So I'm on my way home at the close of another week. The weekend was something I looked forward to each week during college. It meant sleeping in, spending time with friends, college football (or other sports), and no class. It seems as I get older/working full time, I don't look forward to the weekends as I did before. Most of the the things I listed above are still viable options of things I could do, but realistically they're not as feasible. I don't have to go to work on the weekends, but I often feel more busy on the weekends than I do during the week.

My weekends now seem to be occupied with running errands, planning lessons for church, cleaning, and going to meetings for everything but work.I don't really get to sleep in because Saturday mornings I'm usually on my bike (there's just something about being on your bike early in the morning that gets me out of bed. Sunday mornings I have church meetings early, so my sleeping in is until 9, not much sleeping in when you're up late the night before trying to get stuff done.

Now yes, could I better "time manage" my weekends... Yes. Do I want to... No, I time manage all week, and it hurts my head. The weekends are supposed to be my escape from the stresses of my job. I wish this was more true. I have a horrible tendency to check my work e-mail during the weekend. More often than not I get at least one distressed e-mail from a student and spend time brainstorming how to resolve the situation. Realistically, there is nothing because I cannot access any of the students records from home, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. This has been the case the last few weekends as I have dealt with a student whose Financial Aid has not processed. Nothing I can do but all I think about is this student panicking. I look forward to the day I master the art of leaving work at work.

This weekend won't be much of a weekend either. Tomorrow I'm on the bike at 8:00am with a friend. At 12:30 I fly to Detroit for my interviews with Bowling Green State (ps- it's really cold there right now... not thrilled). So tonight and tomorrow will be spent making packing lists, ironing, killing trees printing off all my confirmations for my flights, hotel, and interviews, packing, and I'm sure a good deal of stressing! I think the closest I'll get to a "weekend" is the down time I'll have at my hotel in Detroit.

Weekends are great, but they can also be stressful. Whatever your weekend holds, I hope it's good and maybe a little relaxing. I hope you don't find yourself in my common predicament of writing a close friend asking her if there's anyway I could get another day. Take care, be safe, and don't let the weekend just be an extension of the week.

When asked where home is, I often don't know where to say. The majority of my life (in terms of years) I lived in Kingwood, TX, about 45 minutes north of Houston. The majority of my life that I actually "lived" is in College Station, TX, while I was getting my degree from Texas A&M. Other places I have called home include Jubail, Saudi Arabia, Clayton, CA, and now Dallas, TX. I guess in terms of lifespan, Kingwood is home, even if the longest I lived here at one time is 4 years (we'd move back to Kingwood after our other moves).

This weekend I am in Kingwood visiting my brother, who now lives in Kingwood with his 5 children. When I arrived on Friday, I took some time to drive around Kingwood. Many of the structures are the same, the signs are the same, but it just doesn't feel the same. After my freshman year at A&M, my parents moved to London, and have never moved back since. Now I come back every few months to see my brother and his family.

Every time I drive in, it doesn't feel like home. I don't know if it's some of the memories I try to forget that overshadow some of the more fond memories. It might be the fact that in high school I was 1 of 4000+ students, and never felt like a person, just a number. Maybe it's that I haven't had a physical "home" for almost 8 years now. Whatever it is, the place I call home doesn't really feel like home at all.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride. It was a beautiful day. I rode a route I used to ride in high school. It was fun, but as I passed homes of old friends I realized that many of these old friends and their families have since moved. That if I were to go into any of these homes where some of my fondest memories growing up were made, they would look nothing like they did then. I guess this is what they call change... and the world moving on.

I often find myself jealous of friends I have who have lived in the same house all of their lives. They seem to have all these memories of their house, their neighborhood, etc. I do not really have that. I've never lived in a really close knit neighborhood where everybody knows everybody. As I look back though, I wouldn't have changed anything. Growing up, my life had its bitter moments, but those were because of me, not because of where I lived, who my neighbors were, or what school I went to. I think I began to realize this in college, and decided that the direction my life takes is decided by me. I'm glad I did, because I really see college as the turning point in my life.

So as I drove out of Kingwood, I looked back and thanked it for the many memories, good and bad, I had acquired there. Those experiences shaped me, and helped me realize who I wanted to be. I never get angry at my parents for moving us. Not many kids can say they lived in Saudi Arabia, or that by the age of 8 they had traveled through Europe and Asia during every summer and holiday break. That when they would go home for Christmas, it meant a trip to London or Singapore.

So where is home? Is it where your family is? Where the heart is? Where you are? I really don't know. I think home is where you want it to be. It is where you feel comfortable, where you can be you, it is where you feel happy. Probably the closest I've had to home would be College Station, TX. Where is home now... home is wherever my wife, my dog, and my bicycles are. :)