And I’m back after a week away visiting Jo & Joshua (which you can read all about if you haven’t already). Weird, wild stuff. But now I’m back at work and trying desperately to get comfortable in my own place.

So of course it was so great to be back with Chena again! There was a lot of excitement and peeing that went on during our reunion (she did the peeing – I was just excited). This was the longest I’ve ever left her for and I missed her.

Apart from my joy in seeing her, I’m really sad to be back home. Not so much because I’d rather be in North Dakota (I’d love to see someone make that sentiment into a bumper sticker…), but because I just don’t want to be HERE. I have said on more than one occasion that I don’t particularly care for living in this part of the country. I have often gone on to say that if I have to live here, then I would at least be in NYC. But alas, I’m not.

Most New Yorkers have a love/hate relationship with the city, however the love usually outweighs the hate. For example, I adored all the people – even though that meant dealing with a few crazies. I loved walking everywhere – even though that sometimes meant walking in the rain or bitter cold. I loved how easy it was to travel from New York – even though that meant lugging my suitcase around with me all day when I was set to depart after work. See what I mean? In any case, the things that could bug me about New York are the things I don’t have to deal with out here in suburbia – but I also miss out on the things I loved, and since the loves outweighed the hates, it’s torturous to me that I not only have to live on the East Coast, but have to live outside of NYC.

But what can be done?

Things being what they are, not much right now. Since my ultimate goal is to move to the Pacific Northwest (preferably Seattle, but maybe Portland), I fail to see the logic in trying to move back into New York at this point (the process of moving in or out of NY is definitely one of my hates). By the same token, I don’t know how far out on the horizon a move to SEA or the like might be and I don’t relish the thought of spending an indefinite amount of time here.

I don’t want to say I feel as though I’m in a rut, but maybe in a way I am… From a work perspective, my career is going great. Yay. But socially, I’m barely functioning.

Another birthday has just flown by and I feel as though I’m in the same position I was a year ago (except that a year ago I had just returned from hiking the Inca Trail and hanging out in the Amazon). My fear is that if the same is true next year and I’m sitting at my desk (again) after the passing of another birthday (again) with nothing having changed (again) or looking as though I’m any closer to being able to get out of here, I may just crack.

Consider yourselves warned.