Fort Worth

Tonight I'm in Fort Worth.  I'll stay around here tomorrow and the next day it's time to hop on the train for my venture to New Orleans. 

I'm definitely starting to think about home more.  This seems to be becoming less of a big vacation adventure and now just a long trip home.  I keep thinking about going home and sleeping in my own bed, but then I remember that I'm 28 and going home like that isn't really the same as it used to be.  That also brought about the realization that once this trip is over I have to start looking for a job and a place to live.
I also started thinking about being back in America in weird ways.  I'm certainly glad to be back in America and it will be nice to be back in my home town where things are familiar.  But, at the same time, I feel like my life has been basically frozen for the last 2 years, and soon it's going to come unfrozen.  I'm going to have to get another job, and probably it will require more work, and pay less than my job in Korea.

Yesterday in Albuquerque I had a pretty good time.  I typed up my blog in the morning, then found the zoo and walked around there for awhile.  It's a kind of small zoo, but it's pretty nice.  It seemed like there were several animals there that I'd either never seen, or never seen so well in a zoo.  It was also pretty empty, too.  Not surprising, since it's the middle/end of October and it was a weekday.  At one point I was headed toward and indoor exhibit called "Nightwatch" or something like that.  You go inside and it's really dark, and I guess there are supposed to be nocturnal animals or animals who live in caves or other dark places.  I'm not really sure because I couldn't see any of them in their cages.  But, just outside, before I went in there was a brother and sister who were just kind of standing around and playing together.  Once I got kind of close, the boy said "If you want to know where our parents are, they're eating."
"Oh...ok.  And they left you here?" I asked, a bit puzzled because I hadn't asked about his parents and I thought it was weird for mom and dad to be chowing down while the kids just chilled out.
"Yeah, they went through there, but we're too scared to go." He said, gesturing to the Nightwatch exhibit.
"Is there something scary in there?"
"It's really dark.  Mom and dad are being eaten I think."  Which made me wonder if that's what he'd said the first time.  It also made me wonder why he was so calm if he thinks his parents are being devoured by some zoo beasts. 
"Being eaten?  There must be something really scary in there.  Are there bats, you think?"
"I don't know I was too scared to go.  Will you help us find our parents?"
Of course I went in with the kids.  The little boy grabbed my hand as soon as we got in.  It really was dark, especially right inside the door.  We only got a couple of steps in when the boy let go of my hand, his dad was right there, on his way back to get the kids.
I kept running into the family after that.  They were nice enough.  The kids were super cute.  The little boy loved to talk, and his big sister was a little more shy, though she said a couple things to me.  But, after kind of being on the same path for a bit it got a little awkward.  We weren't going through the zoo together, but then we kept running into each other, so the first couple of times we said "hello" and then some sort of "goodbye" as our paths diverged briefly.  But then it just got into that spot where we didn't really want to hang out, but it was hard to ignore each other since there was almost nobody there. 
Hmmm...maybe that didn't come through so well when I wrote it down.  Perhaps a "you had to be there" thing.  Oh well, you've read it now, so just move on. 

Oh, one other thing.  I've been listening to my iPod a lot as I drive from place to place, and the one thing I listen to most is a podcast called Stop Podcasting Yourself.  It's basically like a morning radio show.  It's two Canadian comedians and usually a guest just talking about stuff they do and see and whatever.  They're pretty damn funny though.  So, you should check them out if you like that stuff.