Panic strikes my heart every time someone I don't know super well says the words, "Oh, and I followed your blog..." You WHAT? A) Someone outside Russia actually read that? (Shout out to whoever reads my blog in Russia. I narcissistically check the views on my blog from time to time and you're right up there with the big guns of countries I actually know people in!) 

But seriously. I think, "There was some personal jank in that for a while."

It happened yesterday while I manned the Ugandan Water Project table in Geneseo for a few hours. However, I get the vibe that Siobhan's pretty cool and won't judge because I may have said shit a time or to. Whoops.

At first, I was thinking about it for a couple of days. As in, "I need to mentally be rested and prepared to be sociable and nice to people for at least four hours." Socializing and extrovert activities is decidedly not my strongest area. Honestly. I was concerned. Then after I finished and got home (an extra hour than I'd planned) I tried to figure out why I hadn't been counting the seconds until it was over. Eventually it dawned upon me that it's because I actually was behind the project and interested in it. Now thinking about it, I can't think of anything I like talking about more than Africa. Those who know me are probably thinking how slow I am at realising this. It's a big deal!

I found something I love. Some people spend their entire lives striving to be able to say that! How lucky is this duck? It's great when you meet people who are legitimately interested because most say they're interested but they're really not. It's cool to them but they're more interested if you have another pair of the aluminum earrings or an extra bag. No judgements, I do the same with every other continent. I want to be cool and hip as much as the next person. But when you meet someone who's actually interested about the nerdy, gritty details and relishes them with you- ahhhhhh, it's like standing in the rain in the summer. No other feeling is quite like it and it's outstandingly refreshing.

Not that it's important to anyone else but if you're following my life vicariously, it's been really low-key. I've been hating asking for applications and trying to get a job and yada yada boring. But my friend Vince is back from Argentina for a few days, I've been going to pottery class on Mondays, tearing up the wild greenery along our driveway, trying new recipes among other things to stay interested in life.

 Tonight I did get a call from a professor saying, "I called you for mostly selfish reasons. I'm retiring this year and I need a TA and I'd like you to do it. You're the worst TA I've had because you're smart and get bored. You can do it all year until I finish or whatever, you decide." So I'm going to say yes, even though it's $4 an hour less than the grocery job I've been peddling myself for. I've also been asked a couple of times to consider going to Uganda with the UWP but I think those days are coming- and maybe, hopefully, coming soon.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. 

If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." 

- Nelson Mandela -