I just got back from spending an absolutely wonderful, fabulous, <insert other superlatives here> week at home in Texas. I caught up on sleep, spent time with my parents, went to Austin, spoke about the Foreign Service with new students at my alma mater, shopped, visited some excellent friends in Houston, shopped some more, went to a minor league baseball game, ate good food, shopped a little bit more, and just generally enjoyed being in a much less stressful environment. A lot of the time, I don’t realize just how much the work and the security environment here stresses me out until I get away for a few days and can just feel the stress melt away. So, it was great to be home.
It was also extra-special awesome to get to go to Houston and catch up with a few friends that I made when I worked as a co-op (kind of like an intern) in Houston while I was in grad school. These friends really made my semester there great and if the Foreign Service hadn’t worked out for me, I probably would have tried to go back there full time after finishing grad school, mainly because the people there were so nice and fun to work with and hang out with. So, it was really awesome that they made time for me and we could hang out and catch up a bit while I was home.
Anyhoo, for the sake of my bank account, it’s probably best that I’m home now and away from the excellent Austin-area outlet malls, but it was really, really great to be home.
So glad that you got some time away. It makes a big difference sometimes. It sounds like you had a great time.