Back in NE

Howdy folks,

Just a quick note to let you all know that I am back in Nebraska.
My travels back to the land of corn were fairly good. After leaving Eugene, I spent a couple of days with my folks back up in Portland. we got to celebrate my stepdad's birthday (we actually celebrated it twice - once on Sunday with his extended family, and then on Monday, his actual birthday with just the immediate family). We went to this ridiculously expensive (and ridiculously good) steakhouse in downtown Portland. This is the sort of place where the steaks are 30 bucks apiece, and then you have to pay more to get side dishes. Considering the fact that my weekly grocery bill is around $20, that seemed to be a lot to pay for a single meal, but he has been wanting to go to this place for 4 or 5 years, so he decided to splurge and take us out there. If you are curious to hear about how a $30 steak tastes, I can say that there is a difference. While I was sitting in the dimly lit swanky restaurant, eating a perfectly cooked medium rare ribeye steak and sipping an oversized, half-full glass of cabernet sauvingon I had a flashback to that scene in the original Matrix movie where Cypher is meeting with the agents to betray Morpheus.

"Ignorance is bliss."

After my time in Portland, I flew into Colorado Springs before Driving up to Denver to spend a couple of days with some old and dear friends from my High School and early College years. (Hmm... I guess I've been in college far too long, since I have to divide my college friends into four categories: early, middle, late middle, and present). The flight out was OK, but there was a 2 and a half hour delay on my connecting flight, and then the airling misplaced my bags and had to ship them up to me in Denver later that night (they were supposed to get there at 11:00pm, but didn't get there until 1:00am. Good thing we were up playing cards until then.)
My time in Denver was really good. It was just fun to see folks - it had been a couple of years, and we just picked up where we left off and just enjoyed being together. We managed to squeeze a lot in during the two days I was in town.

My drive back to Lincoln went really smoothly. It was a cool day with a light drizzle falling during most of the drive, which is good as my car doesn't have AC. Traffic was light and I made good time, and it was nice just to have some time to myself to process all that had happened over the summer, and all that is on the horizon for the coming year. I enjoy time to think and reflect, and time to plan and look ahead as well. So often, life is so overwhelming that all you have time to do is to try to survive or endure the moment. Perspective is a luxury that is often hard to afford.

Hmm...

This is getting a bit long, so I think that the weekend and the start of the week will have to wait until another time.