busyness travel

I am in a hotel somewhere in the middle of California. I have lost track of where we are exactly but it is some city that smells like cattle. This is not at all like the California stereotypes I picked up watching Saved by the Bell as a kid. It has been a long strange trip the last few weeks. I was in Norman for school for five days and then the SuperStart crew picked me up on the way out to the event in Northern Cal.

The past few weeks have been a microcosm of my year thus far. I realized this afternoon, as highway billboards flew by, that I have not been home a single weekend since December. Between SuperStart, grad school, and the occasional get-a-way, I have forgotten what it feels like to sleep in on Saturday morning, go to a matinee, or jog in my own neighborhood. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I sat in a pew.

Yet I am on my way home. California will turn into Arizona, then New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Before long, I’ll take Exit 6 into Joplin and drive down Main Street to a quite CIY office. Our team will part ways, each loading their bags into their own cars. I’ll drag my luggage into my dark house. I can hear the bells on my backdoor now. I’ll kick off my shoes, push the door off of my spot, and sleep in my bed for the first time this month. I’ll be home and we don’t have any plans next weekend. It is my goal to keep it that way.