like I never left

/ my instagram

Well, I've been home for a whole day now, and what an odd feeling it is. It seems, strangely, normal. It feels like time just stopped when I got on that plane in July and resumed the minute I spotted my dad at the airport yesterday. Like life hasn't been real these past four months. Good thing I kept this blog, so I know July, August, September, and October actually happened!

Last night, went for a drive with Rachel through Sioux City. We even went to South Dakota, which brought my state count to 4 in 24 hours! (VA, MO, IA, SD + SA & Senegal!) We drove through the northside, Morningside, and all the other sides of the area, and we stopped at my favorite view in town (looking over the hill at night where Old Lakeport branches from Lakeport). We talked about normal sisterly stuff, and that feeling came back. It's like I never left.

I couldn't stop the sleep that overtook me at 9:30, even though it felt like I'd slept through pretty much the whole trip. I woke up at 2 am wide awake, so I got up and showered and finally made it back to sleep around 4 only to awaken again at 7:30. Maybe I can use this jet lag to turn into an early riser? Unlikely, but a girl can try...

Breakfast consisted of a pumpkin spice bagel with cream cheese (heavenly) and later I met Mary at Starbucks for (my favorite) chai latte. I stopped at the mall to replenish my perfume, and when did things get so expensive? It kills me that I can't divide the prices by 8 anymore. I kind of enjoyed that. So I reluctantly pulled those green bills tucked behind the pretty blue ones to pay.

It was definitely an all-American day. My dad also excitedly informed me we have "baconnaise" in the fridge. That's bacon-flavored mayonnaise. A vegetarian's nightmare. (Oh yeah, I'm back to being a real vegetarian.) The story on the side of the packaging said that two guys won a bunch of money on America's Funniest Home Videos and decided to spend it on starting a business that brings more bacon flavoring to the world. How noble. How American. Eish.

So that's what's going on at the Gray household, just so you all know. I must admit, it's feeling a little good to be back.