There I was, thinking that I was finally done traveling long-distance for a while, and would be able to settle in and work on my dissertation, get into a gym routine, etc. Nope, not yet. Not until April, I guess.

There has been a rather tragic death in my Icelandic family, and while I was not terribly close to the person who passed away (at least, in recent years), I have decided that it's important for me to be there for the funeral and to stand by them. Even though I have issues with that side of the family... or maybe it's *because* I have issues with them that I want to go, I don't know. I'm still working out the reasons for why I decided to go. But I knew that I had to be there, and it was a personal decision. Ktsp, as always, supports me unconditionally with this stuff, for which I am very, very grateful.

So I got the tickets, and will be there for the casket viewing and the funeral. There are times like these, very rarely, but they do happen......

Hello again, TFP. We got back from our round-the-world trip just over a week ago... the 15-hour time difference/jetlag is finally starting to wear off now, and we're trying to get into a schedule for ourselves. We joined a gym nearby right away (wayyyy too many coconut desserts for me in Thailand) and have been trying to "work" at the public libraries nearby since we don't have an office at my mom's place. Ktsp's applying for jobs like crazy, and I'm trying to ratchet up my work on my dissertation, though I'm dragging my feet (as usual). I'd rather be skiing. Or stitching. Or anything.

We're feeling pretty lucky in terms of social opportunities so far, since ktsp has walked into an insta-group of Lebanese friends from his undergrad (all from his computer science major, so they're excellent networking contacts as well). I also know a married couple from my grad program who graduated and moved here last September... none of these people are our close friends,...

I've been away from the TFP for a long time. Probably the longest that I've ever been away. And I will probably remain away for quite a while yet, due to our schedule in the next 2 months. I apologize for my absence--but in a way, I think it has been a very good thing to be generally away from the internet.

We left Iceland on Dec 21 and ktsp successfully immigrated into the US at JFK airport (yay, no more special-visitor registration for him!!... Lebanon was on the list of "special countries of which the citizens must register every time they enter and depart the US"), and we arrived in Seattle the next day. Massive snowstorm... had us housebound until well after Christmas, but it was a good way to re-enter American culture since we couldn't spend much time at the mall.

My initial reverse-culture shock reactions have been, in general, that Americans talk too damn much (especially with strangers), there are too many people and cars and buildings...

Literally, that's what I did on Sunday, on our way to see some glaciers in the south of Iceland. It was one of the stupidest things I have done with a car, even a used old beater car that we bought specificially so that we could beat it up more... I should have been more careful. I really hate making totally preventable mistakes like that, especially when they end up costing a lot of money.

I was backing up with sufficient speed (I was parked on a large grassy area, with no other poles in sight--did not look carefully enough around me, as a result) that when we hit the pole, it gave us a good hard jolt. It also fucked up the right rear tail light (cracked it open, and shoved the bumper up hard underneath the light, so that now I have to get body work done on it first, before replacing the whole light/casing itself).

Keep in mind, we bought the car for what was then around $3000 USD (now it would be $1500 USD, given the exchange rate). We've already put...

I haven't been able to get on TFP at all since Tuesday because one of my best friends from home arrived for a weeklong visit that morning. She was the maid of honor in our wedding, my oldest friend, the one I have known since I was 6 years old. She's here until Monday, so I most likely won't be able to check in again till then.

The visit has been a bit more difficult than I anticipated--I was aware that she has struggled with OCD for the last 10 years, including during a summerlong backpacking trip that we took in 2002 around Europe (and I never noticed anything about it, at that point)... but it seems to have gotten worse in recent years. We got stuck in a souvenir shop for an extra 30 minutes yesterday because she had an OCD episode... it's not severe, but you definitely can tell what is going on. And she's very aware of it, and talks to me about it throughout and after the event, but it was disturbing to see someone that I know so well, become someone that I didn't...