Home!

After almost 3 months of being back in the US, I have returned to the UK. There is a definite feeling of being "home" here. A big part of it is due to the friends, neighbors, and co-workers that I have here. A lot of it also has to do with having a kitchen again. Being in a house remodeled the way I wanted has a positive effect, as well. I'm not sure why wood, stone, and porcelain floors make me so content, but they do. Lastly, I missed the quiet that England has to offer. Yesterday I had my windows open and all I could hear was birds and the occasional child laughing or crying. What a pleasant place to be: no traffic noise, airplanes overhead, or listening through paper thin walls to hotel neighbors having coughing fits at all hours.

That being said, I really enjoyed my time in Virginia Beach, too. The sound of the ocean any time I cracked the windows, getting to meet and spend time with work peers that I had never met before, running barefoot on the beach, and, most of all, being able to see Jeralyn more often. We got spoiled with weekend visits and being in the same time zone. We are remembering that being an ocean apart makes communication more of a challenge.

The last couple of months went by pretty quickly. The course required more of a time investment than I thought it would, including working weekends. I was able to carve out enough time to make one snowboarding trip with a couple of friends from the class. The snow conditions were pretty miserable (warm for weeks, to the point that mud was sticking through the snow in a lot of places and it just got worse as the day went on), but we had a good time regardless. I borrowed some gear from one of the guys and was pretty surprised how light and responsive snowboards have become. I was doing the math and it turns out my snowboard is a 1995 model (possibly a 1996). Doesn't sound too old, but a lot of advancements have apparently happened in 17 years. Long story short, the newer board and boots I used were much lighter and everything felt much more responsive. Seeing as I only get out once or twice per year it doesn't make sense to buy anything new right now, but if I end up somewhere with good snow and hills, it's on.

The last few weeks of the course ended with much better group dynamics than the first two months. People finally started to socialize with everyone and the cliques started to merge a bit. I happily went from eating lunch alone every day for the first week or two to getting up to 15 people going together. Most days it was about 8 or so of us spending a long lunch talking and hanging out. Bottom line, it's sometimes harder than one would think to convince people to spend time eating together (who doesn't like food?), but once you break a couple of people, the crowd more or less gets on board.

Dan and Jenny also came down for a weekend when Jeralyn was there. Although everyone met in Hawaii back in 2009, it was all in passing. It was good to spend time with just the four of us. We have some small and big plans lining up. The big plans don't look very promising at this point (finding two weeks that lines up with 4 people's schedules is tough!), but the small plans (weekend camping) should be easier to make happen.

(Dan giving proper deference to the Dragon and Ninja rolls)

Being home means home repairs. I have a couple of small things to fix around the house today as well as my favorite past time in the very near future: fence repair. I am tempted to just get a professional to put in a metal fence so that I won't have to worry about wind storms teaching my fences lessons in humility, but considering the price is well over 10x the cost of putting up wood panels myself, I get less excited about permanent fencing solutions. Waterproofing the posts is a viable, and much cheaper, option.

Lastly, it looks like I will be staying here a few months extra. I will probably be moving in August now. After years in Hawaii and England, it is time to bite the bullet and go to the East Coast. It is a place I said I would never go of my own free will, but, truth be told, I am excited to go. The job doesn't sound like it will be nearly as good as my current one, but Jeralyn and I have some pretty sweet plans for vans, hang gliding, a canoe with a motor, and lots of travels. That being said, I really need to save up my vacation days. There's never enough time.