In Case of Emergency Smash Glass

I realize my blogastination may have left some of you with the impression that I may be slowly decomposing in a ditch somewhere in the English countryside, I rush to assure you that this is not the case. I am, in fact, alive and well and once again in front of my own keyboard in my lovely home in Ojai.

"But what can this mean?" Some of you may exclaim in shock and horror. Certainly not that I have given up the chase. This is merely a brief interlude in my global crusade, a pit stop in the name of bureaucracy for the sake of the greater good. For reasons I don't understand, I must apply for my English citizenship not in England, but in America. Wonders never cease. Luckily, since my parents feel responsible for not discovering this fact sooner, they have given me a round trip ticket back to America so we can clear this mess up and I can travel freely through my countries of choice and work to fund my existence through the Christmas season.

Secrecy may be cast to the winds now that I am here, and the news goes public that on Monday I fly to Washington for some seriously awesome Lady Washington brig time journeying from Aberdeen all the way down to San Fransisco. We have eight days, come rain and rough weather, to make it there. I'm terrified beyond all reason, but at the same time I can't wait to see my seagoing family again and meet all the new folks who have come aboard for the journey south. Then I'm home for a week to collect my thoughts and belongings before I dunk back into the adventure in Paris, France.

This whole business couldn't have come at a better time. Sun deprivation and travel fatigue were getting me down and I found the charms of the UK lost on my senses as I thought of sunny days in Ventura County and the various comforts of home. Since my adventures in Ireland, I met up with my mother in London and spent two weeks caring for my grandmother who is, to put it gently, mad as a loon, but lovely despite her lack of memory and other cognitive reasoning drives. I took up knitting like a fiend, but can only produce scarves...because they're very very easy. I started stretching daily again, saw my lovely godmother and got to spend a far too brief night in her amazing farmhouse, had some lovely steak pie, saw my mother's childhood fiance, and finally flew back to my father's waiting arms at LAX.

Perhaps all that leaving, if just for this long, has taught me is that I do truly belong here in Southern California. The sunny coast on the drive home, the smell of my house, the comfort foods of home (O, thank you Trader Joe's!) arrayed in the fridge, everything as it should be. My belongings, far more extensive than I remember them having lived in such a minimalist style for the last two months, strewn across my orange room. Lying on the doormat in the sun. Sleeping in. Not worrying that someone else is waiting to use the computer. Not obsessing about how much my meals are costing or where I'm going to spend the night. This is truly bliss.

A part of me never wants to leave again, but there are still things to see and places to explore out there in the big wide world, so the trip will continue. But for now, some well-earned rest, the love of friends and family, and some good old fashioned sailing on the rolling main.

Oh bliss.