Back to reality. Yesterday was the travel day from hell. Definitely in the top 5 worst airline travel days of my life. I’m confident that the Orlando to Italy trip in 1999 will remain solidly pegged at the top of the list for a long, long time, but yesterday is nearby.

In short, we stood in airline counter lines for 2½ hours, had a 5-hour flight delay, had a different 3-hour flight delay, and searched the economy lot for our car in the pouring rain (because I wrote down the wrong damn row number). It was basically a complete write-off day where nothing was accomplished and very little fun was had.

It would’ve been much worse if I didn’t have Sherri along for the ride.

So now I’m back at work and having a hard time getting into a routine again. Actually, that may be more a result of the new house than being back at work. I can’t get a good shower — the water pressure in our main bathroom shower SUCKS at the moment. My clothes are scattered between the master bedroom, master closet, and office closet… what few clean ones there are.

On the other hand, there’s a new washer and dryer in the basement. We don’t have to worry about noisy neighbors anymore. There are multiple bathrooms. I love how bright the house looks when I open the blinds on the front window and back door in the morning. There’s plenty of room in the basement for my workshop. There are tons of landscaping opportunities outside. We have a fireplace AND a chimnea. We can paint the walls whatever color we want; we can hang pictures and shelves all we want. There will never be a lack of projects to keep me busy.

I’m not planning on making specific and measurable resolutions for this new year, but in general I want to a) find a better balance of diet & exercise, b) spend more time outdoors, c) spend more time being social, d) do a better job of putting myself in other peoples’ shoes, and e) satisfy my travel bug.