Home...

Safe and sound in Raleigh after a half day long car ride with Lacy and her sister.  We left at around 7:30 this morning, stopped once in Philly to pick up Lacy's sister, once more for a bathroom break and a final time just before Stafford, VA to get lunch.  The only two bouts of traffic happened between D.C. and Fredricksburg and then again after Stafford so we wound up pulling in to my parents' house around 7:30pm.  Half a day later.  My timing was impeccable as dinner was ready as soon as I rolled in, and the kids were just finishing an episode of "Dr. Who."

It's good to be back and with family for a while.  I don't have to head back to NYC until the 27th so that gives me a few days to relax and enjoy my time here, regroup and maybe even start thinking about my approach to next year.  I have also been tasked with cleaning out the garage of my old stuff as my parents are converting the attic where it was all stored into an apartment.  My how things change around here.

I've been totally messing with my own head a little tonight though.  I'm killing time while my laundry finishes (yes, I'm 31 and I'll still do laundry at my parents' house...laugh), and I started to read old blog entries. It was a while before I realized I was gravitating to the 2009 chapters and reminiscing something fierce about those times.  Not sure why but it's really bringing me back to that mindset I was in back then.  It's weird to be here at my folks' house, where I was when I started to dream about this, reading my story and at the same time knowing how it ends, or at least knowing a few chapters ahead.  It's somewhat cathartic actually to look back and see what I was writing about back then and to find my words about my struggle, proof that I was unsure this would work out and how I was just diving in anyway, sink or swim style.  Apparently, I swam and this is almost like getting a chance to go back and tell my past 2009 self that I was on the right track and, though it didn't seem that way at the time, good things were going to happen.  Eventually.

Tomorrow I see the whole entire family and we eat and open presents and eat some more.  I'm hoping to write some more with more reflections about the year and thoughts about where the journey leads next year.  For now, I'm going to get some sleep because I've been up since 7:30am and I'm running on only 5 hours of sleep.  Good night.