Hi!

Okay, so I'm back in Davis. I've been here a week, and I'll be heading home again for a few days on friday (though the means by which I will accomplish that are still a little bit fuzzy). I got a walking cast, which means that for the first week I was walking sort-of by means of putting my left foot down, but still using the crutches. In theory I should be down to using just one crutch something like a cane this week, but I think I overdid it yesterday. The screw apparently sticks out the back of my foot a little bit and I think it caused some pretty massive bruising when I tried to go mono-crutch for a day. So for the moment I'm taking it easy and not putting weight on it at all. I'm a little worried, though. Is it going to keep bruising like this? And if so am I going to be able to walk at all or is dr. shithead going to have to go in and remove the screw, or reposition it or something, and is that going to result in another month and a half of casts? Fuck. I'm probably over-reacting and will adjust. But still: Fuck.

Some sketchy-ass representative of coach USA bussing told me that I was most likely hot, in an attempt to make me charter with him. He also called me 'kid' repeatedly, so he more or less lost any advantage that he may have gained. Plus Fleet services can do it for like $4,000 less. I still think that the outright flattery was funny. 32 hours to South Dakota and back. Hell yes.

I'm also learning that sometimes you can get your own way by keeping your mouth shut just as easily as you can by strong-arming and out stubborn-ing people (those these are also valid methods). Interesting to know, and something I should keep in mind, as stubborn is my usual strategy.

My meeting with the Chancelor is tomorrow.  Good gods I hope that this goes well.  The band deserves it.  I remember once when Casey and I were doing a local TV interview for the teddy bear thing, and she told me, "The whole time I was just praying that God would give me the right words to say."  I understand what she meant.  I need the right words to make this work, not just so I can feel special and like I made a difference, but because its something that the band both needs and deserves.  Lots of people ask for money, they've earned it time and time again.

Hmm, what else.  Oh -- I smoked pot for the first time a few days ago.  That was exciting.  At first it mostly just made me cough a lot, but I did in fact get high.  (Apparently this is novel for the first time).  I felt an intense need to describe everything that I was feeling, it fascinated me.  I spent pretty much the first 5 minutes just laughing my ass off and felt embarressed because I thought I was acting 'just like the people on TV.'  It wasn't bad, but it made me very introverted, as opposed to when I'm drunk when I get very extroverted and happy.  Also I couldn't snap out of it like you can do when you're drinking.  So on the whole I think that my drug of choice will remain booze.  What's the point of doing a drug that makes you more introverted when you're doing it with other people?  And what's the point of doing it by yourself?  Plus, if I get RDTed (thats random drug tested for Unitrans) and there's anything in my system I can kiss my job goodbye.  So all in all, not a bad experience or experiment (I was curious, after all) but not really one worth repeating.

That's all that I can think of for now.  Mostly just band and crippledom.  Nothing new going on in Peace Corps world, I made all of my medical appointments and will probably spend about the next month filling out paperwork.  Yay.