I have returned

Well I made it back from Hawaii. Although I can't really say in one piece as a goodly portion of my mind is still stuck over there yet.

But I have returned physically to my erstwhile home in the Yosemite Valley, and have a number of times wondered why, only to remind myself that I can always leave again and what's the hurry. Due time, due time. I'll get were I'm going wherever that is. Maybe Maui, or Kauai, or the north shore of Oahu, or Costa Rica, or Ireland. We'll see.

The return trip wasn't quite as exciting as the first time I ventured in a flying soup can, but was still definitely indicative of something you'd expect to happen to me. The flight out of Hawaii went fine, was sad to be leaving but beyond that it was uneventful. Had gotten up at 6:30am Maui time so 8:30 WST, my plane left the terminal at 10:15 pm and arrived in LA at 5:30am...so by the time I get to LA I'd already been up for 21 hours...starting to get tired. Then I catch my flight out of LA at about 7:25 and I get into Fresno around 8:30. that's right...24 hours right there...but wait! I still have a two hour drive to make it to the valley and I'm waiting on my ride to get me before that even starts. So I make a phone call to find out the status of my ride...I'm told that they had planned to leave once Mark *(my roommate)* got off work. He gets off work at 7am...so I figured it out in my head and said, "Hey, great, about an hour. Not bad." So I go sit down and get some coffee, try to unwind and forget that I'd rather be on a plane going back rather than waiting for a ride to go to the valley. And I wait. And I drink more coffee...around noon I start wondering what the hell is going on. So I make another phone call. And am told that Nick, the guy with the car, just popped his head into the cabin to ask if he's supposed to come pick me up.

*&$#@*%

Yeah, so I figure at this point that I have a good 2-3 hours until my ride makes it...I've already been up for 28+hours and am looking to be up at least 33-34 just to make it home. Not to mention that I have the shakes like mad from drinking way more coffee than should be legally allowable, and the only thing keeping me awake at this point *(besides a desire to pummel Nick to death)* is the remarkably short intervals between which I need to use the bathroom.

So I wait, and sit, and slap myself a couple of times for thinking about more coffee, usually on the way to the bathroom. And lo and behold around 4pm, seven and a half hours late, my ride shows up. At this point, while I would have felt very justified in pummeling Nick into the ground, I didn't really have the energy. Perhaps that was the point all along...hrm.

Whatever. I'm alive, although not all well. During my stint in the Fresno airport I managed to tear one of my contacts and am now making due with one, as I recently had an incident where in my glasses were melted...don't ask. So I'm monoculous as it stands, and still tired, and getting over a cold I caught over in Maui. Not to mention that the connection between the brain I have here, and what I left over there is tenuous and slow. Like trying to download movies from China with a 28.8 modem. But hopefully I can get it shipped to me sometime soon. I'll have to look into what that goes for nowadays.

Beyond that? NOTHING. Sleeping, eating *(maybe)*, working. Yeah, life.

Hope you are all well, safe, happy, prosperous, and prepared for the years ahead. Cause they're a mystery to me.

Happy Breathing.