The Strange Thing about Long Travels

Within the first few days, my journey home had already become an emotional affair. I saw my parents for the first time in months, hugged my sister, watched The Hobbit with my friends, was pushed away by a girl I wanted to flirt with, and embraced by my ex-girlfriend from the year before.

As I sat in my old bedroom Wynnewood looking out the window and contemplating the snow that was accumulating beneath the trees, I thought about everything I had left behind in Hawaii. A nervousness, a sort of shudder, slid through my body. That place was vastly different, with it’s rain forests, pipe weed, physics formulas, and thai curries. The two realms of my existence had become so dissonant that to travel from one to the other felt like waking from a long dream.

Snow! Snow was falling outside the window and the smell of wood burning in fireplaces could be detected on the air. Downstairs, the Christmas tree stood lit in the living room while the dogs slept on the couch. It seemed almost as if nothing had changed, but everything had. I was a different person, strong, more confident, but not unscarred from my time abroad either.

Would I feel the same when I flew back across the sea? Would it be Baltimore that I felt nervous about returning to? At that moment, I wasn’t entirely certain. I had become a man of two worlds, with a foot in one and a foot in another.

* * * * *

Christmas came, and it was filled with all of the normal gifts and family members that I had become accustomed to. Christmas eve morning, we had breakfast with my Grandma Theresa at Double T, where I had an omelet and some toast. Then, she gave us candy and cards at her place while we exchanged stories in the living room and had a glass of wine. That evening, I was quite tired, but we spent dinner over at Jessie’s, while mom and aunt Terry argued with grandmom about the gifts. She had bought too much, they claimed, and gotten everything mixed up. Aunt Terry even had dad drive over and help pick up all the gifts from grandmoms, though I think it was a bit of a waste of time. One trip would have been enough, or two with the same car. Anyway, I got some cool flashlights from her which would be perfect for hiking back in Hawaii, and a little lantern.

Christmas morning, I hastily wrapped gifts in my room while we waited for Lauren to come over. As usual, we exchanged gifts in the family room down by the tree. There weren’t any big surprises – I got a lot of books that I asked for – though I did get a cool pair of binoculars (great for hiking) and I i-pod clock (which I eventually exchanged for a computer speaker at Macy’s). Dad wore the Hawaiian shirt I got him with the leather hat grandma had bought and we all had a good laugh.

Christmas dinner was held at our place, with most of the Handleys coming over to join us and the grandmas. I handed out Leis to everyone and ate lots of spinach casserole and cranberry jello mix because of my vegetarianism. When all was said and done, I was glad just to pass out with a good rum and coke in my room. I hadn’t been drinking too much in Hawaii, but a couple of weeks with my family without anything to smoke was going to change my habbits a tad.