So the whole CNMC was great, had a great time listening to different speakers, talk to people have a great time with friends, wat a blessing it was. I learned a lot about many things, I’m inspired to move my podcasting and my blogging to another level, but I need to find a balance in my life first. I’m still recovering from the havoc my meds wreaked. It’s not easy to get back in a balanced life if you just escaped from a black hole. But the whole CNMC and my own vocation are so motivating to work hard for it. It’s not something I do for myself, but for God and His Kingdom. I need to fight hard, but it’s for a good cause, right?

It’s hard for me to summarize Friday evening and Saturday, because a lot happened. I liked the personal conversations with people I never saw in real life the most. Meeting BarbInNebraska and all thos other people was great. But at the other hand I also had a moment where I just had to sit down in a quiet corner because I suffered from sensory overload. And of course, the moment you sit somewhere trying to regain sanity, you hear someone talking to you in Dutch to ask if you’re all right. It’s so weird that hearing Dutch at a moment like that is the most comforting thing ever, even despite the fact Dutch isn’t really my native language. Father Roderick is the sweetest person ever too. Which helps, maybe.

After Mass, which was quite an experience too, especially the ‘gospel reading-with-running-commentary’, I tried to arrange with Jeff and Zina that I could sleep at their room for the last night before catching my flight back to The Netherlands. But Fr. Roderick wouldn’t be Fr. Roderick if he hadn’t already arranged something: we could stay at the Vista family. The Vistas are the nicest people ever too! I had been bugging Fr. that I wanted to see UP! by Pixar because it only would be out in October in The Netherlands, and I knew Fr. is a Pixar fan too. So we went to the movies in the US, but before that we were treated at a real Texan Steak House. I completely cracked up when a family, a priest in clericals and a random woman show up and are greeted by the hostess with “Hi Folks!”. Rrright. That’s probably Texan hospitality for you. Funny. The dinner was great, I tried something cheap, because I wanted to save money for the cinema, only to discover that the Vistas paid for my food and Fr. Roderick for my movie ticket. Dang!

UP! is great, at least the beginning is. The end could have been better. But certainly entertaining. I had a blast! We went to bed late, and went up again early, which I didn’t mind, having no circadian rhythm whatsoever left at all, with my body overall having no clue what I was doing anyway. Jeff dropped us off at the airport, and after checking in Fr. Roderick and I had a cup of coffee at Starbucks. We were surprised to meet Jeff and Zina Liss at the gate, and they were surprised to see us in Atlanta, because we could travel business class. I had a funny conversation with a flight attendant at 43,000 feet. I was wearing my Daily Breakfast – Breakfast with a Priest t-shirt and she read the back. “Breakfast with a Priest”. She said “Do you know there’s a priest sitting in front of you?” while she was nodding towards Fr. Roderick. Yeah, I know. I’m traveling with him. But it was pretty hilarious anyway. Fr. and Jeff Nielsen cracked up when I told them at the shuttle train to the parking lot in Atlanta. They dropped me off at my gate which was at another causeway and left for Rosswell.

At 5:30 PM I took off from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and landed the following morning at 8:47 AM Amsterdam time at Schiphol International Airport. And there I experienced a nasty surprise while waiting for the train at Schiphol Railway Station: I left my H2 on the plane. So I called the number, but it would go in storage and could pick it up later on. I wasn’t too worried, travelled by train to Groningen around 9:50 AM and decided to have lunch at the half way point in Amersfoort. I felt really weird. I skipped a night and came from a time zone that had a time difference of seven hours, which my body couldn’t process. Next time I go to the US I go longer, because at the moment my body started to get used to Central Time, it found itself back in the Central European Time zone. So after I came home around 2 somthing PM I just wanted to crash and go to bed, knowing that is a bad idea. Instead I started to upload my stuff, twitter and plurk a bit and write this post.

I also noticed there’s a ton of work piling up next week as I’m taking this week off to get back in the rhythm. I’m now hungry at the weirdest times and stuff. Next week I will be in Freshman Introduction Period work over my ears until the Introduction Week starts, after that I need to crash again, and then it will be early September. So if you don’t mind, I’m issuing a break again on the blog. This one is planned though.

So, what happened yesterday. Well, Jeff and I had a smooth flight to San Antonio, where it was HOT! We needed to go to pick up a rental car at Avis, where it was really hot too and then drove to downtown San Antonio, to the hotel. Jeff went back to the airport to pick up Lisa Hendey while I was camping out at Fr. Roderick’s Club House waiting for Stephanie to arrive from Milwaukee. We had a great time, as you could see yesterday from the pictures I posted already. When Jeff and Lisa arrived we agreed we were starving, none of us had lunch, so we went up the River Walk to grab some. The River Walk is another weird experience. Every time I go there I’m semi-expecting “It’s a Small World” to start playing with all the barges going by in the river. We had a great lunch and back at the hotel I found out that Stephanie had been looking for us everywhere. I didn’t want to roam data with my Dutch phone plan, so I didn’t watch any social network while being out of the hotel. But she found me, we checked in and our room is awesome.

We did a walk on the River Walk and I took photos, which I uploaded to Flickr right when we entered the hotel again, I love my WiFi capability on my phone! I don’t know what we are going to do today, but it will involve the Meet and Greet tonight, which I dread already. I don’t like social networking in real life, face-to-face. I’m perfectly comfortable behind my computer, but real-life networking is different. Don’t ask me why. After that I will be wasted, most probably and the day after that it’s Saturday and then we will be at the CNMC at the University of the Incarnate Word all day long, probably. So if I am writing a blog post, it will probably after Mass or so on Sunday.