Long time no update. (Jeez, lately I could start all my entries like that.)

Life goes on in Chattanooga. Last summer we were sharing the apartment with Jim, and we did lots of touristy things. This summer we have the house, and we haven�t been doing any touristy things. This summer I feel as though I know the place better, because I�m really living here and not just being a tourist.

I like Chattanooga. It may be full of Republicans and uber-religious people who want to save my soul, but it�s a very friendly, very industrious city. I could be happy here. I am happy here.

I�m not stuck when Bonnie�s at work, because so many things are within my walking distance. The grocery store, the drugstore, the animal hospital (yes, I can even take Pandora to the vet on my own), the Mexican restaurant, the bakery, the deli, the convenience store� not to mention the bus stop. I can hop on the bus and go just about anywhere. Not having to rely on Bonnie for all my transport has been good for both of us.

Bonnie says that Chattanooga makes her put on weight. I can now attest that it isn�t just her. Today we had to go out and get new jeans because none of my old ones fit over my new Buddha belly. I wanted to put on weight, so I�m not upset about this � I�m actually rather pleased because maybe now people will quit telling me I�m too thin. I do, however, wish that the weight would travel around to the places it�s really needed � like my boobs and my shoulder blades � rather than just sitting on my belly.

As well as a Buddha belly, I also have glasses. Glasses I didn�t even know I needed. Bonnie was due for an eye exam, and we decided that I may as well get one too since it�s been a few years. She thought I might need glasses for driving because I can�t read the road signs until I�m right on top of them. I just assumed it was like that for everybody.

Well, the eye exam was � excuse the pun � an eye opener. Bonnie covered each of her eyes in turn, and managed to read the letter chart almost to the bottom. I covered up my left eye, and couldn�t read a darn thing. Each time I read off a line, sure that I had finally gotten the fuzzy shapes right this time, the tech told me to read the (larger) line above it. When I looked through my left eye, I could read the letters and numbers just fine. My left eye was pretty good. It was just the right.

We got tested for our prescriptions � mine was a correction for short sightedness and astigmatism in the right eye � and the next day we picked up our glasses. Mine have thick black rims. I figured that if I have to wear glasses, I may as well be really obvious about it.

Well, when I put my glasses on for the first time� all I can say is holy cow. The world was a little wibbly, and that was weird. But all of a sudden I could see stuff! Stuff that I didn�t even know it was possible to see! It�s funny, I assumed that everybody saw the way I did. And when I enthused to Bonnie that I could see just one moon instead of two, and that it had clear edges, and that I could see the individual blades of grass and leaves on the trees, I was sort of surprised when she told me that that�s what normal eyesight is like.

I love my glasses. Everything is so sharp through them that I feel as though I have some kind of superhero power. Seeing the moon that clearly is just magical. I still enthuse about that. Car headlights don�t hurt my eyes so much, and I don�t misread signs anymore. Plus they make me look like a geek, and I like that. I don�t wear them all the time but when I do they make a whole lot of difference. They especially made a difference at the Tori concert.

Bonnie and I fly to Boston on Friday. We�ll be there for about five days. Jo and George are staying there at the moment with George�s family, so we�ll get to spend all of that time with them. Since they�re originally from Boston (not Atlanta) they know all the good things to see and will be able to show us around. I�ve missed them this summer so it�ll be great to have that time with them � I�m looking forward to it. On 1st September I fly back to the UK. Bonnie is of course coming with me this time to help me get settled in to the new house, so I still have a few weeks left with her.

I don�t have long with Pandora though. On Thursday we have to take her to Knoxville to stay with a rescue centre until Bonnie is back from the UK. That just breaks my heart. I�ve grown so fond of my sweet girl, how am I going to manage without her for nine months?