Aussie Expats Update – Archery Adventures, Food Bank & Fantastic Beasts

Everybody,

How, on earth, is it Friday again?? Don’t get me wrong, Fridays are awesome (although, one might argue, somewhat less so if you’re not actually working and therefore you don’t deserve to celebrate Fridays as much—and thus you also probably should be continuing to write/study over the weekend anyway), but right now it feels like the year is disappearing. Days and weeks and even months are vanishing like delicious, multicoloured gobstopper rings, and soon it’ll be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then NYE… and then 2016 will end.

I’m looking forward to doing a ‘2016 Recap’ post prior to that point, because this one has been a bit of a doozy for all concerned—personally, professionally, globally— and is well-deserving of one. But for now, what have your favourite US-based-Aussies been up to? Honestly, it seems like quite a bit, which is probably the cause of our weeks seemingly disappearing into the ether.

After babysitting Dave and Lee’s two boys over the long weekend, we now have a makeshift swing installed in our garage gym. James rigged it up while I was putting together last week’s blog post, and to say that it was a hit would be somewhat of an understatement: the boys routinely ask whether they can go and play in the gym, and our new swing is one of their favourite parts.

I’m going to claim it: we got some serious parenting experience over that 27 hour period. We built a fort, we watched a lot of Minecraft videos on Youtube (good GOD, that is PAINFUL. Remind me someday to never let my children play Minecraft, because those videos are like having your eyes slowly removed with hot spoons), we happily dispatched the boys to play with their friends down the road, we went ten-pin bowling, we ate pizza and we managed to have some political debate with the other adults while a horde of children played. All in all, it felt busy!

But that being said, we also did a lot of relaxing last weekend: we worked our way through quite a bit of The Office (I really probably should have done some more study), but since James is now done with his Masters, its a nice change of pace for him to be able to relax of a weekend. Luckily, he roused me from my sluggishness on Sunday afternoon by proposing we take a trip out to a highly-recommended archery store in Lawton where we promptly invested in a new pastime. We decided to go with a recurve bow rather than a compound bow primarily because it’s more challenging to master (there aren’t any sights on a recurve) and because, at least at this point, James doesn’t intend to go hunting with it (since a compound bow would doubtless be easier for a novice to hunt with than a recurve). To say it’s pretty cool would be a bit of an understatement—I mean, just look at how badass we look.

Sometimes I feel like I’m currently emotionally invested in too many hobbies, and adding archery to the list is probably only exacerbating this… But I also love the fact that the two of us are interested in so many different things, and have the opportunity to go on adventures and learn things together. In that vein, we took a trip up to OKC on Tuesday in the hopes of finally getting ol’ HeathHawk (our little American Honda CRV) fixed up prior to our Sunday road trip. He’s been intermittently making this horrific droning noise as soon as we get near 80 mph, which on long road trips is a mammoth pain in the butt. Despite getting delayed on the way up due to a huge accident on the I-44 (there was a semi-trailer off the road and a small car nearby that was absolutely mangled, complete with a white sheet draped over a body), we managed to get to the dealership by about 8:30… And there our little car stayed until about 1700. Luckily, James came along and forced me to get out and about rather than just sitting down and studying all day, so we (and by we, I mean me. I have a problem) bought some new books at bargain prices and had a tasty lunch at Saltgrass Steakhouse while we waited. Then, as we got onto the I-44 to head home again after being told that what they’d thought was the source of the noise actually wasn’t it and they thought they might have fixed another piece that might have been making the noise, the damn noise started up as soon as we hit 80 mph. So, a little less than optimal, but luckily we got a lot of other work done on the car and are now feeling a bit reassured about its roadworthiness. We just have to hope that the noise remains intermittent and is absent more than it’s present!

We also had our first volunteering experience in the US this week. Some of James’ students have, since arriving at Fort Sill for their course, spent their Thursday afternoons/evening volunteering at the Lawton Food Bank. Having mentioned it to James earlier in the course and inviting him to come along, we decided to make the trip out there and give it a whirl. It was pretty simple work, restocking the shelves with the donations that people/organisations had made, but it was fulfilling to do it and know that we were enabling this facility to continue their great work in helping people in Lawton. Plus, they had two lovely and affectionate cats (one of which leapt all over James—I’d argue adopting her just for clear evidence of her good taste) that we got to pat and attempt to fill the gaping hole of my need for pet-tastic love (two years to go people, two years).

Then, to cap off the night (and really, really make it feel like yesterday was Friday!) we headed off to Applebee’s for dinner, then on to a 7:30 viewing of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which we both really enjoyed (Disclaimer: there are those who claim that my standards—be it for films, for books, for food, for activities—are low, and thus if you’re a true connoisseur you may find those things that I rave about to be a little underwhelming: sorry). Like everything related to the Potter-verse it is, for me at least, absolutely magical. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but you should all definitely watch it, and relish the opportunity to wallow in the many awesome magical creatures showcased in it (Note to self: do some world building, be more like JK Rowling).

Well, this is LONG, so I’d better sign off. Novel transcription is at 68 000 words (I need to type faster and more accurately), I’m working on a short story, I’m still struggling my way through Dostoyevsky, but have also just started Toni Morrison’s Beloved: it’s absolutely beautifully woven and it’s taking a lot of self-control to study and do necessary tasks rather than just sit down and devour it. We head to Kansas City on Sunday with a work trip for James, and I GET TO MEET MY FIRST TWITTER FRIEND AND ALL-ROUND LEGEND, Nicole. We’re going to feast on burgers and milkshakes, endured some awkward first meeting stuff and then be 110% writing soul-mates. ‘Nuff said.

— Ana.