Journaling Life Abroad

My sister’s flying in today! I’m so excited. I haven’t seen her or her husband and my niece since I left the States, almost two years ago now. If all goes well, her flight from Laos should be arriving in approximately one hour and a half. I went out and bought fresh flowers – even got some orchids for her room because they’re her favorites – and some fresh passion fruit. I didn’t go crazy on the fruit buying because I know my sister loves shopping for produce at the big, open-air farmer’s markets here, so we’ll go there and get the bulk of what she’d like then. Guavas and dragonfruit are also in season, and we might luck out with some mangoes and litchees.

For now, I’ll content myself with loads of flowers everywhere. They are a dollar a bunch here, so one does get inspired to go a little crazy. And I love arranging bouquets in vases and spreading them around the house. Flowers always make me happy.

{Excuse my purses in the corner there. I was too lazy to move them before taking the photo.}

I should be working, but I can’t concentrate. So I spent the morning not working, and instead, Skyping it up with friends I haven’t talked to in a long time, and doing a little tidying to make sure the house is clean and ready. I wanted to get our car washed too – especially since somebody left all her dog fur behind on our last ride out – but the car wash was randomly closed. That happens a lot here.

I feel like that should annoy me more than it does. I think I’ve probably adapted to the Thai attitude mai phen lai (it doesn’t matter). Because really it doesn’t, right? I’m pretty sure my sister is not going to even notice or care if I got the car washed or not.

{At least I hope not!}

Anyway, in other news, you may remember that I used to do fairly regular “Books to Savor” posts where I share reviews of books in my general genre that I enjoyed reading. I haven’t done one in a long time (like, really, wow. too long.), not because I’m not reading or too busy, but because I’ve totally been reading outside my genre lately. Like, books I’d normally never pick up.

It started with one or two (*cough* Hunger Games *cough*) that I just picked up because I wanted something fast and easy to read that was engrossing but did not require much thought. But then it spread out to other YA novels and even a couple of murder mysteries. I never shared them because their outside my usual fare as both reader and novelist….but some of them have been really good!

So I’ve decided I’ll start doing my “Books to Savor” posts again and share what all I’m reading in case any of it catches your fancy too. Besides, summer’s a great time for fun, light reads, right?

All right, I’m gonna head out to the airport soon so I’d best wrap this up. But tell me what’s going on in your corner of the world. If you want to join in the coffee chat, tell me what you’re up to for the July 4th holiday or what else is on your agenda for the week, even drop me a link in the comments and I’ll check out any posts you want me to see.

Cheers! – J

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