It lives!

Jet lag, hurrah! This would be why I've been up since 3 A.M. However, I did not miss any of my flights, managed not to puke my guts out, and while my coccyx is still sore from sitting for so long, no permanent damage was incurred.

I had yesterday to generally lounge around (which involved getting a SIM card for my China!phone, reassuring my mother that no, the rug you're looking at buying is not too big to fit in the living room, and attending an Ayyam-i-Ha party).

The latter was fun but also somewhat discomfiting. Last night was the first time that I attended a Baha'i event since officially leaving the faith a little over a year ago, and I still had this incredibly visceral reaction to the prayers and readings, where part of me was trying to find meaning in the words since I had spent fifteen years trying to force myself to do so and feeling incredibly guilty for not actually believing any of it. And the other part of me was, probably for the first time, noticing how powerful (and dare I say manipulative?) the writing actually is. Thankfully, this helped me feel better about my previous commitment to creating a hole in my life in which to shove religion. I don't know if other people who have left the religion they grew up experience this sort of thing, where even though you no longer believe (or want to believe) that the writings have some sort of spooky supernatural direct line to god you still fall into the habit of seeing them as such. I hope so, as it would make me feel less stupid.

In other news, I read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal on the first half of my flight, and it was truly excellent, not only in its analysis of the purpose that games serve in our life, but also in creating a vision in which they can be harnessed for social change. I'd like to go further into how awesome this is, but I'm tired and need to be up because...

I actually have work today! I'm going to be transcribing interviews about critical thinking and its application in different disciplines for. It's wonderful to transcribe things on a topic that you find interesting, especially since if that is the case, chances are you're already familiar with the jargon that might come up.

So, off to get myself out of bed and shower. Have a good day!