The monsoons have been over for a couple days now, and it’s beastly hot and still humid.

I quit my Korean lessons – in large part because they weren’t netting me anything useful, but also because being gone 6+ hours in addition to my work day once a week was hard on the cat and upsetting any gains I’d make. Each time I think I’m making head-way, each time I think we’re going to be just fine, I get knocked back in place.  It’s just sooo hard to sustain having a happy sing-song voice when she’s thundering from wall to wall, nipping me in transit, unapproachable for petting or bonding until worn out, which takes HOURS.  It would all be good, except our fragile relationship can’t seem to weather ANY changes at all, such as me coming home at 9pm due to having to chaperone a school field trip to see a movie in Seoul.

I KNOW you’re lonely kitty, but IT WASN’T MY FAULT:  they MADE ME be gone that long.  We had a lovely time the night before and you barely bit me at all, and we had three days without you peeing on my bed, so come on, give me a break!  Please?  Maybe after being gone 12 hours I’d really like to sit down for five minutes before being attacked, did you ever think of that?  No.  It’s all about you.  24/7.  And did you have to pee on the nice guy I’m seeing when he was sleeping?  Was that really necessary?  And you know what?  teeth marks all over my wrists and ankles is NOT sexy.  It’s irritating.  My skin is sore and looks like it has a rash.  And you KNOW it hurts me, couldn’t you be a bit more careful?  Boo…

Anyway, the guy turned me on to this new t.v. series that totally cracked me up:  Is that Seattle in the background? (ADDED:  no, it’s LA – when did LA become green?  Not the concrete jungle I remember – oh wait, these look to be yuppies on this show…)

Oh Jackson Galaxy, I wish you were here in Korea to help me out!  I’ve done everything under the sun and cat people on several support boards are also stumped.   She’s a morning person – and wants to go crazy the second I wake up, and when I’m too groggy to appease her, then she lets me have it.  We all think having some cat company would do her good, but  I can’t afford to fly a second cat back to the states so am looking into pet sitting as an option.  Calming pheromones just arrived and I have to purchase a power converter for the diffuser and have also just sprayed my bedding. I’m also going to reformat my DVD player to all zones and purchase a Cat TV video.

It’s a little premature to say so, but yeah, I think I’ll be heading back to the states in March.  To a new job helping out with construction  management in Las Vegas.  Sin City.  Artificial Oasis, adult playground, land of strip malls.  A once boom town on the decline with temperatures not unlike a blast furnace.  A challenging place I imagine to have very little charm, a transient population, and families that must make peace with their environment:  surrounded as they are by entertainment, excess, temptation, and the lure of easy money.  I’m hoping to find some counter-culture there that strives to make community out of all of the above.  I’m hoping kitty will have grown out of some of her boundless energy by then so we can start a happy new life there.  Teaching high school English in the public schools  as a profession has about reached its shelf life anyway, as the province has cut its subsidy and funding is up to each individual school now, so many positions are being liquidated.

I don’t know what these next few years will bring or if I want to continue writing or working on adoption issues at all. Probably not!  I’m glad I came, but I’m glad I’ll also be leaving all this behind me.  Seven months, eight days to go…