Sunday, July 29, 2007
Welcome Back P-A-R-T-Why?

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that no one was at the Arrivals gate to greet me when I came home after being away for six months. Perhaps I shouldn't have let my brother's email get my hopes up so high - I mean, both of my parents, my uncle and his girlfriend would come to pick me up? Wow! Talk about a party at YYZ! Perhaps I should have paid more attention to that feeling I got as I walked through Baggage Claim that told me my parents would do what they normally do: drive most of the way to the airport and hang out under a bridge on the highway, wait for my call to tell them what terminal/gate/door I'm at and then grab me, all without paying the parking fee. The system is quite good and has worked well for those week-long trips I used to take, but call me naive or foolish or whatever, but I kind of figured that maybe they would be excited enough to see me that they'd pay the twenty-something fare to meet me as opposed to having me wander around Arrivals looking for my family members. Because yeah, even though the sinking feeling was with me all through Baggage Claim, I had enough hope left in me that I circled the throngs of greeters and picker-uppers looking, hoping that my family was there. They weren't. I'm sure it sounds worse than it was. And maybe it hasn't rolled all the way off my back yet, but it doesn't really bother me that much - or so I think. My brain and my heart are far apart after all.

So... I'm back and I didn't die. Though I got verbally harassed by men incessantly, was involved in a mugging at knife point (on the victim's side, of course), had the right side of my body (face included) eaten alive by mosquitoes, got picked on by children, and was in an elevator crash. Northern Africa was good.

I can't really remember whether or not I had any intention of 'keeping in touch' via my blog while I was away, but either way, I didn't. Don't feel bad, I didn't keep in touch via anything, really.

So yup, I'm back. It's nice to be home in a simple sort of way, being reunited with family and friends again, that sort of thing. And I'm happy to be here, I am, it's just - yeah, I want to leave again. I get a little restless here, to say the least. Thank goodness I've got my homeslice nearby because I'm not quite sure what I'd do without her.

I'm trying to think happy thoughts, it just that they're halfway across the world.