Booooored

So here I am, stuck in the apartment on a Sunday night. I guess I could read, but I'm tired of that. And I daydreamed through most of church this morning, so I've pretty much exhausted those possibilities as well. Can't really rent a movie to play on the laptop 'cause one of my roommates objects to movie-watching in the house (and because that's about a mile walk round-trip, and who wants to do that?).

I'm trying to replay my week in my head so I can report if anything interesting happened. Let's see. . .I did get permission to go to a wedding in Albuquerque on Memorial Day weekend. I'm excited about that because it will give me a break from my life here AND because it has given me an excuse to buy a new dress. Phyllis, the head nurse at the clinic, has offered to shut it down one day the week after next and take Ruth and me shopping for something FAAABULOUS. I'm pretty sure that it's going to be a group project to get me ready for this; one of my roommates will have to trim my hair, I'm betting one will need to lend me jewelry, and who knows how the shoe situation will work out? Since this is appearing to be such a big affair, I have termed it "Operation Ghetto-Fabulous." (See how bored I am? I wasn't kidding!)

Ruth and I have decided to walk around the lake once a week (that's about a three-mile walk). We started this past Thursday, and I figured out that I walked over five miles that day! I was pretty proud of myself. We spent a great deal of that time talking about her new flame back in Australia. She has apparently known him for a while and he is recently single, so they've started talking. All the time. Pretty seriously. She's way past smitten, and has now entered in the phase we like to call "In Deep Smit."
As we rode the subway home she asked if she had been talking about him too much. I told her no, that I liked to hear about it, and when she got annoying she could count on me to let her know.
She said, "Yeah, but I feel bad."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "I'd feel better if we were talking about your love life, too. I mean, I know that this is what you need, but I'd like it if it was more of a CONVERSATION."
I laughed, and explained to her�-once again�-that this time of an "emtpy love life" is what I've needed, what I prayed for. Granted, it's not always what I want, but it is teaching me to place my self-worth in more capable hands than those of the guys I know (no offense, guys).
I am proud, though, that I have reached another first in my life: had somebody tell me they were BORED with my love life. They used to be yelling at me to just settle down. You just never know what's gonna happen here in crazy ol' California.

Another first that hit me over the head this week had to do with one of my roommates. Not this past Friday but the one before that the director of our program asked me to sit down with him and one of my roommates and discuss how we might "communicate better." (She has regular meetings with him and other team members in the city, and he thought it was a good idea based on some "things she had said" in those meetings. Which makes me a bit uncomfortable--what has been said about me when I'm not around?) Well, I agreed to the meeting, even though I don't really care how we communicate at this point in the year. I mean, we've got three months left, and it has become quite clear that she and I don't really "click," so I just figured things in our relationship would continue to be the way they had been since we moved in together.
So this past Wednesday I met with her and him and the assistant director to talk things out. We talked a lot about Meyers-Briggs (I am a Thinker and she is a Feeler) and how that influenced our communication. It just so happens that the director, Josh, is a Thinker and the assistant director, Kim, is a Feeler, so they both had a lot of things to say. A lot of them dealt with how I could relate to her as a Feeler better. (They had a few things to say to her, too, I guess.)
I must admit that the meeting didn't go as badly as I thought it would (I was TOTALLY freaked out the night before) but I came away from it feeling incredibly emotionally retarded. It just seemed like I had no feelings, would never be able to communicate with people who HAVE feelings, need to learn a new way to talk to people, can never be myself or say the first thing that pops into my head, etc.
I figured out, though, that my problem is not relating to Feelers; in fact, many of my friends are feelers! It is relating to this particular roommate that is the problem. (And I do realize that she herself bears some of the responsibility in that, especially if she gets passive-agressive or won't 'fess up to feeling offended or misunderstood.) My Mom and Ruth helped a lot in this realization. (When I wrote an email to my Mom about how I was feeling after the meeting, she said, "I can attest to the fact that you are not now, nor have you ever been, emotionally retarded." Awww, I love her!)
So I'll let you know how well the meeting actually worked; we'll see.

Alright, I have wasted about 30 minutes now, so I'm feeling good and ready to try reading again. I'd love to hear what's going on in your lives. . .love-related or not.