It's 4 am, I must be quoting Matchbox 20 incorrectly.

I'm at Grace's beach house, up hours after everyone else. It all started innocently with trying to get the Marketplace podcasts onto my iPod an devolved into a full on music refresh. So I'm blogging while I download a BitTorrent client. /sigh. And here I thought the beach would get me to bed early.

I've had a pretty awesome week, with Dave, Grace, and Marc lending hefty amounts of moral support in what was a harder than expected transition out of Tucson. Once all my stuff was packed and shipped and I made it to my flight, the reality of leaving a place I've lived for four years and that I feel really connected to started to sink in. I don't want to wax overly nostalgic about a place I've always had mixed feelings about, but at the very least, the last four years have been an important time in my life, and Tucson will always be a part of that. Plus I'll miss the sun, my awesome apartment at Sirena's, the year round cycling, Bicas, and the mexican food. Especially the mexican food.

Yesterday, via bus and ferry, I arrived in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Today was a much needed lounge on the beach day, complete with ocean swimming and falling asleep in the sun and turning a bit pink. Tomorrow Grace and I drive to West Virginia for Chris' wedding via an airport pickup at Dulles for Ted, who is flying in from Japan.

In the midst of my iPod refresh, I downloaded several relaxation and "self-improvement" podcasts. Sirena and I had a brief but interesting conversation the other day about the constant desire to improve your life and accomplish things versus the ability to slow down and just be with yourself. We both felt a bit like it was impossible to escape our "should" voice: I should be doing this or I should be doing that. Even relaxation to some extent feels like a should. I guess I've always found it hard to find balance between the two...I seem to either be "off" or "on". Something to think about.