Awesome Day Twenty Nine: Coming Home

I travel a lot.  Not as much as a business person, I suppose, but definitely more than the average person.  I'm on a plane at least once a month--sometimes way more--and as much as I love that feeling of taking off into a new adventure, I really, really love the feeling of landing and coming home.

On Awesome Day Twenty Nine, I did just that.  I came home.

Now, maybe this doesn't sound so Awesome to some of you out there--but if you leave a lot, like I do, then you probably get it.  I love traveling.  I love adventure.  I love exploring new places and cultures and meeting new people.  For me, that is one of my favorite parts about life.

But travel is a funny thing.  While you're busy appreciating a new place, with all its differences and foreign wonders and new approaches, you also find yourself appreciating where you came from in ways you never have before.  At times, you find yourself longing for the mundane that you were excited to leave.  It's a great gift; if I never left, I would never truly appreciate all that I have in my life at home.

(And then when you get home, you miss all the Awesome you saw on your last adventure, and long to leave again--this is the endless cycle known as the "Travel Bug."  Once you have it, you can't get rid of it.)

On Awesome Day Twenty Nine, I wasn't returning from some mind-blowing trip abroad or any kind of backcountry camping adventure that left me longing for hot showers and soft beds.  I was just journeying down the coastline from a trip to San Francisco.  With my family, no less.  And it was a great trip.

Still, I had that familiar flutter in my stomach when I looked out the window and saw the Downtown LA skyline.  I soaked in the warmth of the overly hot late summer LA sunshine.  I immediately had an appetite for tacos served out of a truck.  I was even happy to go straight to work from the airport, smiling my way through a (pretty terrible) $40 shift at the bar after a five day break from it all.  (It's amazing what going away can do.)

I can't even explain the Awesomeness of returning home to my mini-family.  The warm hug from a boyfriend I haven't seen in days and the excitement of furry puppy-blurs zooming around the apartment was a highlight to the whole month of Awesome.

There really is no place like home.






In Other Awesome News:  My new passport came today!!  Kudos to the State Department for getting that back to me in less than the estimated time (it's only been nine days).  I guess I'm ready to leave again...