Homecoming

Dorothy was right. There's no place like home. But then again Dorothy also had her aunt and uncle to keep the place tidy while she was off galavanting around...

The trip home was much as you would expect. Elise vomited on Head, both of them tried to take off while their carrier was being scanned by TSA personnel, and then the carrier broke but was manhandled into submission. Happily, my continuous tears limited questions regarding the excess of cats.

Exhaling my tension, I boarded the plane to find my rowmate weighed at least 350-400 pounds and took all of his seat and half of mine. Asphyxiation from his crushing presence and moderate continuous turbulence put dampers on my enjoyment of the flight.

In exciting and unexpected news, the luggage arrived unscathed. A friend trucked us all home from the airport and graciously expected very little from me conversationally. The house looked like a cross between 'Nightmare before Christmas' and the local bus station. Random packages littered the floor, tumbleweeds of dust engaged the cats in a battle for home turf advantage, and the withered remains of plants stretched out and away from their pots like skeletons toward salvation.

There were a few high points though. Presents from my birthday still waited on the table for attention, the obscene fluorescent kitchen light had been replaced with a lovely fixture casting twice the glow (probably will enjoy more now that things have been put aright), and a card I had stockpiled from Mickey significantly buoyed my spirits.

Six hours of serious scrubbage later, the place began to look respectable. Crashed for a short sleep and another four hours today left the place mostly ship shape. A little time at work clearing my mailboxes, checking voicemails and reviewing the coming week's schedule. Already double-booked! And here, I thought no one cared. Good to know my clients have missed me just a fraction of how much I have missed them.

Soon I will knuckle down on time-limited revisions for a paper. But first I wanted to shout out a big hello from back in CO! With love as always-

jax