One afternoon last summer I rode my bike to a barbecue at a group house east of Dupont Circle. In the crowd, mostly Georgetown medical students, I spied my old Mt. Pleasant neighbor Justin. We grinned as we recognized each other. Both of our grins took on a certain subtle knowingness, as we remembered that we both have personal websites, that we’d each been reading with the other person’s website, and that we knew the other person was reading ours.

This knowingness turned to sheepishness as we remembered that we hadn’t updated our websites very recently.

“I’ve been neglecting it,” I shrugged apologetically.

“Do you write more or write less when you have a lot going on?” Justin wanted to know.

“Less. Definitely less.”

Justin nodded as if he were expecting that answer. “So it’s inner life or outer life, one or the other.”

All this to say, my outer life has been demanding a lot of time from me lately.

I’ve been ...

• Wondering when the so-called rainy season will really start. Yes, these 90-degree temperatures are a nice change from the 105+ we suffered in May, but the sun is still shining and the humidity is climbing. I need some precipitation, people! I want to curl up in bed on a dark gray drizzly morning with a mug of tea. I want to wake up in the middle of the night to thunder and lightning.
• Finding that the honeymoon is over at the commissary, my not-so-new part-time job. At first I was so thrilled to be doing something that every aspect of the job was delightful. Moving stock from the warehouse? Stimulating physical exertion! Shelving items? An aesthetic exercise in color, form, and symmetry! Bagging groceries? A spatial-relations challenge! Now I see all those tasks for what they are: drudgery!
• Hiring someone else to do the drudgery at the commissary.
• Pleasantly surprised that the director of GeekCorps-Mali, where I volunteer part-time, is treating me seriously, like an actual part-time employee. But in return, he expects me to treat him like my actual boss -- and do actual work! What did I get myself into?
• Getting all geeked out at GeekCorps: Connecting wirelessly, meeting virtually, loading up my laptop with Apache Web server and EasyPHP and MySQL and other open-source software. It’s daunting that the geeks are more comfortable with the command line than with a graphical interface, but I remind myself that I’m the artsy, right-brained type. There’s no shame in clicking big, bright, puffy cartoon buttons!
• Visiting Radio Guintan, le voix des femmes, with the geeks. “It’s hard to believe they can do a decent radio show with so much echo,” someone commented. “Have you listened to the radio here?” I asked. He hadn’t. If he had, he wouldn’t have been surprised.

I find it ironic that …

• The lead announcer at Radio Guintan, le voix des femmes, shook hands with all my male colleagues, but wouldn’t even meet my eye.
• The only place I’ve used my laptop’s wireless card -- a novelty I bought on a whim, thinking I might use it in coffeeshops when I visit the U.S. -- is in Bamako, Mali.

Meanwhile, my husband has been ...

• Winning big at poker night. Mama needs a new pair of shoes!
• Picking up our custom handmade sandals from Sylla le maroquinier. Mama got a new pair of shoes!

Oh, and I’ve also been saying goodbye to all my friends who are leaving for four- and six- and eight-week vacations. Keeping busy might be overrated ...