Today it is blessedly foggy; four months of unremitting sun after most of two years of unremitting sun and I have been aching for weather. Once we all ran outside in the middle of work to gape at two clouds puffing their lonesome way across the sky. But today I am in the room I grew up in, looking out on a view as familiar as the inside of my eyelids. The room is exactly as it was when I left it four months ago, which is exactly as it was when I left it two years before that. It feels rather as though I was sucked into some time-warp and then spit back out just a few moments after I left. If it weren't for the monster hugs my friends here have been bestowing me, I would suspect that I dreamt the whole thing. That, and the fact that I've been dancing on the edge of tears every time a siren comes by, or a seagull, or a particularly good bite of heirloom tomato.

But I'm back! And I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.