Processing

I crammed a lot of living into a few months. I'm back home now, and "reality" will hit soon enough. There is a lot to process, a lot to think about from what just happened, and a lot to think about that is going to happen soon.

It's like I downloaded a bunch of information over the last 2+ months -- and now I need to figure out what to do with it. It's a lot to take in.

11,500ish miles. Over 20 National Parks and Monuments. Many other parks and recreation areas. Sleeping in the homes of 10+ strangers. Meeting lots of people I never would have met. Engaging in conversations -- some really good ones, too -- with complete strangers. No major incidents or mishaps. Sleeping in my car a lot. Mountains and deserts and wildlife I've never seen before. Places I definitely want to go back to. Places where ... once was enough. A lot of really good, and a little bit of bad. But a lot of living. And that's what I wanted.

I surprised my family yesterday, and we spent most of the day together. I walked my dog. We went to the park. We went and got groceries, of all things, and we had dinner together.

For the next several days, though, I'll have the house to myself -- which I think has the potential to be both really good and kind of bad. I'm used to being alone -- really alone -- so that's not bad, it's just that with so much to think about I don't want my mind to race straight to the potential bad things.

But, in an effort to stay positive, here is a list of reasons I'm excited to be home:

- Time with my family
- Time with any  people
- Time with my dog. Walks, park visits.
- Archery
- Archery deer season
- Hockey season
- Skating
- Getting back into a normal training schedule where I actually make, you know, progress, instead of just hitting the same numbers over and over again
- Eating normally
- By eating normally I of course mean it's bulking season. Time to try my hardest to get fat.
- Fall. I love fall.
- Looking for opportunities to apply lessons learned going forward, and make my life better
- Enjoying this small town, and embracing that it is a small town and I'm a "small town boy"
- Trying to meet new people in this small town
- Try to find new places in Northern Michigan
- More family and dog and friend time


Of course there is a corresponding list of things I'm not looking forward to -- but I'll keep that one to myself for now.