back home again...(not in Indiana...)
I came back to the States and got a cold.
(Actually, I was pretty much expecting that.)
I was away for almost exactly a month--26 days--traversing a continent or two, rental cars and hostels and hotels, castles and ruins and churches, unexpected encounters with the locals, lovely encounters with fellow travelers, beer and live music and kartoffelsalat, parks and buskers, archival conferences and catching up with old friends and colleagues, and a whole lot of other stuff in between. I proved myself as navigator in foreign climes, and I proved that while I might still be able to read German quite well I sure as hell don't understand it when it's spoken to me. And tomorrow I'm supposed to go back to work--depending on the cold; getting lunch at Panera & going grocery shopping kinda wiped me out today, and I haven't even unpacked yet--and be that normal human being again.
I think coming back to the country via a conference in DC was wise, even if everyone was giving me odd looks when I told them--I did all my "omg omg omg I'm back in the States" melting down in DC, away from home and all the more familiar things, so that now, today, I can just wander around my house, drive around my city, and simply be happy to be home. I stumbled in late, late last night--the plane landed around 9, the shuttle didn't leave the airport till probably after ten, another shuttle picked me up in town to drop me off at my house just before midnight, and I could see the familiar things at night--but it was this morning when I went out to my car and drove myself around that I got all ridiculously excited by the familiar things. And, mostly, about driving my car again. I really adore my car. Have I mentioned that lately? My car, my laptop, and my teddy bear; this is what I am most excited about seeing again.
Yesterday I introduced myself to the current President of the Society of American Archivists while holding a giant Baskin Robbins ice cream cone (but thankfully without any ice cream on my face); yesterday I sat next to a mother and her 22-month-old baby who spent half the two hour plane ride howling, probably because she was so tired and couldn't get comfortable and possibly because of the changing air pressure hurting her ears--for about the last ten minutes of the ride, we had her lying mostly on her mom's lap and spilling into mine and she fell asleep at last, but then of course we landed; yesterday I spent the shuttle ride back to town sitting next to a woman who was going even further than me from the airport to take care of her mother after major heart surgery, a woman who had been up even longer than me and who had quit smoking that day and who was about as punch drunk as me, and we kept each other company through the night. And that was just yesterday. The days have been full of moments and memories like that, and I hope I can remember them all.
Okay. I should go unpack, and drink more sassafras tea, and ensure no souvenirs and gifts were broken in transit, and download pictures from my camera, and attempt to figure out how much money I have spent in the past month, and start catching up on all that tv I've missed the past few weeks. That's a good way to recuperate from conference crud, isn't it?
Also, since I have not even attempted to check my flist for the past month, if I missed anything you think I might be interested in, link me to it, please?
(Actually, I was pretty much expecting that.)
I was away for almost exactly a month--26 days--traversing a continent or two, rental cars and hostels and hotels, castles and ruins and churches, unexpected encounters with the locals, lovely encounters with fellow travelers, beer and live music and kartoffelsalat, parks and buskers, archival conferences and catching up with old friends and colleagues, and a whole lot of other stuff in between. I proved myself as navigator in foreign climes, and I proved that while I might still be able to read German quite well I sure as hell don't understand it when it's spoken to me. And tomorrow I'm supposed to go back to work--depending on the cold; getting lunch at Panera & going grocery shopping kinda wiped me out today, and I haven't even unpacked yet--and be that normal human being again.
I think coming back to the country via a conference in DC was wise, even if everyone was giving me odd looks when I told them--I did all my "omg omg omg I'm back in the States" melting down in DC, away from home and all the more familiar things, so that now, today, I can just wander around my house, drive around my city, and simply be happy to be home. I stumbled in late, late last night--the plane landed around 9, the shuttle didn't leave the airport till probably after ten, another shuttle picked me up in town to drop me off at my house just before midnight, and I could see the familiar things at night--but it was this morning when I went out to my car and drove myself around that I got all ridiculously excited by the familiar things. And, mostly, about driving my car again. I really adore my car. Have I mentioned that lately? My car, my laptop, and my teddy bear; this is what I am most excited about seeing again.
Yesterday I introduced myself to the current President of the Society of American Archivists while holding a giant Baskin Robbins ice cream cone (but thankfully without any ice cream on my face); yesterday I sat next to a mother and her 22-month-old baby who spent half the two hour plane ride howling, probably because she was so tired and couldn't get comfortable and possibly because of the changing air pressure hurting her ears--for about the last ten minutes of the ride, we had her lying mostly on her mom's lap and spilling into mine and she fell asleep at last, but then of course we landed; yesterday I spent the shuttle ride back to town sitting next to a woman who was going even further than me from the airport to take care of her mother after major heart surgery, a woman who had been up even longer than me and who had quit smoking that day and who was about as punch drunk as me, and we kept each other company through the night. And that was just yesterday. The days have been full of moments and memories like that, and I hope I can remember them all.
Okay. I should go unpack, and drink more sassafras tea, and ensure no souvenirs and gifts were broken in transit, and download pictures from my camera, and attempt to figure out how much money I have spent in the past month, and start catching up on all that tv I've missed the past few weeks. That's a good way to recuperate from conference crud, isn't it?
Also, since I have not even attempted to check my flist for the past month, if I missed anything you think I might be interested in, link me to it, please?