Hey Team,

I just made the trek up to Northern California to meet with a couple people before deciding on New Years plans (of course I suddenly realize the new year is closing in fast). But let’s take a quick step backwards to Christmas.

It was good to see the family again, even if it was in such an untraditional setting (not that my family relies very heavily on tradition). I can always count on them to keep me grounded. (That statement can be taken very literally regarding my childhood. I realize memories are inherently flawed but I have NO idea how I managed to be in trouble as often as I was back then.) I said it before, but I’ll say it again anyway:

My family is incredibly supportive of everything I’m doing and they all understand what it’s like to be trapped in the 8 to 5 and never have the chance to get out and see the world. That being said, it’s a tough thing to be in a house full of my family members and not spend the entire evening dodging jokes made at your expense and countering with slander. (That’s what makes family FUN!)

I thought in my next More >

Hey Team,

This might be the strangest Christmas I have had the opportunity to live though. Bare in mind, that’s saying quite a bit. My family isn’t one that is necessarily steeped in tradition and as such I’ve seen Christmas’s celebrated out of suitcases packed with fake Christmas trees come and go, with carols being sung in Florida, Southern California…and maybe even Vegas.

But I think Popamtrekker said it best when he said something along the lines of, “Next year I want to have our own Christmas. I don’t want to have to borrow everyone else’s.”

I don’t want to get too deep into Christmas right now, maybe later; this post is really just here for two reasons.

1. To let you guys know I’m going to go see what I can do about riding a cow as soon as I finish writing this.

And

2. To ask the question: What should I be doing for New Years this year? I’ve had a few cool invitations that I would LOVE to go take part in but I’m not sure how far I’m going to be able to travel in the next several days. Shout it out and I’ll see what I can do though!

Okay, time to More >

Hey Team,

So, let’s try to answer that “home question” today. Home has become such a nebulous concept for me lately…especially since technically, I don’t have one. I’ve always said, “I’m not going home until EVERYTHING is crossed off the list.” And of course, I don’t intend to, but after being away from home for so long already “home” has come to encompass something more along the lines of a comfort zone than an actual residence.

I’ll try to explain. I left home to embark on this Amtrekker adventure. Things got very uncomfortable very quickly. I didn’t feel like I was at home. Now I’ve gotten very good at being uncomfortable and as a result, relatively speaking, LOTS of places that I NEVER would have considered calling home before leaving on this trip suddenly start feeling a lot more like home.

I’ve even found myself slipping on a number of occasions after a couple days with particularly cool couch surfers and saying things like, “That was fun but I think after this I’m ready to just go home.” Of course on the surface I mean THEIR home…but I don’t think I’d phrase it like that if I weren’t super comfortable in my surroundings.

After More >