Well, this is embarrassing...

I don't know how I became a slow-streaming pirated Glee addict, but somehow it happened. Here I sit in Penonome, getting a lot of annoyed stares as people have to step over my charger to go to the restroom. If it looked remotely official what I was doing it may go over better, but unfortunately, it is just a choppy video of high school kids dancing and singing that is flashing across my screen. And I've been this way for almost two hours. I'm not kidding, I tear up over Rachel's power ballads. The Britney/Brittany episode could possibly be my favorite to date. And I am eagerly awaiting the Lady Gaga episode (which should hit the net sometime the morning after its airing on the 26th of April) almost as much as the Shakira concert I have a ticket for on the 12th.

Now some of you may be wondering when you read this: What the hell has happened to Nikki down there? Devouring Us Weekly, Instyle, whatever beauty rags I can get my hands on. Critiquing 1/2 - 2 year old fashion magazines has become a passion. A desire to see all the cheesy romance movies that I once hated. Dancing around to the worst of US pop radio that makes it onto the Panamanian airwaves. Just a few of the strange changes prospective volunteers can look forward to.

Paradoxically, aside from all this pop culture worship, I have developed strong feelings for the west coast. And not the good vibrations kind. But I am trying to work through them. I'll refrain from ranting about that publicly. I do have a lot of friends who have married into the west coast family. Anyway...

So, you may have heard through the grapevine that I'm extending. Or at least, right now I am in the process of applying to extend. And if the fates allow, I'll be here another year. You may wonder why, especially if you happened to catch me for a chat during one of my lower points during service. Just yesterday I actually graphed out my service. Every month of it. I marked my feelings, ranging between "Enchanted", "Content", "Stressed", and "Trauma". The three traumatic events, if you've been keeping up, being my two foot breaks and the death of my first puppy. "Stressed" being training, host families, and months following trauma. "Enchanted" was reached Christmas 2009 until after mom and Katie's visit and my trip home in September 2010. And content was everything else.













Now don't laugh. I know it's silly. But sometimes you just need to see what a crazy roller coaster your life is to really appreciate it. You know, put things in perspective. But the good news is: I'm on the up and up. And if history repeats itself, I have at least 3 or 4 more months of happiness. Yea!