Sojourner

The past few weeks have been almost Colleen Earp-esque.  In the past nine days, I've been to seven states and the District.  That's a lot of places.  Yet somehow, I haven't felt like an itinerant (or a Soujourner, if you prefer) as much as I have in the past.  Perhaps I've gotten used to this roving lifestyle - or maybe I've learned to think of home as a state of being rather than a place.

Thursday: Virginia to Maryland (my daily commute to work).  Maryland to Virginia (my daily commute home).  Virginia to Maryland (drove with Mom and Dad to my brother's house in Annapolis, to drop off our furry golden friends).  Maryland to Pennsylvania (drove to Harrisburg, where we stopped for dinner).  Harrisburg to Selinsgrove (Grandma's, where we stopped for the night).

Friday: Pennsylvania to Michigan (it snowed the whole way), where we stayed for a couple days with my brother (the other one) and sister-in-law (and their two adorable kids).  Favorite memory: playing with my niece Kiera, who, like any respectable four-year-old, has inexhaustible energy.  I'm pretty sure I changed gender and/or species a number of times during our "adventures" (and that was just over about an hour!)

(The next) Saturday: Virginia to New Jersey (with Paul, of course) for a family get-together, which was thankfully not snowed out this time.  I must say, Paul's family is pretty awesome.  My fondness for New Jersey has grown over the past few years, which is good, as I seem to spend a lot of weekends there.

Sometimes it's a relief to know that for the next few days, all I have to do is cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into work, then back again in the evening.  All the same, it's pretty amazing that over the past two weekends, I have seen almost the entirety of my dad's side of the family, and Paul's mom's side of the family.  And that's kind of cool.

Mom and Dad pose in the frigid western Pennsylvania snow

That's all the profundity I can manage for right now.  I'm pretty worn out...must be time for another work week.