The Return

I'm back from Vegas a little poorer, a little more tired but happy. It's a four hour drive for us- not terrible by any stretch, but ye gods is it monotonous. The high desert consists of a few specific features:

1. Dirt. The world is full of it, but in no other place is it on display than the desert. It can actually vary in color, from a dark brown to a golden yellow. However, it all looks the same when you've been driving for 2 hours.

2. Dead/dying plants. The reason it's a desert is because nothing living needs to be there. Anything that does live there does so just to spite the desert, and usually has some kind of deadly poison to boot.

3. Mounds of dirt. Just like dirt, except in a big pile.

So we made it home, and there's always that wistful moment when you pull off the highway exit that leads to your home. You think about the good time you had, and possibly think about turning the car back around and heading back past the various forms of dirt. There's work the next day, which is a drag, and especially considering that you've been going to sleep in a drunken stupor at 4:30am and waking up at 2:30 in the afternoon, only to gorge yourself on rich desserts and meats. It's an adjustment that needs to be made, sadly.

On the other hand, you're not going to bed in a drunken stupor, which is probably a good thing in the long run. Your liver probably has a little party when you're back on your work schedule from vacation. There might be streamers. And it's good to be home, with all the smells and comfort of home. Also, Internet Porn isn't $10 a day. My wife is mentioning the cat, but considering she managed to knock her food over in the first hour of us being home, I'll take that under advisement.

Perhaps the best part of getting home is Catching Up. You bring in all the mail, and there's lots of good stuff and flyers for churches and shit. You get to your answering machine and hear recorded comments about how much money you could save if you refinanced. And you go to all your Internet bookmarks and check them out for updates. Even if you're gone for a day, it seems like there's a ton to catch up on. Did I mention the Internet Porn? That probably was updated too.

So it's good to be home. Tomorrow, it's back to work, and, as usual, starting to plan for the next vacation...