The return

Technically speaking, today has only been 23 hours long for me as I traveled from the Central to Eastern time zone. It's seemed like anything but a short day. In fact, it's felt endless.

In anticipation of the early hour at which we'd be rising for my brothers and I to catch flights out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and my parents to begin making the drive home, I went to bed around 11:15 last night. About a half hour later I hears this horrid sound like a chainsaw. Oh wait, that's my cell phone vibrating because someone is calling. It's my mom wondering if I or the brother sharing the hotel room with me lost a gift card for a gas station in their room. Um, no. And also, what are you doing up, let alone calling at this hour?!

My brother set the room's alarm clock to go off at 5:10 a.m. I set a wake up call for 5:15. Good to go, right? I slept fitfully all night and at one point rolled over to see that the clocked displayed 4:22. I tried to get some more sleep. When I next awoke, I laid in bed just trying to rest and not get up. After awhile I thought that it was unusual that we hadn't been awakened. I looked at the clock to find that it was 5:42. The plan was to leave the hotel at 6:00 for my brothers' 7:30 flight and my 8:00 take-off. I informed my brother of the time and leaped out of bed to get ready in a hurry. Seeing as we were about a half hour from the airport, being deliberate was not an option. That was quite a way to start the day.

We encountered no problems catching our flights, and by 11:20 a.m., my plane had brought me back to Columbus. I hopped into the car of the person picking me up and was promptly taken to...the university's gym to keep stats for four college basketball games. This two-day tournament is long enough without getting up before the sun rises. It was sure to be a bruiser with how the day began.

To top it all, some things were goofed up on the final game, although I'd like to point out that they weren't my fault despite the inclination to suspect they were. (I was more tired in the middle of the day.) So that kept me around even longer. Finally, around 10:30 p.m., I walked through the door of my apartment.

I have four more games to work on Wednesday--that's what day it will be, right?--so hopefully I won't be carrying the wearying effects of travel or an intense amount of time spent with family for nearly a week. After all of this, I look very much to bringing this year to a quiet close at home and doing the same to start 2011.