My Visit Home

I got mixed reviews on visiting home, some said don’t until towards the end of your service, others said go because for them coming back was a blessing. I got to be honest, I was a little nervous going home cause I had a really sweet living situation, lots of great friends and a job I was doing pretty well in but I also wanted some adventure so I was off.

It was sureal and just comfy cozy to be at home with all my family and friends. We got to hang out, chow down at my favorite resturant, visit our favorite watering holes, see people I really care about and vice versa, a chance to revise my workout plan with a great friend and trainer, took a trip to Puerto Pensco (Rock Point) Mexico and stay at my dad’s house.

I never really appreciated Lake Havasu until I got back. I always loved the fact that 90% of my immediate family live in Havasu but I now love the weather (a dry 105 degrees) and the natural beauty of the desert. I always loved the desert but now it seems different, calm and still but not deathly. A place to recharge and energize and that was what I needed!

My family were totally excited I was home and I had to see everyone the first night I got back. Reajusting to the time zone was not as rough as I thought. My sister woke me the first morning I was there because we were off to a tube float race down the river and honestly I planned my trip to be there. There was 15 of us and we hooked up to various other groups and lazily went down the river. By the end I was fried but not too red, flying on cloud nine and totally reajusted to being back in Havasu.

My spring break crew also came to visit (a group of my friends that seemed so somehow conglomorate during spring break over 4 years). It was so fun just goofing off with them and knocking a few back and talking about how life has progressed. If I look at the group we are pretty much still on the same tracks we were when we last met with some slight variations of progression. None of us have kids, the same people are with significant others, and the same group members are hooking up. Gosh it is fun being single and alive.

When in Havasu it is expected that your good behavior may deteriorate and stupidity is expected. It is a town of few morals and a good time to be had by any who wish to endulge. Now what I am also saying is that if you choose to have fun you can do it with dignity and self respect. It is also a tough place to get deep and meaningful thought at 11pm at night. This was just what I was looking for when I wanted visit home. I needed to decompress and not work and that is just what I did. A couple times I had an incling “You could finish your late quarterly report… hummmmm not today.” I did this a few times but I was burned out by the time I left for my visit, really I didn’t want to work while I was home and so I didn’t. Not doing any work while on holiday was really refreshing. I don’t think that has really ever happended when I was employed.

Some of my highlights: My chance to have my first real argument with my dad (within the first week of being there), I got to see some of the natural beauty rhomping around in the desert behind town, I was told I was more assertive and it was a good quality, waking up to the sound of the waves in a soft bed all to myself, being given a minature pinapple, talking with my grandparents, doing an irish car bomb with crazy friends, having a three hour conversation about politics and the end of the world while enjoying a yummy grilled cheese, getting to know people who I was connected to but wasn’t really friends with and having fun, watching golf with my dad and going shopping with my other mother.

Who didn’t I get to see??? My crazy little brother! I would have loved to see him and hang out but he was off saving the world the other way… with the army. It is weird for my dad to have two kids working on behalf of the US but in totally opposite fronts. One day I’ll get him a t-shirt “My daughter is in the US Peace Corps and my son is in the Army… WTF!” I think it was my sister who suggested the “WTF” well that’s my family ;-)