Holiday Trek Home.

Just got back into town from a jaunt to Philly for the XMAS holidays and I am happy to report that I feel refreshed and renewed.

Gifts acquired:

1. The Truth by Al Franken, $30 in ITunes and Oedipus Wrecked by Kevin Keck from Brother Mike (my secret Santa).
2. $100 to Best Buy, $50 to Regal and an authentic Brian Westbrook Eagles' jersey from my Dad.
3 Some Old Navy wear and $50 from the Stepfather.
4. $50 from Grandparents.
5. Family Bonds DVD from Katie Beele
6. Cookies
7. Curve (cologne maybe?)
8. $25 to Barnes and Noble

A recap of the trip would most likely be a boring read, so I'll just go with highlights.

I arrived on XMAS afternoon around 12:30 and had my sister and her family pick me up at the airport. The plan was to surprise my family with an appearance on XMAS since all along I told them I was arriving on 12/26. Mission accomplished. My brothers and sisters were shocked I was there on XMAS and then over at Grandmom's a similar reaction. It was my gift to the family I suppose.

After some family time, I headed to my sister's house in Jersey where my father was waiting for my second round of XMAS delight. Monday night we met up with Dad's side of the family where a pretty heated political discussion unfolded and we spent a good amount of time sorting through family photos left by my Grandmother who passed away a couple years back. Since I have very little in terms of mementos from my youth, it was a thrill to gather up some old snapshots of my youth and my Dad when he was a kid. After Monday night I was through with family obligations and I spent the night downtown at my friend Kate's house. Kate is an amazing friend who used to work for me back in my Philly days and I was dying to see her for about the last month before I made the trip home. Without her friendship over the internet this last six months, I'd be a bigger mess than I am. We spent a nice quiet evening in chatting and watching TV. Tuesday I was forced to sleep at Brother Mike's abode while no one was home since Kate had to work as did everyone else I knew. Tuesday night was the visit with my boys at a watering hole in Upper Darby, followed by another go round at Kate's house Tuesday night. Wednesday was spent watching 8 episodes of the West Wing Season 2 on Kate's couch all fucking day followed by a visit with Myers, Brother Dan and Cousin Todd who moved into a house across the street from my Stepfather. I spent my final night at Todd's new house watching a movie with him and got up this morning and spent the majority of today getting back in town.

Here's the thing about visits home. You never have enough time to please everyone. I felt like I disappointed some people based on the choices I made. With a small window of time to work with I had to use my time wisely. Now I know spending time with Kate isn't something my family thinks is important, but it was vital to me to do. Where I have been for the last 6 months, feeling isolated at times, having many floundering moments with women, I needed to see what time with Kate would do for me. I wanted to know if being around her was the answer. This probably seems all over the place tonight, and I blame jet lag, but Kate and I have flirted for a long time and I've always had a strong bond with her. We have formulated a connection over the past year and a half and me coming back on the heels of Jamie disaster I had to just go for it and see if I could make something happen with Kate. As luck would have it, our connection seems legitimate. Kate is the kind of girl I could fall madly in love with, I know this for a fact. Our time together this past week was amazing and I cannot wait to see her again (which I will no doubt do shortly...). Having been down this road recently and getting hurt hasn't deterred me one bit from putting 100% into something and that was the biggest relief for me. One door closes and another opens I suppose.

Oh well, I'll be sure to post up a photo log of my adventures shortly. I'm not doing much for New Year's Eve, most likely staying in my apartment building and attending a function downstairs. I have work the next 2 days which sucks. And I am scared to be back here in Augusta since I just had a great trip and shit was really bad last time I was in town here. I guess we'll see how it goes...