Did you miss me?

I'll probably never be a "blog-every-day" type of person. In fact, during weeks like this one, I may not blog at all. After staring at two-page spreads on my little laptop screen for 10-12 hours a day, I can't force myself to do anything else at the computer. I've even left the laptop on my desk at the office 2 nights this week...unheard of in my "computer-addicted" world.

I've decided that I need to find a hobby that doesn't require use of my eyes. Any suggestions? I love to read...and that takes a toll on my eyes. Any kind of computer use is obviously hard on the eyes. Watching TV...again, wearing out my eyes. Hmmm...what else to do?

After four 10-12 hour days, I finally finished typesetting one book today, the fourth teacher's manual in our 12-volume Sunday School curriculum. Tomorrow I drop in the graphics, and it will be completely done. Yeah! Tonight I've been proofreading the fifth student manual in the series. I can tell that my Romanian is growing stronger because I can work through these pages a lot faster than I could even two or three months ago. Are you bored yet...I told you I wouldn't talk much about work because it would bore you silly. Believe me now?

Time to go home (and leave my computer here at the office for another night). Just going home is a challenge right now. As in Michigan, "summer" is synonymous with "road construction" - but they are really taking it to the extreme here this summer! Every road leading to my apartment block is closed...EVERY SINGLE ONE! I can leave home via a one-way street leading right into downtown.

But in order to get home, I have to drive through a very scary, very communist-looking tunnel/parking garage that comes out about 100 m. from my apartment block. Every time I do it, I feel like I'm looking over my shoulder for the policeman waiting to stop me for driving through private property. Am I conditioned by American driving laws or what? All of the Romanians who do the same thing every day probably don't think anything of it. They have to get somewhere, this is the only way to get there, so do it.

To be fair, it probably wouldn't be so scary-looking if I weren't driving through it at 10 or 11 o'clock at night when it is completely dark and deserted. No scary movies for me until at least one of the roads is open again!