What are you excited about?

Still sleeping a lot.

Even when I wake up I'm exhausted. I think I'm actually getting sick though. I'm sure it's just a cold and I'll get over it quickly enough. Until then, it's all about the juice.

I stayed up all night Saturday night "watching" the UCF-Texas game. I was listening to it on a completely random Christian radio station in Southern Florida that has a live Internet stream. I swear, I nearly started crying when I heard the crowd in the background screaming "Texas! Fight!"

There are just some college experiences that I will always love and Texas football games are definitely up there. It was always a rush and now the thought of it always brings up this really odd feeling.

Yeah, this has been me lately. Reminiscing about home and college and missing my friends. I'm excited to go home and visit people, but at the same time I'm scared.

I'm scared of a couple of things really. I've only been gone five months (by then six) but I know a lot has changed. A couple of my really good friends have moved to Dallas, for instance.

The other thing is I'm scared I'm going to be so happy to be home that I'm going to dread going back to Taiwan.

Don't get me wrong, I like it here, but sometimes I just want to be home with my friends and my family where I know what's going on all of the time (not occasionally).

On the other hand, I may be bored out of my mind (or pleasantly surprised I suppose) given that when I lived in Texas I spent every waking moment at school or one-of-two jobs. It will definitely be an entirely different experience having a whole 10 days to do anything I want to in Central Texas.

Oh, also in the future happy times, my sister is planning a trip for us to go skiing at Whistler (in British Columbia, Canada near Vancouver) on my second pass through the Northwest. Looks like I won't completely miss the ski season after all.

The December/ January plan:

Arrive on Dec. 20th for two chill days in Seattle just hanging out with my sister and her family.

Hop on a plane with the kiddo (my niece Madison) and get to Austin the night of the 22nd.

Spend Dec. 22nd through Dec. 31st with friends and family. I'll probably spend the first two full days cooking for Christmas since I will finally have access to an oven and all the ingredients I can imagine (in a beautiful, large, clean kitchen).

After a wonderful New Years Eve celebration at a yet undetermined location in Austin, the kiddo and I will hop back on a plane around noon to head back to the Pacific Northwest on Jan. 1.

Upon arrival at the Sea-Tac airport, we will make way to Canada where we sleep anxiously that night because on the 2nd and 3rd it's all about the snowboarding at one of the best ski resorts in North America. Did I mention the Winter Olympics are to be held there?

We're coming back (to Seattle) on Jan. 4th and I'll hop on a plane on the 4th or 5th... I haven't really ironed that part out yet.

Now can you see why I'm excited to go home?