Return to work was better than expected

Five working days away from the project and only 75 e-mails waiting for me this morning. Not bad. Mind you, many coworkers waited until my return to send me stuff or chat about issues, knowing that I was away on vacation and wasn't going to respond. I have colleagues who will answer e-mails on their days off. I refuse to set this kind of expectation.

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns from Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote The Kite Runner. Another impressive book, much harder to read however. Afghanistan is not a country that has been kind to its citizens, especially when those citizens happened to be women. I found it sad to read about girls being pulled from schools when the Taliban came to power, about women not being allowed to work, about segregation in hospitals, about the loss of freedom and individuality. Fortunately, Laila and Mariam, the two main characters in the book, are touching in their resilience and power to continue dreaming.

Summer is coming to an end, you can tell by the changes in daylight and temperature as soon as the sun sets. I was playing volleyball last night and on my way home, was happy that I thought about bringing a sweater. We played our last few games without sunglasses, something we couldn't have done even just last week. We have four weeks of volleyball remaining, I'm wondering if they are going to have us start earlier so we don't finishing playing in the dark. I don't think we have any lights in the current location.

I should get in touch with Sarah and see if she wants to start climbing again. I've decided to try blocking two evenings per week for this activity, in addition to a Sunday now and then. Last time we spoke, both Sarah and I agreed that it would be easier to buy a year pass, not cheap but well worth it if we climb often.