Routines

It's funny how no matter how old you are, we all love routines. I kinda laugh as I say that because it's my way of telling myself, my Type "A"ness is okay to need this.

Anyway, and as you know, I'm a routine craving kind of girl. Since moving South, new routines have been established...

• Each weekday I'm greeted with a "Bom dia" by one of our friendly guards at EAB's front gate.


• I have two standing weekly lunch dates that I love. Tuesdays with Hayes and Thursdays with Vanessa. Being able to walk to lunch off-campus is a little pleasure.


• Most Sunday evenings, I have dinner at the same Italian restaurant with Sam and then come home to chat on Skype with my parents. My mom, usually, I can see very clearly and my dad, well, I definitely know what the left side of his face looks like. They know what I mean.


• Thursday evenings a group of teachers take turns hosting "Dinner Club" where a couple of people cook something wonderfully delicious and the rest of us all eat ourselves into a Thanksgiving'esk coma, share our feelings of appreciation and head home to sleep well with a homecooked meal in our bellies.


• When I enter my apartment building, I call "Good morning," "Good afternoon" or "Good evening" to my doorman as he buzzes me into the building as well as throwing in a "Tudo bom?" as well.


• Each morning when Miguel arrives to our classroom, we hug and kiss on the cheek.

• There will always be a tv show from home on. Be it Law and Order, Big Bang Theory, Friends, House or Felicity, there's always something familiar on the tube.
  

These new routines definitely help to make each week, especially when it's a tough one, a whole lot better. But then there are some routines which aren't quite as predictable as I wish they could be:

• I carry an umbrella in my purse everytime I leave my apartment because I know it's going to rain at somepoint. Could me morning, could be afternoon, could be evening. Today no showers. What's that?


• My hair's going to go crazy from the humidity depending on the rain at some point during the day. Although one day last week it didn't. Maybe that's adjusting too? Wrong!


• Packages and letters come sporadically. Sometimes they take 1 week. Other times they take 3.
  

Routines when being so far away, make life a little easier. And the unpredictable ones, aren't so unpredictable anymore. It's funny how those regular parts of our day make me smile and usually are some of the best moments in it.