Water (and a random guy) made my day

My family orders drinking water in 5 gallon bottles because drinking tap water here is really not a good idea if anyone wants to stay healthy. So this morning, a water delivery guy brought two bottles up to the apartment, and while my grandmother was paying for the water, I picked up the bottles and carried them down the hall to put them where they need to be. Seeing that, the delivery guy told me something like: “Oh wow, you have a good technique picking up those bottles. You should come work with us.” It was funny as hell, and it was one of the few non-sexist comments I’ve heard from a guy since I got back. Hearing that just made me feel good and kinda made my day. And the guy was cute, too. Thank you, random guy, for making me smile. 🙂

My first good day

Today I had a good day. It was the first time since I got back to Russia that I had a good day. Last night was horrible until I got to talk to a friend of mine from the United States, which made me way happier. And today I started my day with waking up early, and having some coffee, and then I got to hang out with an old friend. We talked, and played ping pong, and had coffee, and talked some more before he dropped me off. It was nice to realize that I have friends both in the United States and in Russia.

Then I got to hang out at the house, and set up Pandora the way that it works (normally, it does not work in Russia).  And then I picked up my guitar, which I haven’t done in a while. I played a few chords and a few songs and realized that I got much better at it in the time I did not play – or maybe I just underestimated myself before. I played the Wagon Wheel song, which made me think of Chadron, and all its concerts and celebrations where this song gets played. While practicing chords, I did good playing the G chord, but I have yet to learn how to play the F chord. I suppose I need to start my tomorrow with it.

Later in the evening I decided I wanted to make pea soup, which is a somewhat traditional Russian recipe, and I never had real pea soup because what my mother normally makes tastes really boring. So I looked it up on the internet and found a recipe. I was also happy to find that my mother left me some money like I asked her to instead of buying lots of food and cooking it for me in a totally disgusting way, which she normally does. So I went to the store and got some smoked pork ribs for the broth, and a few other things. The house had most of the things I needed for the recipe.

I spent the evening listening to some oldies on my “60’s, 70’s, and 80’s” Pandora station, and making my soup. And then in some couple hours I got to eat my soup, and have some Jameson on the rocks to go with it. It was amazing. Realizing that I can make my own soup makes me feel like I am a grown up – well, and being old enough to drink whiskey does that too. My mother liked my soup too, since she decided to have some. And now, they are all gone to sleep, and I get to sit in the kitchen with my whiskey, and my retro music, and my insanely fast wifi that I got installed yesterday, while contemplating to read some of the Storm Front by Jim Butcher before the night ends, and I started thinking that today has been truly the first good day in the last two weeks and a half.

My days were so dark I never expected I’d have a good one – but it’s nice to see that it’s possible after all.