In RetroSpecht
2005-04-11,

Believe it or not, I seems to be having some trouble getting myself back into the swing of things here at work after being off for a week and a half. I'm pretty sure that my biosystems have fully adjusted back to home time (a side benefit being that the trip seems to have killed my issue over adjusting to daylight savings, yay), but I guess the effect of an extended period of time off still applies, even for a work trip. Summation: I don't wanna be here. It doesn't help that it's really nice out today. Read my bumper sticker: 'I'd Rather Be Frolicking'.

Not that I've been suffering from a lack of exposure to good weather-- it was beautiful in Aichach for almost the whole time there. I think it rained for about 2 hours on Tuesday night; but otherwise near perfect. And I'm lucky enough to come home to weather nearly as good here. The layover in Atlanta coming home, though, sucked. Thunderstorms and the like; there'd been some nasty fronts going through that whole corner of the states. We were only delayed by an hour, but I think we got a lucky exit window. Oh, and the ground crew was nice enough to leave at least some of our luggage out in the downpour. Nothing important of mine managed to get wet, so the city is safe for now.

Okay-- a whole paragraph about the weather! Awesome stuff.

One thing this trip forcibly made me recall-- how humorless I can be in the right company. If I sense that the person or persons I'm around aren�t on the same mental parallel as me, I tend to just shut down most interactive functions and ride along at the bare minimum. It's really uncomfortable and extremely unfun, reminding me of my introverted days of yesteryear. I only seem to open up to a person that some as yet unquantified system in my brain tells me is 'right' or 'connectable'. The process is packed full of predispositions on the perceived nature of people and whether or not I imagine that they'll run screaming or yawn at first exposure to my sense of humor. I used to get mad at myself for being both judgmental and closed-off, but eventually I came to terms with it. Mostly.

For instance, my two travel mates into Germany; I barely shared a full and proper conversation with either of them the entire time. They're just not the kind of people with whom I could or would strike up a conversation of any substance whatsoever. Meanwhile, I ended up having a rather lengthy talk with a complete stranger from Fort Worth while laying over (heh) in Atlanta. She was a dead ringer for a friend of ours, that is if one were able to take some sort of genetic syringe and suck all the Jewish out of that friend, then add a few more freckles brought on by the Texas sun and a light drawl brought on by the Texas populous.

I guess I'm just type-specific. No surprise there.

Anyway, barring my aversion to being trapped on a place for hyperextended periods of time, I now have the EU itch. I must and will go back to Europe, and with more compatible company. All the while when I was there, looking at a map of southern Germany, all I could think of was, "Gosh, I'm just a bit away from other cool parts of Germany. Oh, I could go to Prague! There's Innsbruck! Ooh, the Rhine! So much Europe, just s few hours away!" (This was not out loud, or I'd have gotten a number of strange looks from the front seat of the Passat we were tooling around in.) I had a month of plans already, just glancing at the map. Sigh. Something to save up for, I reckon. Is there an age limit on hostelling? And will he have time/finances to do that and fund our future summer-long RV road trip across Canada? Here's hoping.

-- End Transmission --