at home, he's a tourist

Being home, in the United States, for an entire month, has been...difficult to describe. I mean, it feels like home. But I don't live here. I haven't seen most of my friends for an entire year. A lot of things happen in a year. People graduate from college, get jobs, move. The big changes happen. In the month that I've been back, I've been all over the East Coast...I've driven through or been in every state of New England, except Rhode Island (not even an island! Doesn't count). I've spent significant amounts of time in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey...it's been a whirlwind East Coast roadtrip. And through all of that, I've seen cousins, grandparents, friends, old roommates. I've slept on couches, futons, and beds in both apartments and houses. Unforunately, there are only three meals a day (only three opportunities to say "Do you want to grab _______?"), but I've had them all, including coffee, which I don't believe counts as a meal. Through all of this, it's been hard to keep a perspective on reality. The reality that a lot has changed, and that I wasn't here to experience it. And that it's really hard to share what you've done for an entire year in one two hour meal/beverage break. All that said, it's still much easier to connect with old friends than to make new ones. Especially if your new friends speak a different language and come from a different place. With old friends, there's a foundation and a bond that deteriorates with time, but that doesn't mean it never existed. But, like I said, things have changed. I'm visiting, and a visit is a lot different than day to day life. Who knows what would have happened had I stayed. The fights I could have had and the rifts that could have formed, and maybe the new people I could have met. There's no way to know how things played out in the infinite parallel universes in which all possibilities are being explored...no way to know except to travel to them. But this is a blog, not a Michael Crichton novel. The technology just isn't there. In the meantime, watch Star Trek, preferably Next Generation.