I've been waiting until I've been in the "mood" to write to tackle this blog again...wow that sounds violent--maybe the aim should be more to stoke the fires of my mind and entice these common thoughts out into the open (they can be shy sometimes), not trying to pin them kicking and screaming to a page. But I still don't feel like writing, so we'll see how this goes.

(It can't hide forever in my head, after all.)

Well, today marks a week and 3 days having been back in the Lone Star State...also, it's my birthday! And God let the sun shine bright this afternoon for the first time in 2 days. I still feel like the good weather has followed Kate and I from here to there and back again, though. In Paris, they said, it always rains (it only rained maybe 10 times total the 4 months we were there): it gets freezing cold after September, just wait (ohhh, and we did wait...we waited til the end of December/beginning of January). Then, once the cold started setting in, we decided our bones were made for warmer temperatures and headed back home, where--surprise!--it was a balmy 70 degrees for the first week. Hallelujah, amen.

But in the midst of the delerium that surrounded us--the hugs, adjusting my vision to the vibrant color that ironically trumps the dust in this desert and eluded the noise and high fashion of that huge city, the deceptively simple flavors of Dr. Pepper and a plain bean and cheese burrito--in the midst of this, there's a pause. There's a minute when I'm driving on an errand when I remember what feeling aimless was like. There's a second in between laughing at someone's joke (which I completely understood because I am completely competent in English!) and the next bit of conversation where I am trying to re-figure out these people, where our relationship lies, what happened in their lives over the past 4 months, what moved them. What changed them. People are never the same for more than an instant in time, until life hits again and shakes things around. We grow, we move, we get harder or softer or smarter or more sober with every minute. I like that, but it definitely threw me for a loop coming back here. It's realizing that just because things aren't necessarily the same, it's not bad, it just means adjusting.

Having said that, I'm adjusting to the idea of having a senior seminar class because aaaa! I'm graduating this spring! And in order to make sure I do graduate, I should go ahead and leave for class which starts soon. More later...but right now, just know that I'm in love with where I am right now. God blesses Texas, and that's the truth.