Several months ago I was at a Walgreens, getting my visa photo taken and fantasizing about my trip to India.

Yesterday I was standing barefoot on a family of caterpillars, fantasizing about being back at a Walgreens.

“What about Walgreens were you daydreaming about?” Doug asked when I told him about my fantasy. “All the food you can buy there?”

“Not even that,” I said. “Walgreens is just so clean, and I really like the layout.”

The growing list of things I find myself missing continues to surprise me.

In other news, today I was drawing a caricature of an old woman who wouldn’t sit still because she kept speaking in Hindi and pointing at her mouth. Then she stood up mid-caricature and went back to her room, where I could see her rummaging around in a drawer. I called the translator over to ask what was going on- turns out she was putting in her teeth.

I made quite a fool of myself yesterday. I’ve been living in a different room this month than the one I was in the first month. But yesterday afternoon I randomly forgot that I had ever moved and went back to my old room- I’ll blame the heat . I started slamming my body against the door to get it to open (I have to do this whenever I go to my room, because the door is so stiff). But I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t open this time, so I kept throwing myself against it harder and harder. Exactly one second before the guy who currently lives there unlocked and opened the door, I looked up- saw the room number and realized my mistake. “Shit,” I said as he stared at me. “I’m so, so sorry.”

A while ago I wrote about that day when all of those Indian men materialized from thin air and asked to have their pictures taken with us in varying combinations. Was looking through these photos the other day…

Here’s a challenge for you. What’s the major difference between Picture 1 and Picture 2? (Hint: it’s not the guy’s arm on my shoulder). Winner gets a prize!

Picture 1:

Picture 2: