BACK IN THE USA

I know this because everwhere is very hot outside and very cold inside and it took me nearly half an hour to find cotton buds in the drugstore yesterday, (which are, by the way, called cotton SWABS here, which makes them sound so gross I then almost couldn't bring myself to buy them.) They were in the chocolate section. Of course, silly me. What is the problem with filing in NY drugstores? Unbelievable. And it's not like you can ask anyone, as most of the assistants only speak Spanish, and my school Spanish unfortunately doesn't stretch to 'bud', let alone 'swab'. I did try a 'sticking my finger in my ear and wiggling it' mime type thing, until I realised that of course they wouldn't get it like that, because that's the one thing you're not allowed to do with cotton buds...

Got up at 3am. Wide awake. Watched tv, read, answered emails, dealt with forgotten-for-3-weeks loaf of bread situation in the kitchen and dead plants situation in the other rooms, opened post - bills and a bunch of results from the medical I had last week which pronounce me not alive after all and in need of further tests or a blood transfusion or a new liver or something. (yeah - a new place to live).
Daylight. Sleepy. Grrrr.

I'm sure it's obvious that I'm really happy to be back.