Home Doesn't Wait For You To Catch Up

I finally arrived home on Sunday after two and a half weeks away. I had a great time, but I sure am glad to be back.

Highlights of the last few days of my trip include:

• driving over the Golden Gate Bridge in a minivan
• visiting some of the wineries in the Sonoma region north of San Francisco
• having lunch with Doug Bowman at the Googleplex (and spotting Sergey Brin very briefly in the cafe)
• watching some breakdancing on the street at Pier 39 in SF.

In one of those weird hiccups in the space-time continuum, my 16-hour flight home meant that I skipped Saturday completely and arrived in Melbourne on Sunday morning with three times more luggage than I left (mostly clothes for Scout and presents for the wife). I managed to find some time to reconnect with the little monkey, but I was pretty drained.

Life hasn’t stopped to let me catch my breath though; back to work on Monday, and things haven’t let up. Not only do I have my current book to edit, but there are all these peripheral tasks related to people I met and things that I talked to people about while away that need actioning before they slip through the cracks. It’s one of those situations where, if I were 21 and single, I’d pull a late night at the office, plough through it all until the morning, and catch up on the sleep I missed later. These days though, neither my health nor my family would allow me to pull such a stunt quite so easily, so instead I just juggle the best I can.

Scout has not quite forgiven me for being away for so long, either. She still clings to her mum and alternates between the smiling, carefree little munchkin that I left behind and treating me like a stranger. I know that will pass with time, but it’s not much fun to feel like the trust we’d always had needs to be earned back again.

I’ll end this post there before I start pouring out too much of what’s on my mind onto this little web site. This week has been crazy in the web world, with various high-profile bloggers receiving death threats and others airing their dirty laundry for the public to gossip over (why are the most talented people in this world all a bit nuts?).

For those who turn to the Internet when they feel like the real world has lost all sense, these events are somewhat of a jolt back to reality — people are still people, whether they’re online or in front of you. They can love. They can make mistakes. And they can be fuckwads.

posted: 29.03. 2007, 22:39 Comment (2)

Morning Nap

This morning I woke up with a splitting headache—my throat raw and sore, my joints aching and feeling fatigued beyond belief. I think it’s tonsilitis!

So when Scout woke up from her morning nap after only 45 minutes of shut-eye, I picked her up in the dark and rocked her back to sleep in my arms. Then I sat in the chair next to her cot for another hour and a half while she snoozed peacefully. A total of 2 hours 20 minutes is unheard of for her during the day.

Just sitting down, with her happily passed out in my arms, was an extremely pleasant way to pass the morning, considering I didn’t have any energy anyway.

posted: 30.12. 2006, 08:43 Comment (0)