hmmmm

I was looking at a friend's pictures on facebook today, and was amazed at how clean the streets were, how fresh the air looked, and how underpopulated it seemed back home.  Once I started seeing the Washington Monument in the pictures, I realized they were in DC...a place not necessarily known for being super clean and underpopulated (although areas around the monument are gorgeous).  I wonder how difficult the transition will be coming back home...

We leave for Subic tomorrow at 6:00am to have a family day with IJM staff.  Subic is where the US military base used to be, and it is supposed to be really peaceful compared to manila.  Like the US..but with monkeys hanging out on the side of the road. One of our friends lives in an apartment there,  so we will be staying for the weekend.  As I was packing tonight, I noticed my credit card was missing.  I last remembered using it at the grocery store a few hours ago, and looked up at the clock to see it was 10:05....5 minutes past closing time.  aaaand the grocery store is in a mall. I just started running...it was hard being calm waiting for the elevator that stops at every floor... I had to convince the security guard at the front of the mall to let me in and that I could not come back at 10am the following morning...and when he finally let me in I just booked it through the dark mall....images of the kinds of things my card could be used for were flashing through my mind and I saw a lot more rats than I wanted to know about...but I made it. I think the grocery staff were really disturbed by what they saw when I came in because they kept asking me if I was OK and brought me a chair, forcing me to sit in it while they looked for my card. They kept staring at me like they were really concerned...I'm assuming it was probably my red face.  It made me remember the time I first started at the gym and had a free workout session with a trainer....my face started getting red as I was running and he asked me if I had been to the beach the weekend before.  At first I didn't know what he was talking about, but then I realized I had to teach him that sometimes pale people get red (mainly me) when working out...

...i got my card.