Home from Vacation

We made the trek home today from St. Louis, and though I always get a case of the post-vacation blues, I’m also glad to be getting back into a routine again.

We took our time on the drive back. We wanted to be home in time to get things ready for the week, but we also wanted to make sure we stopped regularly to stretch our legs. Keeping watch of the time, we made it a point to find a geocache every half hour to forty five minutes, but we made sure to keep them short and simple, and we pretty much got off the road and then right back on. This also allowed us to take bathroom breaks, which was needed because today was a major hydrating day for me.

Our plans changed a bit when we saw on FB that a friend was stranded at the KC airport. Due to so many people traveling for the holidays, the shuttle bus from KC to MHK was full, so he would have possibly had to wait several hours to get a ride home. Since we were coming through that way anyway, Jon got ahold of him via FB and text and told him we’d give him a ride. We couldn’t have planned it better. This gave us some extra time to geocache, and just as we were getting there, he was grabbing his luggage and heading out the doors.

On the way back to MHK, we stopped at Lawrence and had dinner at The Burger Stand. I tried a bacon cheeseburger that had gouda and a chipotle-cocoa ketchup. It was definitely different, but it was pretty tasty.

We made decent time back to MHK to drop our friend off, then we headed home with just one stop to get gas so we can make it back to town tomorrow for work. I’m pretty sleepy tonight, but I managed to get everything unpacked and my clothes laid out for tomorrow. Going to finish the day off with a shower and some sleep in my own bed, which is always nice to come home to.

Now, just need to hope my brain is well rested and ready to go for work tomorrow.

A.

Reflections and Relaxation

Today, I handled my emotions fairly well by ignoring them as long as I could.

I always think I’m past the fresh feelings of sadness that September 11 brings, and then I find out that I’m not. It’s not just a one day a year thing either. At any point in the other 364 days, if I start thinking about the phone calls and the people in the planes and the families I cry. I’m an emotional person anyway, but I tend to get desensitized to things fairly quickly. This is one thing that’s still tough to remember.

Beyond that, I’ve been going through some mood mania, and I needed to center myself.  That plus an incoming head cold put me in the recliner for most of the day, thinking, relaxing, and ignoring the internet until the last possible moment.

1. For a quick reflection,  I remember where I was the day of the 9/11 attacks. I was in college, working in the Learning Center. I got the news when I got there and it didn’t sink in right away. I sort of shrugged it off until I started talking to people and reading the internet. Later, at the house, there were a lot of tears among my friends and sorority sisters. There are also so many little details in that one day, but none that I can ever put into words that do them justice.

2. To keep myself focused and relaxed today, I knitted. I have baby gifts that need to be finished for several friends, and I finally found one of my lost magic loop needles, so it’s been “knit on” for a good portion of this weekend.

3. I also started a new game of Fable III. Still going for the “good” character but buying up all the real estate early.

4. I caught up on four episodes of True Blood. The season finale was tonight, but I don’t get to watch it until tomorrow night. No spoilers! Another reason to avoid my Twitter feed. I don’t want to know what happens until I can see it for myself.

5.  I did a good deed for the day! And I get to do another one tomorrow. I have a friend whose car isn’t working at the moment, so Felbs and I picked her up and gave her and her son a ride home. I’m picking them up for school and work in the morning too.  Don’t take this proclamation as a sign that I’m an attention whore who needs to tell the world when she does something good. However, lately I’ve been feeling like a really horrible person, and so this reminds me that there really is a decent person in this shell somewhere.

6.  I talked to both of my parents. There was a time when that might have been stressful. Now it’s really nice.

I finally got on the internet and caught up with blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (sort of…I avoided any signs of True Blood spoilage). I cried a little, but I knew I would. And it wasn’t horrible. It’s one of those things that I think I need to do from time to time to keep things in perspective and to remember an event that had such an impact on the world during my lifetime.

A.