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Day?’s Verse:
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:1-2
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*This will be a fairly boring accounting of my activities over the last week. Sorry.

Not the world’s most creative title, but what the heck. I’m not trying to impress anybody here, which is good, since I doubt I’d be able to do so if I tried.

So: This last week I’ve spent here in Kirkland, consuming vast numbers of satsuma oranges, throwing dog-slobbery tennis balls and raising vast clouds of golden dog hair, and reading various Willa Cather short stories I don’t understand at all. Christmas Ian and I spent (it felt) mostly on the road, driving from my house where we slept to his parents’ place first thing in the morning; then, maybe a couple hours later, driving to his grandparents’ place in Kirkland for an hour there, then back to my house and finally to his parents’ house for seafood dinner, then at last back to sleep. The best gift I received by far Ian’s present of a lifetime membership to the Sierra Club, which he presented as a puzzle with the message written on the back, accompanied by separate $100 bills, each in its own envelope. Mom’s gift to me of a day-long personal tutorial on bike maintenance, conducted by a friend of hers who knew a ton about bikes, proved excellent and educational as well. Now I know how to clean my bike, take the chain off, remove four different types of brakes, change a flat tire, patch a hole, and do several other interesting things. My family also got together and gave $5,500 to various charities for fresh water – this included wells, water purifiers, etc.

I also started reading Odd Girl Out, which has gotten me thinking so I’ll probably write a blog focused on it some time. I have also gone for walks with my parents (individually), read Ultimate X-Men compilations books 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, seen Superman Returns, bought a pair of shoes along with several reflective stickers at REI, went for a short hike to Twin Falls in North Bend (with Dad and Colleen), attended Ben and Lisa’s cleverly-named Tween Party and Mom’s straightforwardly-named Read-Aloud Party, and slept.

Quite a few extra hours of sleeping, actually, mainly in the form of naps. I don’t sleep as well at home; I hypothesize it’s because I’ve gotten used to the tiredness of a 6- to 12-mile ride each day, and without that my body doesn’t sleep so readily. I feel tired all the time, tend to drop off often during the day, but don’t sleep so well at nights. I’ll be glad to get back to Massachusetts and my normal routine, although I do not look forward to resuming work. Also I could do with having somebody else take care of the dishes in our apartment back East.