a scattering of random thoughts

• The flight from Chicago to Seoul was torturous. I sat in a window seat, trapped by Snorebag McArmrest-Thief and Camel Woman. (How do you not get up to pee even once during a 15-hour flight? That is not natural.) I did manage to sleep some, enough that I seem to have avoided jet lag entirely.

• The director's husband picked me up at the airport. He didn't have a WELCOME SO-AND-SO sign and we'd never met, but he zeroed in on me immediately. Presumably he looked for the most rumpled, unkempt and dazed-looking woman there.

• Immediately after arriving at my little house, I discovered (1) a massive wasp in my bed, and (2) the biggest, fattest, hairiest spider I'd ever seen, easily the size of my hand. I don't particularly want to kill these kinds of bugs - partially because there would be an unholy mess to clean up - but I also don't care to find them nestled on my pillow, ready to snuggle. One of the reasons I never went to the Dominican Republic with The Company is that all the vets talked about the fat, hairy tarantulas that would perch on your mosquito netting and stare thoughtfully down at you, as though estimating how many legs they would need to use to hold your head in place while they ate your face.

• My roommate has the audacity to be lovely, confident, and funny. Can you believe that shit? It's not enough that's she's fearless to my neurotic, matte finish to my glossy (I'm oily, shut up), sleek to my frizzy, smooth to my bumbling - no, she has to go and beat me at my own game, too. Whatever, bitch! You're going to have wicked bad wrinkles someday!

• My house is built a couple feet off the ground, which I can see through the half-inch gaps in the floor. I'm guessing that the gaps are intended to facilitate ventilation, but considering that the back half of my room is built over an irrigation ditch, they're mostly going to be facilitating the easy entrance of mosquitoes. And kittens. My favorite kitten found her way under the house this morning, situated herself directly under my bed, and whined until I got up and went out onto the porch to play with her. Currently she's draped in a hot, furry sprawl over my forearm, forcing me to type one-handed. Evidently kittens don't speak Thai or English, but they do understand cuddling. And I'm fluent, motherfuckers!

• One of the other kittens went to sleep in a cooking pot and ended up getting quite singed. He reeks of burned hair, and also wants to cuddle. I move to a farm halfway around the world and I'm still covered in cat hair. Figures.
  

• Our youngest resident is 14, due next week. I'll call her Sally. Sally is incredibly attached to my roommate, and will often seek her out before meals to alert her that the food is ready. Yesterday my roommate and I decided to have granola and coffee at our house instead of going to breakfast, but Sally had different plans. She practically dragged us out of the house, then indignantly told the other women that she had cooked a special dish for us, and when she'd gone to find us, we'd been drinking coffee and eating sweets. The nerve!

• I'm going to be just fine.