So this is how long it takes for something to become familiar. Two weeks. Or perhaps it's better said that it might only take two weeks for an immersion experience to become the familiar. I am still not in my home environment and I know that; my partner is not here; my cats are not here; I don't have a car; and yet, I am into the routine of place and work. It feels a little odd and yet not.Tonight I went out on my own to a Japanese restaurant I found in the (finally discovered) phone book. I didn't try the sushi, but did have the salmon and tempura, with a side of edamame. Mmmm, I had missed the edamame. They served theirs cold, but it works when it's 95 degrees outside and the beans aren't frozen. I waited until about 6:00 to go out and the temperature dropped to 94. I walked just over a mile to the restaurant. Ate. Paid and left. Then walked back a different way, about 1.5 miles and picked up a McFlurry about half a mile from the campus. I figured there would still be some ice cream (or at least a shake-like substance) by the time I got back to the dorm. Which was just about right.
And here I am at the computer, posting to my blog. Wondering if anyone is reading it. If my partner is checking in once in a while to see what's up. We haven't talked much on the phone because we're both busy with what we're doing. She is getting ready for a show which opens next week, teaching, and seeing clients ... and painting. I will post a link to her blog with a couple of pictures from the upcoming show. Me : busy with mentoring/teaching and grading and caught up in the little things like trying to figure out what happened to an important document a part-time employer sent me 11 days ago which should have been here by now, and where is the blackberry battery I ordered and was shipped on the 15th and arrived here on the 18th but it's not in my hands. Those little things of daily life. So we email more than we talk on the phone because we don't have to be on the same schedule for that.
I also had the unique experience last night of seeing a couple of my partner's paintings for the first time. Completed paintings which I had not seen in various stages and re-dos and "honey, what do you think about this" questions. It gave me the opportunity to see them with fresh eyes; as a newcomer to the viewing. It was nice. I must admit, and she already knows, that sometimes I can't look at the twenty-fifth alteration of someone's navel or right hand without wanting to flee from the room. I know it's the process, but sometimes I really like something at one stage and then come home at the end of my work-day to discover that what *I* liked is gone and it is halfway a new painting. It's hers and she can do what she wants; but I have learned to not get too attached to one version .... unless it's the one hanging in the gallery. Perhaps that sometimes blocks my ability to see them in general. So, it was a real treat to see the finished painting and go, wow.
I am definitely into the routine here and I still like all the people I am working with. And I will be glad to get home. And glad to be, at least for a little while, 'cold' because it is only 75-80 degrees.
