward to visiting them myself when I return next month, and bringing the el puppito back home with me. 

I have learned that a rice cooker is quite multi-purpose and can serve as a great tool for boiling water for pasta and that cheese and crackers is a more than an acceptable meal for a grown woman.  I mean, if that said woman is me, of course, and Topher isn't around to chastise me.  I have also learned that I and my fellow short-term-contracted-staff-member drink FAR too much Coca-cola and neither of us harbor any qualms at doing so.  We're not proud, of course; it's a simple, straight forward fact that we both require approximately two cans of the sweet, dark liquid to operate properly each day.

And that about sums it up.  Mix in a good bit of Law and Order: SVU and/or NCIS each evening as I plan (HBO magically disappeared from the hotel channel list) and a strict avoidance of the 'what job should I be searching for?' question, and you've got yourself the last few weeks of this gal's life.

But what I really need to know is:

What should I really be looking forward to about America in five weeks?


And,

go!