I did the math on my year so far

I landed in California eighteen days ago. Twelve more until I get back to DC. I'm sitting on the Coast Starlight headed north from LA right now, and I have no indication of where I am, but based off vibes I'd say I'm parallel to Fresno. 

This 30-day trip made sense in my head, but it's been hard on my body. California is home, the people who make me feel at home are all here, and I need to be here at the end of September and mid-October for a week each time. Figured I may as well stay the whole month instead of burning two days on interstitial cross-country flights. 

This got me thinking about how I spent my time this year. It’s mostly felt like living out of a suitcase and fighting to build seasonal routines in DC between trips that wipe the slate clean or battling my own body. Today I finally had time to pull the data: The longest amount of time I've spent in anywhere this year was the 65 days I spent in DC where people were visiting left and right and I ended up in the hospital.

I spent almost a month in LA, 5 days more than I spent at home in Chicago. 22 days in SF is longer than I'd have expected, since I have terrible memories there. I like it a lot more there than I used to, for two reasons: I don't work there anymore, but some of my best friends do.