I've been back in the US for 3 hours now and am about to pass out for a few hours before a morning meeting; must clear brain before unconsciousness can take hold.

Thanks to Caryl, a thought just found its way through my thick skull: Decentralization and local action usually go hand-in-hand, but they are not the same thing. So it's possible for me to travel in a way that fosters local empowerment rather than detracting from it.

A massive load of guilt-potential just went poof.

I just triaged all the things I have to do. There are a lot of things i have to do. However, there is now nothing urgent (as in, "CATASTROPHE!!! if not handled within 24 hours") sitting on my plate. I can try to sleep in peace now.

Oh - my guitar needs a new string, and I should probably sort through my mail because there are some tax documents there. The kitchen is a mess, and I haven't unpacked. My piano lesson is Tuesday and I haven't practiced at all! There's something that looks like slightly spoiled kale in the fridge, and I just realized I should probably extract some logs (and cjb's graphics card) from my old desktop at 1cc if it hasn't yet been reimaged, and Remora to catch up on and 8.2.1 testing and oh god first day of IIF class tomorrow and my team still doesn't have a 10 minute spiel and...

Ahem. I said, I can try to sleep in peace. I do not have to do these things right now. Clip nails. Sleep. Wake up and deal with things in the morning; they'll be fine if you do.

It's nice how much perspective a few days with sunshine will give you. :) Vacations: They're Highly Recommended.