2 sleeps....

...and one LONG-ASS plane ride and I'll be back in Cali.

I'm now starting to get excited for this trip home - I'm looking forward to seeing my family and am hoping I can see all the friends I want to while I'm there.

I do wish I were going to Atlanta in this trip; I'd desperately love to see all my Atlanta people.

I'm in such a different place than I was at the beginning of the week. This is truly a roller coaster of emotions.



I've done some little things this week that have made me feel more settled... I finally unpacked the last of my stuff from September. I'm getting health insurance today. (I know mom, I should have done that imeediately, but I didn't). I've started to organize what needs to come back to Cali with me, and have realized that I have more gifts for people than I thought, so I don't have to stress about last minute souvenir shopping. Not that I won't be doing that anyway... I have 4 hours at the Sydney airport from the time the bus drops me off to when the plane leaves, and then 6 hours in Honolulu on Saturday morning. I'm hoping my friend Jason, who lives in Honolulu, will be able to go to breakfast with me in Honolulu on Saturday - I can't imagine staying in the airport that whole time! And my flights are on 2 different carriers, so I should be able to leave the airport. I hope.

Tonight I'm going to try dragon boating, with my housemate. I'm looking forward to being on the water in the lake, and she said there are 20 people in each of the 2 boats - so that's a lot of potential new friends!




I got a call last night from a friend of a friend, asking if I could sub onto their social soccer team tonight. I can't because of the dragon boating, and my knee, but I told him to call me for the next season... which he said he would. That would be great too, if I could get that going again. BTW - congrats to the Schmucks, my team in Atlanta, for winning it all this past season. Wish I could have been there... but looks like you guys are doing fine without me. :)

I have now run twice on my knee, and so far, so good (touch wood). I think the combination of riding and SLOWLY starting to run again will be good. I'm running for 20 minutes and then icing right away - and so far my knee doesn't hurt any more after the run than it normally does. It does hurt a bit while I'm running, but not so much that I need to stop. And the rest of the time it feels normal. It's just going to be a while before it's back to 100%. Or even 90%. I'd say it's at 70% right now. But, it is nice to run again - I really do love it and miss it!