Coming back from 2 really solid weeks away is always a chore. If it weren’t for Linda and the coblog we just did together, I’m not sure I’d be back up and running yet. Usually when I go home I have a list of stuff I want to accomplish while I’m in town. This year I checked out so thoroughly that I didn’t even pack to come home very well and my mom is saving my butt by shipping me both the stuff we left on accident and the gifts we left on purpose. I had a ton of fun though and I think visiting my family was easier on Bear this year.

I’m working on a year in review post for 2009. For all that it sucked for some people (and parts of it sucked for me), a lot happened. I had 6 months of a new local friendship, I formed new habits and pushed myself the hardest that I’ve worked in the last 5 years, and I traveled more than I have ever done before in one year. I had my mom and Linda visit me. Bear and I started the process of buying a house. That stuff alone is pretty big.

I’m hoping that I get myself together more for 2010 though so that I can both accomplish more, hit more milestones and have more fun. I’m already planning on getting my Master’s, purchasing a new house, and I’ve already got at least 3 people planning on visiting us in addition to TAing a class and possibly scheduling some visits to see people (Monarch and Linda for example). Lee is planning on taking a sabbatical. Life just gets more full and more interesting.

Completely separately I had a really WEIRD dream last night. In further proof that I have dreams that are long and last for an entire night, I woke up at 5am and clearly remember having this dream and I was still dreaming it when I woke up for good at 8am. My family was going on vacation somewhere, but it turned out that in that same city, an old classmate of mine had just lost her sister. The suspicion was that she was abducted, but they weren’t sure what had happened to her really. The plan had not been for me to go on this vacation with the other members of my family because I was due to do something the day after they got back into the United States (clearly this was overseas somewhere, but I’m not sure where). I hastily bought a ticket because for some reason in the dream I could do something about this missing girl (I make an awesome detective in my dreams). So we flew out to this city that is in dreamland and seriously, the FLIGHT there was part of my dream. I remember Bear being uncomfortable and chatting with my brother and getting annoyed on the long flight with some other family members. Twin being one of them. I remember getting to the city and asking around. I remember ending up in a bath house type of place (the weird things my brain comes up with?). It was like a restroom, but there were a ton of women in there and it was more like a locker room at a really busy gym with showers and bathtubs. I saw the sister that I went to school with and I tried to make it through all the women to tell her I was in town and she slipped out before I could get her attention. I ended up following her through the city and realized something more than just a missing sister was going on. So I start tracking this guy that the girl I went to school with met with while I was following her. Of course while I’m doing all this sleuthing, I’ve still got my family in town and so I keep meeting up with them periodically. When the alarm rang and woke me up, I was watching the dude do some bizarre building climbing to get into a restricted part of the city.  I was going to official channels to get into that part of the city when I absolutely had to get up. It was a fun dream now that I’m awake, but I remember being tense and determined in the dream.

Considering I spent the last weekend watching season one of Weeds on netflix, you would think my dreams would have more to do with suburbia and the craziness of that show.