better late than never

The journey I've made so many time before... the drive to Charlotte, the unloading of the 70 lb bags, checkin and speed through security, wait and wait some more... Board the giant plane with hundreds of others, fly into the night and arrive to a crisp, dark London morning, Find your hot pink bags, truck through customs and find a cabbie to escort you home. Welcome back to the flat, welcome back to the neighborhood. It is as if no time has passed, everything is the same. No one even noticed you were going or that now you're back.

I realize this is about three weeks late but hey, life just tends to just get in the way. I wrote this on the cab ride back to my flat and looking back at it now it is kind of making me laugh. Not only am I embarrassed that I am able to make something as simple as a travel day weirdly dramatic but I'm a bit annoyed at how much of a big deal I was making about coming back to London. It is home now, it isn't just a place that I lived for a while. So why highlight something that is so dull?  A flight back to my room, my neighborhood, my pub and restaurants and stores.. seems easy enough to just chalk it up to another trip home.

I think this drama came from a place of realizing that it will be ten months before I am back in America. It was so daunting and so intimidating that I had trouble accepting it and I'm 99% sure I completely ignored it. Denial is not just a river in Eygpt.

But.. ah, that was then and this is now! After a few weeks, I cannot imagine living anywhere other than London at this point in my life. Yes, I'll be happy to come home and move to another big city (one with more familiar accents) when the time comes. But now I am remembering everything about my life here that I so quickly forgot with the blurs of Christmastime, family time and trips up north. All of the excitement and madness of Christmas break and birthday festivities took me far from London and my amazing and unbelievable life here. Luckily, now that I'm back and in the swing of things I know that looking towards the next 9 months should not be scary but exciting!

I'm back and I'm better than ever. Watch out London, these will be our best months yet.

Cheers y'all, Lis