Settling In?

Maybe that is what is happening: settling in. I have been here for... nearly two months. Wow! I got a job on my fourth day of being here and started on the fifth. In a way, I settled very quickly. However, it takes a lot of time to get used to such a different place and different living situation. For example, it is difficult to get used to not having many familiar "safe" places around, or having friends to go visit whenever I want. I suppose that this is growing up.

Not much is planned for the weekend. It is so hard to get up all week long for work because I am so tired, but today, when I could have slept the ENTIRE day if I wanted, I got up at 8:30am. Now, that is really growing up. But I make no promises about changing my sleeping habits permanently. I can still sleep in like the best of them.

When we went to Holocaust Museum recently I saw a book in the gift shop that I really liked the look of. I ended up ordering it online and have started reading it lately (along with teaching myself C++!). It is called The Racist Mind and I find it very interesting, though also very frightening.

Will and I watched "American History X" last night because he said it was about the same issues. It was a very powerful and disturbing movie. I can't say that I would ever watch it again, but it is a good thing to learn about so that it won't happen.
I am not sure what is so intriguing about the topic of racism. Some would probably find it odd that I want to read about it. I think it is the fact that it is so illogical and unreasonable. And really, when it comes down to it, I think that most people who "hate" someone only hates them from afar. They have little to no interaction with that people, making it very easy to hate them and scapegoat them. I don't mean to stand on my pedestal here... it is just something that I struggle to understand because I just don't understand it.

Anyway, that is obviously a huge and loaded topic, and I am only scratching the surface (or maybe just poking at it even). On the lighter side, the sun is out and it is supposed to be in the 60's today. It is so much colder in Seattle! I might meet some senators tonight at a BBQ for Will's work, and other than that, I need to go to the grocery store and do some cleaning! How's that for an exciting weekend?!