Back to Reality

Sorry I didn't post quickly after I got home like I said I would. I've been under the weather since I've been back and have pretty much been sleeping 75% of the day, but I'm feeling better and here it goes...
I just want to say thanks fo reading this and commenting while I was on my trip. I've found that traveling alone is difficult for me, so it was always nice to know someone was reading and it felt like I had someone along for the ride with me.
Anyway, the trip home was pretty uneventful. I was stuck in a middle seat with annoying hippie woman and her crunchy loser husband sitting in front of me, insisting on pushing the seat back all the way deep into my knees, all the while leaning forward, thus making having the seat back unnecessary. After asking them to remedy the situation, I got some sort of "we can do what we want" self righteous speech which I countered that I guess that's only the case if we're not talking about forced veganism and environmental regulations set on destorying our economy even further. Since they (of course) didn't understand a thing I was talking about in reference to their self righteous, granola-eating, dread-lock hair, ignorant selves, that ended the matter and about 5 minutes later (about 5 hours into the 10 hour flight) they switched seats and the guy raised his up, thus relieving my surgically reconstructed knees of any further pain .
I must say, it's getting to the point where it's pretty hard for me to fly on airplanes. When you're 6'4" and your shoulders are as wide as 2 coach seats, it makes things quite difficult. I guess I'll try to lose any sort of musculature I now possess  before I fly  to Europe in the future if I go back, because that way I can fit in the seats and maybe wear some capris and women blouses so I look like a European and don't get discriminated against.
Anyway, after being up for about 30 hours I got back to Nashville, fell instantly asleep when I got home and have been on (what is extremely foreign to me) basically a 9 PM to 6AM sleeping schedule the last few days...maybe I'm truly becoming the old man I'm starting to feel like?
And now here I am...taking care of the corgis while my folks are away, cooking up a storm, trying to continue to build on what I've learned...and it's been AWESOME!! Yesterday I made the best bolognese sauce I've ever had (if I don't say so myself...) with homemade tagliatelle pasta. I'm going to keep practicing the tips, tricks, and recipes I've learned, as well as continue to practice my knife skills (I need help - 2 bad finger cuts in one month...eh).
Other than that, I have about 3 weeks to get my stuff together for the move down to Austin. For the first time in quite some time, I have to admit, I'm actually excited about the future. I know I have a great opportunity to do something really big and different from anything the people of Texas have ever had in terms of Italian food, and I'm excited to really start my life in Austin, as the past year and a half has basically been purgatory, just waiting for something to happen.
So, that's about it. If anyone is still reading this and anyone is still interested, I'm going to post the pictures from the last 5 days of the trip or so - definitely some of the best ones - http://picasaweb.google.com/harrison.d.sonntag .
Thanks again for everything and wish me luck in Austin!