Bittersweet

This week I’ve actually had a fun thing to do almost every day. It’s good because I’ve started getting bored and when I get bored I get into bad habits – eating, TV, shopping…

On Monday I went to a meeting of a group called Women for Good Government. They are a liberal political group. They’re not a PAC and they’re not part of the Obama umbrella groups that have formed to get various legislation passed. I went to lunch with the ladies and then to their meeting afterwards. I liked them a lot; quite a few of them had lived overseas and they were intelligent and fun to talk to. But….they are quite passionate about Democratic politics and very active, maybe more active than I really want to be. I don’t want to be a precinct captain! The thought of block-walking and knocking on stranger’s doors fill me with dismay. So, I don’t know….I’ll certainly try a few more of their meetings and see if I think I fit in or not. I went to a meeting of the kick-off for Obama’s Healthcare initiative, and although I support some sort of healthcare reform, being that politically active is just not for me…

I’ve contacted the League of Women Voters here in Austin and now that may work out well, if we stay. They are large enough to have study groups and I think I would really enjoy participating in one of those. I like the League because they are non-partisan and because they use consensus to take a position on issues but don’t support individual candidates. I may help out with an Austin Energy conservation study group.

Then yesterday I went to a coffee for new members of the Newcomers Club. This is where the bittersweet title on this blog entry comes in. It reminded me SO much of AWA in Hong Kong. And, while it made me very happy to think that I’ve found a group that will give me an opportunity to participate in all sorts of fun activities – mahjong, hiking, needlearts, lunchbunch (sound familiar?), canasta (CANASTA????), it also made me incredibly sad. I miss my friends in Hong Kong. I miss the AWA. Rats, rats, rats.

I guess this is what they are talking about when they talk about the ups and downs of repatriation. This was definitely an up/down all mixed up together. I need things to do that get me out of the house and keep me from spending all my time obsessing over deer or laughing at the blue jays because they weigh too much to be able to eat out of our bird feeder (It has a weighted bar that closes the feeder if something lands on it that weighs more than a certain amount. Keeps out the grackles, blue jays and mourning doves and lets the cardinals, nuthatches and chickadees eat their fill. It drives the blue jays crazy though. The other big birds give up but the blue jays keep landing and flying off in frustration, sitting in the trees complaining with the squirrels.) See why I need to get out of the house!

Today I’m going to do a couple of fun things. I’m going to bake bread for one thing. We bought a Kitchen Aid mixer; a beautiful machine. It has a dough hook so you can use it to knead bread. My first effort wasn’t very successful but I’m going to try again. I have a great recipe that includes polenta and millet (high fiber). The second thing I’m doing is at 1 pm I’m meeting the sweet young lady that does my brows (her name is Mandy Wright) at Nordstrom’s for an eye makeup lesson. I’m just about out of eye-shadow and I’m ready to have somebody help me buy the right colors and teach me some new techniques. As we age our makeup needs change so it’s good to take a lesson like this every couple of years.

I have other things to blog about…paintings, hormones…but they’re going to have to wait until another day. If I don’t get out there for my walk soon I’m going to be sorry. Its 8 am and its already 78 degrees!