Cacophony

Generally these days you will find me under the influence of something playing directly into my ears. I remember when I used to scoff at the concept. I was able to conjure a soundtrack in my mind and didn't need to rely on an i pod. Ah well how things change. Now I look to the music as a refuge. I enjoy watching the world go on around me with the music playing in the background. I feel a little out of sorts when I don't have little ear buds in.

I started this post back after Thanksgiving weekend, though, when I was home with the multi-sensory family. It is a constant input with them. That weekend, in particular, was high frequency, with the new baby and the untold news bubbling underneath and all the nervous energy from the newness and not knowing of the whole adoption situation.

I wondered that it would be like when I was headed back from THAT trip what it would be like to walk back into my mostly quiet life.

After nearly a month of traveling ... not sleeping in my own bed, in fact, let's see, over the last 27 days, I have slept in no less than 7 other people's houses, in five states. There were moments I was alone, but with work to do, there wasn't a lot of time for thinking or writing or processing.

In fact, in so many new spaces, there were so many people and things and events to observe. Starbucks and other coffee shops in various places, a concert, shopping, dinners and lunches out, airports (um, yes, eight of them), parks, movie theaters... so much input.

So, the sense of cacophony continued.

Last night, as the plane descended into Albuquerque I was filled with both a sense of dread and longing for quiet and my own space (though I wish now, of course, that I had cleaned up my apartment before I left so that I would be coming back to a clean house ...).

Since the friend who was picking me up at the airport also invited me to dinner, the quiet was forestalled, and then numbed with television but then indulged with deep sleep and no alarm... quiet, it's not so bad. And input, it's pretty good fun, too.