Shake and Bake

I was writing an email, working on my ever clever goodbyes when the whole office stated to dance from side to side. It lasted all of a few seconds and took me even longer to realize what it was…my first earthquake of the new job. I didn’t realize it was an earthquake until I looked-up and saw all the Indonesian staff flee out of the building—again, it was tinny and only lasted a second but when I realized what had just happened I was sort-of sad and creeped-out. Sad because you could see a weird look of terror on all the faces of the national staff; the fears and scars left by the tsunami had not been visible to me until that instant. Creepy because this was only my third earthquake (the other two came on my last trip to Indonesia in January of 2005). Nothing is more humbling than experiencing the power of earth; the feeling of solid mass moving like the surface of a water-balloon is something that can only be understood if you’ve experienced it.

Three Sheets to the Wind

My maid had enough of the pink sheets. I came home yesterday to see she changed them out to a more boyish color scheme. I don’t know why but a part of me is sad to see the pink go. Mr. Bear and I sort-of grew to like the hearts and the sweet messages written in them, it was pleasant to wake-up to after all. The maid also went through my closet took out all the shirts and ironed them. She then, and I love her for this, neatly paired and folded all my socks, ironed my wife beaters and folded my boxers and rearranged things so it was more convenient for me and all on her own initiative. Mom and Khourey, you may want to take notes on this section.