November 2006 Archives
Well, Thanksgiving with the family is off. Dad's not in any condition to get out of the house today, so about noon mom & dad canceled (my brother called to tell me). I got on the freeway - only to get off about 2 miles (10 mins) later. It was jam-packed. Averaging maybe 20mph. That would mean 3-4 hrs to get to my brother's place. It was 12:30p - I didn't want to hold up dinner. On top of that, how good a mood do you think I would be in after 3-4 hrs of jammed freeway traffic?
Now that I'm home, I'm looking online and see 3 hazards/accidents, and 3 undetermined slowdowns (<10mph) on the 210 East. Insane holiday traffic. It's ironic how my folks think I live "so close" now - but I don't think they "get" SoCal traffic. 80-100 miles outside of SoCal isn't bad at all (on the west coast). But in socal traffic - well, without traffic it's a little over an hour, with traffic it's about 1.5 hrs - and in holiday traffic, double that. srsly.
So... while I don't really have anything prepared for dinner at home, I'll relax and keep things low-key. Meaning I'll probably play PS3 or WoW most of the day haha. Do some laundry, clean the house. Maybe pack up some more boxes of stuff.
For everyone else - I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving!
I have returned. SOMEONEs (*cough* Richard & Vernon *cough) told me I need to update my blog more often. I have no idea what those people were thinking. :)
So for those who don't know, I just spent the last week (Fri 10/27 thru Wed 11/1) back in Austin. While I don't care to publish the details, I had some personal trauma here at home and needed to get away - the proverbial "return to home" trip. Austin's my one true home. It's where I feel best about life, myself, etc. The one place I feel where I really felt like "home." It's not a perfect town, but it does a lot of good for me when I'm there.
So the purpose of the trip was to get away from LA, from the stress and issues here. I needed time outside of that environment so - much the way a mixture of CarbonTetraChloride+iron filings do along a magstripe (eg on a credit card, room key, etc), I could align my thoughts, myself, and find clarity, find a way to get through all the emotion and regain focus to move forward.
It worked.
I got the chance to see some old friends. I also got the chance to reconnect with folks I haven't seen or talked to in years. VeryGoodThings(tm) happened as a result.
Even of the few people I did see and spend time with, I'm afraid I wasn't able to get back around to all of them a second time, or catch up with some of them at all. It was a 'stealth' trip so no hard feelings. The last couple days I really ended up doing my own thing (and I won't even talk about work contacting me and trying to pull me into work-issues - ON MY VACATION) so the Mon/Tues/Wed schedules got a little wonky. But I have to say the trip was about me, and everything worked out good for me, so it's hard to regret anything.
Change is coming. Confidence is high. I like feeling happy again.
