Back From Away

Chakyn Forest, originally uploaded by galacticbaroque.

My typist...

Oh screw that.

I'm back from a summer (their winter) in New Zealand, where I worked on various native forest restoration projects. Life imitates second life, eh? It was grand. The hidden purpose of this trip was a detox vacation. I had been in no uncertain terms advised to curb my caffeine consumption, which could be measured in liters of diet coke per day. The other was to get off the internet for a while.

I am successful on the first count, although I'm drinking a lot more chocolate than I used to , something I never really had a taste for before. My pulse is notably stronger. How to deal with math without stimulants remains to be seen.

I was nearly successful on the second, if not for an unfortunate incident. I had some bad cultural reentry shock on returning to San Francisco, so headed up to Olympic for some impromptu backpacking while I re-americanized myself. Nothing clears the head quite like a road trip. Anyway, I managed to roll my ankle near the top of Appleton Pass and had to walk out on it. By the time I got home the next week, I was obliged to spend a couple weeks flat on my back while gazing with chagrin at a leg that looked like it had been graphed on from a morbidly obese donor.

Well, what is one to do when laid up like that? Watch *shudder* daytime television?

I really was not intending to come back, but my attitude towards SL has changed due to my experience in New Zealand. The few times I could locate an internet cafe that was capable of getting me on the grid, it became my wandering home. I began to look forward Fridays, when I would go into Auckland and go to the fastest cafe I knew of to spend an evening with my friends in my home sim. One night my Warcraft playing traveling companion from England and I both logged in on an overnight gamer's special and spent the night, so to speak. No trains until morning.

So.

I'm at one of these places in time where I need to get mobile again. I have no family. My current RL location has never felt like home. I need to move on and get my life back on track. For the next little while, I consider the grid my home while I go about the business of decluttering my material life. I've watched and participated in the grueling process of cleaning out parental households while settling affairs, and I know this is the right thing to do at this stage in my own life.

I'm back to stay. See you on in Caledon.