"Well," Sam said, "I'm back."
— The Return of the King

There were some snags, interrogations, and a huge breakfast buffet, but I'm back home in Eugene now. It's 2:45pm; I woke up an hour ago. I'm still a bit tired, but mainly just shocked to have gone from a sunny tropical island to 40°F weather accompanied by clouds and drizzle. Ah, that Oregon winter sunshine...

It's been a dramatic past couple of days. I've been grilled by Thais about my passport: "It looks very worn. Do you have other ID?" I show my driver's license and 2 bank cards with photos. "These are all the same picture!" "No, that shirt has a collar. This one doesn't." "Oh, I see."

U.S. Customs searched my bags, no biggie in and of itself, but I do wonder why it was necessary to try to ascertain if I had employment. I erred on the side of nice, but inside I kept thinking, "I'm an American citizen. If I want to temp, save my money and then bugger off for 3 months to Asia with my sweetie, that's my damn right. Do you have a problem with that?" Perhaps it would've lead to a latex-glove encounter that I'd prefer not to have, or perhaps it would've been a good point to make.

Once through that, the line for Alaska Airlines customer service would've wrapped around a city block. Portland airport was closed due to some ice and crazy winter storms. I went straight to the payphones, and my travel insurance was a bunch of stars. They sorted out a flight to Eugene for the next afternoon (no charge), and I stayed the night at the airport Marriott, being as lazy as could be. I watched HBO, raided the breakfast buffet, and gorged on hot showers.

I also marveled at being able to drink the tap water again, and to be able to flush the TP down the toilet. It's the little things that amaze you most when you get back.

My friends Jon and Doug met me at Eugene airport, and promptly dragged me into the bar, kicking, screaming and drooling for Deschutes Jubilale. I'm drinking microbrew again. At last.

I'm also shivering. Granted, 40°F isn't that cold, but it is when not even a week ago you were on a tropical island!

It's weird being back, but it's also good. I've got things to do. Like see about going to Tibet in April with Claudia. We'll see what happens. This'll probably be my last post till then. Hope you enjoyed my odd ramblings; it's been an awesome 3 months. But for now, back to you, Claudia.