Wed, Jul. 21
... Somehow you've got everybody fooled
Seriously. It's 9:30 a.m., and I've been up for almost 4 hours already. After going to bed at 2 this morning.
I don't even know what to say about bein home--that last "wrap-up" of the trip, and the retrospective look back at the past 2 months.
It's strange to be home, but stranger still that everything else isn't exactly the way it was when I left. I always expect that time stands still at home, and that everything is just the same as it was. I forget that everyone else lives their lives, and things go on as normal, even though for me, it's anything but normal.
The first day is always weird, though, because I have all these thoughts like, "The last time I brushed my teeth, I was in Copenhagen. The last time these clothes were washed was in Stockholm. The last time I checked my email, I was in Linkoping." It makes me feel like such a sophisticated world traveller, when in reality, I know that I'm anything but!
Yesterday and today are my two lazy recuperation days. I start work again tomorrow, and I'm 8 hours a day for the rest of the week, and likely into next week, too, which is nice for the paycheck, but it'll be a bit of a shock to my system. It's all good, though--I've missed work. I really do enjoy my job, even though it's not a "great" job in terms of what I want to do with a career. Yesterday, I went into Quizno's to find out my schedule and get a sub, and I ended up hanging around there and talking, mostly to Blair, for almost an hour and a half.
It's just good to see people again. The normal, everday people in my life that I kind of take for granted when I'm around them all the time.
It's good to be home. You know? Good to have my laundry done and put away in something other than a suitcase, good to see my Linus again, good to have a mostly clean bedroom and to read my mail and see my friends and go to my church. It was nice to be the backpacker for a while, and these are experiences of a lifetime, but it's good to be home.
One year ago today: Maybe I'm very metrocentric (is that a word? If it's not, it should be), but I just prefer life in a city. The bigger, the better. Yeah, I know all the arguments about community and small-town friendliness and all that, but it doesn't have to vanish in the city. That's why you get involved in a church or a school or something--that's where your community comes from. And there's just so much more to do than in such a small town.
infinite || abyss
posted at 9:28 a.m.
