One more month

It's exactly one month to the day that my sweet sister comes home. It will be 14 months since I've seen her by then! Too long, I say!

Here is a picture M took shortly after she arrived in South Korea. I was going to post a picture of her, but I don't think she'd like that. Plus, she's got skills with a camera (as you can see below) and I like to brag about it.

How was your day?

My day was pretty good. It started out a little rough because I may, or may not, have been up late last night with D, drinking wine on a bench down by the lake. Work was mediocre, but then the evening was quite nice. I went to the public pool near my house and swam 12 laps (12!). Then I sat down by the pool and sunned my legs.

Question- Is a lap one trip across the pool? Or is a lap there and back? If it's there and back, I did 6. But still!

Then I came home, ate a burger, and fell asleep reading Under the Tuscan Sun. When I woke up, I went online to find my dear sister in Hanoi. Hanoi! She's a little bit like Carmen Sandiego these days as she travels through Asia. It's hard for me to imagine her so far away, especially since I've never been to Vietnam, or anywhere in Asia for that matter, so I don't know how it feels there.

And now, to sleep! For the second time this evening.

P.S. My sister, cousins and I used to love playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" Good work, Gumshoe!

Texting

My one and only sister is in South Korea right now and for the first time yesterday, we texted. We've talked on the phone and over Skype; we've emailed...but something about getting texts from her was really exciting. Naturally, speaking with her is always the best, but getting these little texts just felt so instantaneous and personal. It was great.

With so many various ways of communicating nowadays, certain modes of communication are considered more acceptable for certain situations than they used to be. How many people out there have now been invited to a wedding via email? Email?! I think this has become okay because email is the crown jewel of electronic communication. If someone really cares, they'll send an email. If someone sends a text or a FB message...not so much.

Here's is how I rank electronic communication, by importance:

1. Phonecall
2. Text
3. Email
4. Facebook/MySpace message
5. Twitter

Am I forgetting something?

Now, of course there are exceptions. Text and email are easily blurred, depending on who you are talking to and how much you have to say. For instance, my mother doesn't text and I obviously don't feel like she cares less because she emails me instead. (Actually, she always calls; she's the best.)

So, to bring this post full circle, getting these texts from my sister, who is oh-so far away, felt surprisingly personal. Although she and I call and email, it's hard to catch each other because of the time difference, schedules and cost. But with texting, it can be a spur-of-the-moment, sweet message. Just a quick little hello, from across the ocean, no matter what's going on. All our disconnects disappear and it's straight from her to me.

I love you, M.