I am currently sitting on the very squishy couch in the room I have not sat in for a year, staring at the other couch that was mangled by my cat's scratching obsession, my cat being some(one) else I have not seen for a year....

...!!!

In other words, I am back. Finally. Mostly no more ranting about countries in Europe I didn't choose to live in, now. Unless I want to sentimentally refer to "oh, that time there was no air conditioning (for a year) and I could see where Dante was coming from, calling something 'Inferno' while in Italy, and when my friends were at basically the other side of the world, and when my life was on halt? That time? No, my opinions haven't changed" and such sentiments.

I came off the plane very unhappy indeed, but that was only because I had been in a very uncomfortable position that my neck does not appreciate, for 24 or more hours (since I can't do unconscious math about time while switching time zones, that is my guess). And my eyes were extremely dry, for some reason, so I had to kind of force myself to half-cry (when I wasn't sad at all, haha) for them to work even slightly properly.

But after the flight, I waited in the much-less-hot-out-than-Italy pick-up area of the airport and rejoiced, unhappily dry-eyed but not caring much about that, that the very air was how I remembered it and even the smallest things were awesome. And now I'm back to normal instead of all messed up by the time zones...mostly.

Almost everything in my house seems to have shrunk. So apparently I grew in this last year. Which throws me off. But it's also really lovely, because it's not all modern-and-depressingly bare like the house I was in last (this?) year, which means I can stare at everything if I'm bored and not get bored, because it's all so wonderfully complicated-looking. Although I freaked out about how much stuff was in my room. I'm not used to owning that many possessions, mostly artwork I never ever want to see again (ah, it burns).

What's really odd, though, is that my mind is kind of confused that I'm actually back, that easily. There was some kind of mental barrier in my thoughts about being back, before, because I knew it wouldn't happen for a long time and I guess my mind was trying to spare me pain by making it all seem impossible. And that barrier is not in real life. It's all so dreamlike.

Also, I got a ton of Marion Zimmer Bradley books in the mail (!!!) and am waiting until I get "Out of Avalon" to start reading/rereading them, because that one is awesome as anything, since the first short story starts where the end of The Mists of Avalon left off. YES. I didn't even know that existed, until recently. Hurrah!

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<sup>Clubs I am part of:

*abhorsenclub, *Adopt-A-Writer, ~avidachmedians, , ~BlackfriarsBridge, ~Enya-Fanclub, *HistoryFashionLovers, ~LaModeHistorique, ~LoreenaMcKennittClub, ~LOTRfanclub, *MedievalCommunity, ~The-Wicked-Club, ~thewritersnook, *tolkien, *TribeOfCelts, *Writers-Club, ~YoungPoets</sup>