The Waiting Game.

So what am I doing? I'm sitting here, at 7:30 am, all showered up, waiting for my phone to ring to tell me whether or not I'm on quarantine. I really hate to admit it, because I don't like being a lazy bastard, and I love my job and miss my boys, but I sort of hope I am. At least for a couple of days. A week would drive me crazy. But I wouldn't mind today and maybe tomorrow off, to get a little caught back up to life.

Yesterday C came over and we talked about his website (which I will be pimping on this blog soon) a bit, and then texted Smalltown to see if he was awake/alive. He called back with his I-just-woke-up-and-am-hungover-and-possibly-even-still-drunk voice (which I recognize instantly at this point) to tell literally the most ridiculous story yet about his night/morning out, which I missed due to jetlag snoozing. It involved making out with two Korean girls in public, 3/4 a bottle of found Hennessy, and one very well-known local expat semi-coming out of the closet at around 9 am. Class stuff.

About five minutes after we hung up, Smalltown phoned back to say he was on his way to the station and was coming over to join us. Still drunk. At about 3 pm.

We ordered food and sat around my place drinking just a bit of soju and spinning yarns a mile long. Smalltown was asking about my trip home, which led to me telling the boys quite a bit of stuff that no one in the ROK to date knows about me, which has been done on purpose. New place, new people, new start -- no need to relive the past. That's been my modus operondai so far. But after only a couple of shots of soju and very little leading or prodding, I found it easily coming out of my mouth.

Mostly what happened was, with us sitting around shooting the shit like that, I realized that I've got a couple of really good friends here. The real kind. And they don't actually know shit about me. And it's okay for them to, at least a little. Smalltown said, after I finished spilling, that suddenly a lot about me made a lot more sense.

It's been ages since I've felt that at home in a social situation. We hung around talking till just past 9. It was honestly the best welcome back to Korea I could have hoped for.

I just can't believe Smalltown is leaving Korea in five weeks. He's already started saying he's probably coming back, but he's going to take three weeks at home to think about it and clear his head. So we'll see.

I love those boys. And I'm grateful for them. With the weather turning to fall again, and everything feeling and smelling like it did when I arrived a year ago, I'm really taking stock of how much things have changed and how far I have come. It's a good feeling, after feeling for so long like I was spinning wheels in just about every direction.

Things are a bit shaky at the moment, but good. I'm ready to face this year head on and make the very best of it -- take advantage of every moment, and keep moving forward in life.

Life is very strange, but very good. Don't you think, kiddos?