THE REUNION SPECIAL

I have survived the return journey back to the beautiful Western land that birthed Marilyn Monroe and John Steinbeck. On the 14 some hour flight, I had a window on my left and an empty seat and an empty aisle on my right. I felt blessed like royalty.

Upon landing safely home with my packable treasures and packable memories, my Dad greeted me outside and my smiles were wild and free. Uncontainable. As I stepped out of the airport and took in breath after breath of sweet Indiana air ... I pictured the now tangible inevitable ... the soon to be realized ... me running across yards and yards of naked grass, sucking in barrels of uncrowded air ... my dog bouncing at my side with his tongue bouncing out of his mouth ... me gorging on a giant bowel of shimmering macaroni and cheese ... THE LABYRINTH and other comfort food playing on my television set on repeat ... me playing SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 ... my dog laying under my legs with a bone under his paw ...

It's time to recalibrate and ground myself back to my reality, float down from my Eastern high.

Above you welcomed voyeurs can see a candid photograph of a vulnerable man reuniting with his beloved animal companion. At last.

If I had stayed in Beijing for another two months or so, homesickness would have hit me like an Adam West smack. I would've desperately clawed my way back to familiarity. As I feel now, it wasn't always warm and fuzzy, but I attempted to soak up Chinese culture undeterred by thoughts of home. It was memorable adventure after memorable adventure with the always predictable existential anxiety eating at my edges from the inside. Memories were born that I'll carry across time and space.

I will miss Beijing. Mostly though, I'll miss the brother burrowed deep into that city's heartbeat. I love the guy. It'd been a long time since we were standing in apartment 511 at 2069 Argyle Avenue, me preparing to jump on the 101 headed towards Graduate school. It was great living with him all over again in a completely different setting, albeit brief.

I thank my brother and his girlfriend for keeping me from drowning, for showing me a sketch of Beijing. I thank you all for reading my ramblings, ramblings that I'm sure, at times, were easily perceivable as pretentious gobbledygook. I hope you were entertained on some level. Baudrillard and Virillio tell me it's time to focus on my thesis research now like green sticks to grass. Leave your goodbyes in the comment section and let's get together soon, yea.