Bruised

My week in California was far too filled with events and experiences for me to regurgitate here accurately so I am not going to try to attempt to do so. I will just hit a couple highlights.

One noteworthy event was yet another crash while riding where I was going too fast on a wheel I was not yet accustomed to and ran off a bike path and down a dirt embankment. I tried to save it but after a few seconds I just bailed, landing on my left hip in a very hard manner as you can see. The resulting bruise is the largest I have ever experienced. The initial swelling was intense as well, feeling like I had a baseball sized amount of fluid in that spot. The crash happened very early in the ride so of course I had to continue, regardless of what it felt like.

I also attended Larry’s party with Dawn which was fun. Larry went out of his way, as normal, to make sure his guests had a nice time. He even bought me a special birthday cake that was over nighted from NYC. It was a crazy combo of various types of cake unlike anything I ever tried before. Larry is one of the most generous people I know.

The rest of the trip in was filled with a combo of projects, new experiences and fun. The flight home was it’s own type of experience.

I opted to do an overnight flight for my return trip. I used air miles so I was trying to conserve them if possible so the formula is the more inconvenient the flights, the less miles they cost. My flight back had two stops, Phoenix and then Dallas. The Dallas flight required me to spend the entire night night at that airport.

I had never tried to sleep at an airport and I don’t think what I did wound up qualifying as sleep. When I walked to the empty gate area of my flight that did not depart for 7 hours I saw one other person lying across the bench seating. I was curious how she was doing this as the benches have arm rests that prevent you from laying on them conventionally. I observed her technique and mimicked it. I laid on my side and bent my body in a way that snaked around the arm rests, with my body mostly balanced on the edge of the bench.

I used my travel neck pillow for head support and then laid there, trying to force myself to sleep. I was not successful. The other issue was the temperature in the terminal. It felt like it got stupid cold in there. Even after opening my luggage and putting another two shirts on top of the two I was already wearing I was cold. I felt chilled to the bone most of the night. I got on the flight at 6:30 in the morning feeling like a zombie. I tried to sleep on the flight back to Fort Myers but couldn’t manage anything substantial. The experience was memorable, like the rest of the trip. In future travels I will likely be a bit more selective in my flight plans.

When I got home yesterday morning I picked up Elsa and then used two rounds of coffee to temporarily provide me with energy to get through the day. I was so tired that I slept through my alarm this morning. I have one day of work today and Monday before the two days off for Christmas. I am already anticipating this Christmas being the most unconventional I have had in a very, very long time. My hope is next year has more of what I need. Only me, myself, and I can make that happen.