A triumphant return
August 23, 2013
I have survived!
We have had weeks, literally consecutive weeks, of travel and visiting friends lined up for this summer and we’re finally home with no plans for a good while ahead of us. As an introvert, I’m not 100% sure that it didn’t break something in my brain. But we have returned, and I am alive. And not gibbering. This is good.
Rituals, settling in and shaking down
There have been dozens of trips where I’ve felt completely unready to take the final step out the door and lock it behind me. Either it was unfinished work holding me back mentally or the certainty that I’ve forgotten something. (It’s usually a hairbrush or pants. Or shirts. Sometimes I really shouldn’t leave the house.)
These last few trips have been harder because I’m working my way through juuuust keeping it together, there’s all kinds of family stuff I’m feeling like I’m being dipped upside down in, and we’ve been on the go constantly. The motivation to keep going, it was missing.
As it turns out, the best Getting Ready to Leave routine, aside from actually packing with a whole brain instead of half and getting a sensible majority of work wrapped up, is doing all the laundry and cleaning the house. Coming home to a clean and nearly fresh smelling house is balm for the soul, no matter why the travel and how it went. Even better when the trip was awful and I just want to disappear into Home for about a month.
This does mean that whenever I get home toting bags and bags and bags, I go into a flurry of unpacking, putting-away, and starting the laundry because I came home to a nice clean house, I can’t sully that!
Coming back this time was no different. I wanted to do ALL THE THINGS upon return. All in one night.
Open the mail, pay the bills, sort out a To-Do list for the weekend, finish all my work that I’d fallen behind on, write up some blog posts with recent thoughts, edit photos, finish designing simple wedding things, read one of the new books I bought from the Amazing Bookstore, watch all the Castle episodes that might be new (none, as it turns out).
Apparently I can’t do anything in moderation, not even recovery! I honestly don’t know how @mochimac and @eemusings hold up after months of travel. My travel meter seems to run out after about 2.5 weeks away from home.
Omg! I always always alwayyyyys clean up too right before traveling, whether it’s a weekend thing or a longer trip. It just makes me feel better. I always know I’m going to be exhausted and wanting to relax when I get back. I am also the exact same as you – I always have to overload myself and I want to do everything all at once. I think making a to-do list and unpacking right after a vacay is sensible, and then 1 activity that will help you relax (book, bath, or tv show). Also I guess it depends if you arrive late in the evening or morning! anywayyyyy welcome back 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Should it be reassuring that there are more of us out there? 😉
Absolutely GOTTA have the house clean before leaving…even for a weekend. I just can’t stand to come home to a messy, dirty house!
LOL! My usual ritual on coming home from a trip is to fall face-forward on the bed in exhaustion!
LOL I don’t know when my ritual went from collapsing on the bed to doing laundry but weird things happen in teenage-hood, I guess 🙂
[…] did say that we’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately, didn’t I? A big part of that has been food, food and food. […]