Well, I’m back.

Our trip to Nebraska for the 4th of July and the following week wound up happening in markedly different circumstances than it had been conceived. We’d been thinking it would be the last big function with my whole family for a good long while, so we wanted to allocate the time to do it up right. Things have changed to the point where this premise is no longer as likely to hold true, but it’s now markedly more likely to be the last one to happen in Nebraska.  We had less time with family than we would otherwise have liked, but more time to take in the sights of Omaha and its environs for what may be the last time.

But of course, any trip might be the last trip, regardless of larger circumstances. There was a recurring theme that bookended one recent year of Doctor Who in the holiday specials: every Christmas is last Christmas. Every gathering might be the last for someone. Even if we had plans to go back to Omaha next year or next week, it might not happen.

Life is full of unexpected things, good and bad. I honestly didn’t expect to be able to take my Maryland family back to see Nebraska as soon as I did or as often as I have since then. When we went for my sister’s wedding, I honestly thought that would be my one and only realistic chance to show Jack and Sarah around town. Now here we were, two years later, basically recreating that trip.

The other thing that changed was that when we planned this trip, I was basically treading water creatively and professionally. By the time it came around, it was inconveniently occupying the first week of month 2 of my personal renaissance. The fact that it came the week after I had a surprise viral hit on Medium was both blessing and curse… it stopped me from doing more to capitalize on that, but it also broke me out of the cycle I’d fallen into of refreshing page stats and link referrals and refreshing Twitter mentions to see what people were saying. It took some of the pressure of “Okay, now what’s your next act?”

Anyway.

Home now.