Home Sweet Home

Finally!! I got back to Chattanooga yesterday afternoon around 3 after a very long couple of days of traveling. I managed to stay awake until about 8pm last night and slept til 9 this morning, so no jet lag! It is so nice to be home, especially when the weather is sunny and warm, and friends are having cookouts (thanks Walker!). It was a very fun, very long month, and here are few things I have learned...

I was lucky enough to see some of the most beautiful places on earth - the Australian rainforest, Milford Sound, the mountains and lakes of New Zealand - but I have to say that middle and east Tennessee are still up there on the list of the earth's most beautiful (Sorry west TN. You're too flat)

A month of very little exercise coupled with lots of cocktails and fish n' chips will wreak havoc on your cardiovascular system.

Don't take ketchup for granted. They won't give you any in Australia or New Zealand, and if you ask for it they bring you "tomato sauce" which seems to be a squirt of ketchup mixed with a ton of water. When we had our 12 hour layover, we went to In N Out Burger, and I have never been more happy to see real ketchup in my life!

Make new friends in life, regardless of their age. As you know, I love BFF's Paul and Edna. I want to go visit them in San Diego. My other favorites were Buzz and Dorothy. Those two know how to have fun and enjoy life. Buzz is 77 and Dorothy is 73. He was a widower and she was a widow when they met at a funeral home (at a funeral for a friend - not one of their spouses). They got married 4 years ago and have a blast together. In Fiji, they would stay out late with Jake and me listening to the band, and they would be the first ones on the dance floor. They also have season tickets for Nebraska football and invited me to come to a game with them. I may have to take them up on that one.

Never take life for granted. If there is something you want to do whether it is take a vacation, find a new job, go back to school, take up a new hobby - whatever! Just go for it. In New Zealand, the person who bungee jumped after me was a 61 year old man who had terminal cancer. On our tour group there was a 41 year old woman who had an inoperable brain tumor, so she decided to go see the world. You never know what sort of curve ball life will throw at you, so live life to the fullest! I almost didn't go on this trip because I thought I needed to be at home looking for a job. After some thinking and some great advice from my self-appointed life guru Alvaro, I decided to take a couple of months to not worry about work and go have some fun. And I am so glad I did!

Be grateful for your blessings in life. I am so fortunate to have such a great and very generous dad who made this trip possible. He has taken me and my siblings on some awesome vacations. We are lucky kids, and we know it. I want to dedicate my blog to my dad, Michael E. Yes, I realize it is pretty cheap that he takes me on an amazing vacation on the other side of the world and I give him a free blog, but cut me some slack - I'm unemployed! Hopefully I will be able to return the favor someday by taking Dad back to Melbourne to see the Australian Open. So if anybody knows of a very high paying job with lots of vacation days, shoot me an email! Until the next adventure, peace out kids!