warm night

it was a hot lazy day. didn't do anything important, just lingered time, waited for Mike to come home. we watched an episode of star trek and then "me, myself, and Irene". then i remembered i needed some cash since me and Nicole are getting together tomorrow. Michael said we could go now (passed 10). i just changed and we left. it was strange for me to leave without doing anything about the hair or make-up - just like that. we decided to go and we left within 30 seconds. it gave a feeling of freedom in some way, indipendence from small routine.

the night was so nice and still that we didn't want to go home and Michael started driving around. we were talking about something, just enjoying the night and the empty roads. Cities at night look so alike and "faceless" if you are not walking by a particular sight of interest. just the bulk of the city in the darkness and lights.. at some point it even seemed i was in Yerevan - on Kievyan's bridge and to the right was the Swallow Fortress park...

we were talking about copyright.. not a very romantic thing to talk about i guess and i don't think you could find many other couples that would choose that as their topic :) it's funny. but i don't imagine having long usually meaningless conversations about romantic stuff. those themes will die off quickly..

anyways. Mike went to bed and i was going to read a book or do something else. but i felt like staying outside more. i went to the balcony to breathe some air. then decided to take photos of stars.. which was just an excuse to stay here longer. i dragged a chair to sit on and wait for the camera to finish processing (when you set a really long exposure your cam's processing the result is long too).

and then i saw him! the bandit in a black mask! he was by the garbage dumpster.. there was some white thing on a video stand that smb threw away. the bandit pulled an end of that white flat rectangular object and it fell on him :D it was really funny to watch - he pulled back and froze. then pretended he had no business there and walked away. who was he? a racoon :)) it was the first time i saw one just like that and not at the zoo. there are a lot of them here - just like squirrels they are not afraid of people, and they find food in garbage.

nothing good came out of the photos and i decided to try some other time. for now i just got my laptop and started blogging. and again it brought memories of Armenia... how once i was out of town with mom. it was summer, we were on a one week hike or so. after she went to sleep i sneaked out to the balcony and started writing in a diary (yes i kept one back then).

am i becoming overly sentimental? small things suddenly evoke some memories and it happens let's say not once or twice but a lot. you can laugh all you want but i have photos of Armenia on the wall in front of the bed (i blogged about it and posted photos) and one of the photos shows.. Ararat. i guess so many people from diaspora hang pictures of Ararat not because they care about the mountain in particular but just because it's a symbol of Armenia, something familiar, something.. from home.

and please, don't think that i suddenly started liking Armenia more or less after i left - no, it's a different thing. it's not that from far you start loving something more as long as you don't have to deal with it in your every day life. it's about people, about special places, and little things. it's not tourism - i'm here for long so probably not many of my friends will understand what i'm saying. but were they in my situation they surely would - at least deep inside their heart.

oh and from the balcony i saw the ursa major.. just like form my room in Yerevan on a summer night. creeped me out for a moment :)

i'm wondering if that racoon will be back.. i'll wait here a little bit longer. i'm not sleepy anyway.