Where to go

Writer's note: my post from June, titled 'Mt. Wilhelm', was missing an entire section. The last two days of this climbing diary did not make the site. Which is a shame because that was one of my favorite posts. And now no one is reading this anymore so I am talking to myself. Hi Mark! Looking good, bud.

Cincinnati. I have come full circle. Everyone was excited to hear about my trip for about 20 minutes. Those minutes are long gone. The novelty of my return has faded. And it should - I did not expect or want people to gush over me forever. Though, I admit that I liked attention. It's strange; I enjoyed talking about my experience the first couple weeks. And then I got bored with hearing my face spew out the same stories. And now no one asks anymore. So I find myself trying to drop hints of my trip to strangers at bars:

stranger: You know, that Bengals victory over the Chicago Bears is starting to look very good. At the time, it just seemed like a sloppy victory over a bad team. But the Bears are good.

Me (seeing my opportunity): Well, I wouldn't know. You have to understand, I was OVERSEAS when that game was played so I did not see it.

stranger: They won 24-7. Forced 5 turnovers. They needed them too because the Bears defense is top notch.

Me: Speaking of defense, you really get to understand the range of the United States military when you are OVERSEAS for 7 months.

stranger: If the Bengals played the Bears today, I am not sure who would win.

Me: I WAS OVER F**CKING SEAS FOR 7 MONTHS YOU TWIT!!

stranger (startled and looking for anyone else to talk to): ummmm, what were you doing overseas?

Me: Wellll, since you asked... In March I took on a journey of self-discovery and adventure that took me halfway...


One last thing before we bury the South Pacific. The transition back to the USA has been easy. If I had been gone 2 years, it could have been a different story. Besides, I got a buffer with 3 weeks in Australia. My current project at work is not high-stress which has allowed time to acclimate. It's good to be with friends again and around people that you can talk to on a variety of levels. Because of the limited scope the people had in PNG, we just did not have that much to talk about. The holidays are here again so it feels like I just skipped from 2004 Christmas to 2005. I felt like I had changed radically as a person but after 5 minutes with my family I was cracking the same jokes and in my car I was listening to sports talk radio and yelling at traffic. I am happy. I love ole Cincinnati. And the Bengals are 9-3.

OK. We're moving forward from here. Cincinnati 101. I have no idea what that means.