Out Of The Woods

No posts last week due to my being incommunicado in the backwoods of Tennessee and North Carolina. It was a week spent driving, backpacking, camping, and hiking. And while that may not sound like a lot of fun to many of you, I had a great time. Thankfully, there were no banjos, compliments on our pretty mouths, or squealing like pigs. There were also no bears. Or half bears, for that matter. The last thing you want to run into in the Smoky Mountains is half a bear, for reasons I will not go into here, but believe me it's a terrible way to go. Ask me about it if you see me and I'll explain in more detail.

I will post more on my trip later, with photos, but for right now I'd just like to give a shoutout to my friends Mike, Jeff, and Boyd for setting the whole excursion up and making the trip happen, as well as putting up with me and my lack of experience. I'd also like give an extra special shoutout to my co-pilot and tent-mate Josh. Anyone who can maintain his sanity and remain cool as hell when paired up with me in such close quarters for that long deserves some sort of medal.

The great thing about trips like the one I just returned from is the way they make you appreciate what you have back home. Don't get me wrong, like I said I had a great time and I would have been happy to stay in the back country even a little longer, but boy was there a lot of stuff I started to really miss. First off, I missed my wife something fierce. This was the longest I've been away from home and Megan simultaneously since we've been married. I missed her while we were backpacking, but when we got back to civilization, it made me miss her even more. Something about knowing that the trip was essentially over made me want to get back to her that much more. The feeling was simultaneously awful and wonderful at the same time.

I also really missed my bed (and by extension sleeping with a woman in said bed), listening to music, non-dehydrated food, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but my dogs. My dogs, by the way, seemed very unenthusiastic about my return. I think they may have been pissed I didn't bring them back anything.

Another thing I missed was my friends back home and I had an embarrassment of riches last night. After recovering somewhat from my 15 hour driving marathon on Saturday, Megan and I joined our newly engaged friends Ben and Kat, as well as Sonali, and our recently returned wayward friends Bronson and Andrea for dinner at Back To Guangzhou for dinner on Sunday. The meal was delicious and had the added bonus of meeting another cool couple in Andrea's twin sister Valerie and her husband Will. After a quick detour to Whole Foods, we went back for dessert at home. There we were joined by none other than Nicole Pazona and we stayed up late catching up. It was great, and even though it wasn't intended to be, it was the best sort of "welcome home" party I could imagine. Unfortunately, it made returning to work today that much harder.

Tonight should also be a good night with more friends as Nick and his sister's band Eux Autres are playing at the Goofy Foot. And even though I'm still tired as hell from my trip, I wouldn't miss the show for the world. I'll post on that later this week as well. Until then, I'll be trying to catch up on work and sleep, and trying desperately to not to do both at the same time.