Tiny Tree

After a 6 day stay at home in MT which started on the eve of the new year, I arrived back in NM with a better attitude about life in general. As a really long side note, New Year's Eve is an interesting day to fly. Although you'd think that the stress levels would decrease and people would start to calm down after Christmas, they don't. There seems to be a lot going on inside the heads of travelers, which manifests itself as frustration, high energy, lethargy, grumpiness. A lot of younger people, and perhaps older people alike, are anxious to get drunk and ring in the new year with old friends or new hotties they meet at the bar. It seems like, at a certain point in life, however, New Year's loses its appeal as a night to forget about the past year and celebrate the future. In fact, it may have exactly the oppsite effect. It becomes a time to dwell on misakes and bad experiences from the year past, to admit failure becasue you didn't accomplish all that you had promised yourself you'd accomplish in the past 12 months. It's an interesting process to witness after what seems like a million hours in an airport!

To get back to my point, life seems better now. I needed to take a step back so that I could look at my life from a better perspective. It was great to spend time with my family, who are wonderful, and took great care of me. I got to watch Dillon play ball, as well as all of his minions who I've watch grow from preschoolers into young men and women, which is actually a little firghtening! I also got to meet and spend some time with Dillon's girlfriend, Kelsey, and got to watch The Dark Knight. Perhaps one of the best things was getting to see my college roommate, Emily, before she leaves for Nepal for 2 years! We cussed and discussed the old and the new, how we're going to change the world, and how real life isn't necesarrily all it's cracked up to be. We also ate a wonderful beefy dinner and got to see Brad Pitt get younger and younger...nice! I saw frineds and coworkers from the raft shop in MT, and a couple of old friends from high school. I even got to decorate a tiny christmas tree on New Year's day since I didn't have a tree in NM. Sweet! Oh yeah, and I'm convinced that the family dog, Jackson, really does like me now!