2 Weeks Out

I took a little journey to the unknown…

And I come back changed, I can feel it in my bones.

Saturday evening, the first day of my birthday month. I have Lord Huron playing loudly. My room is full of the hot, sweet smell of coconut milk cookies baking. I’m curled up on my bed, feeling a bit exhausted, even though I’ve done nothing today.

Sorry I haven´t posted in a week or so. I´ve needed some time to myself. There´s been a lot on my mind and more than enough on my plate. But I´m back!

The days have been stretching on. I’m working like a crazy person. When I’m not physically at work, I’m doing online work. At least, what I can scrape together. Things get slow during the summer months. My students leave on vacations. My clients and contacts are similarly busy enjoying the sun and their families. Suddenly I have very little work coming in. That said, summer also frees me up to work on things I usually don´t have time for. Like spreading out, taking on new gigs that will still be there when my others come back, learning a new language, reading up on EDS, planning epic trips. It works out, I think.

The work at CIRMA has been great lately. This is the week of the long-awaited photographic exhibition. Woot! The folks in charge are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. This morning I arrived, ready to help set up the exhibition for tomorrow night, and I found Anais losing her mind. The frames for the collection were the wrong color. They´re off-white, not perfectly white, and it makes the collection look oddly blue. I know it´s not funny, but I´m cracking up a bit. Is this an exhibition we´re putting together, or a wedding? Anais resembles a panicked bride. We´ll pull it off. The exhibition will go on tomorrow night as planned.

But while we work on setting it up, my housemate and I have been given busywork to do. Mine involves painstakingly copying down the names and email addresses from the 2015 guestbook. Ha. Clearly a crucial task. ;) Erin´s is much more interesting. Check out what she found while working yesterday:

So cool, right?

2 weeks from now, I´ll be in the Miami airport catching my connection home. Can you believe six weeks have gone by since I arrived? I´m ready to head home. Is that ungrateful? It feels like perhaps it´s ungrateful. Don´t get me wrong, this has been an incredible experience, I´ve been honored to get to work with these collections, and I´ve met some incredible people. It´s also been my first time living in Antigua, my first long solo trip, and my first office job. I´ve learned a ton. However, it´s also kind of sucked around the edges. My family lost someone while I was away, as well as having to uproot and move house suddenly. My EDS has been rather debilitating here, no thanks to the cobblestone streets. And I´m just a bit homesick. It´s been a good stay, but it´ll be incredible to catch that flight home and be with my people again. Know what I mean?