After a week and a half of eating and drinking my way across the south, this morning I took a deep breath, stepped on my bathroom scales, and saw the results of all my good choices. Y’all, I gained ten pounds in ten days–ten frickin’ pounds. My mom said, “Well, you look great,” but I’m having a mild aneurism over the matter. Not that I’m truly surprised. Still, I would like to reverse the damage, so I’ve been drinking water like a farm animal all day in order to flush out my system and am planning to go swing dancing tonight to increase my core temperature and burn some calories. With any luck, I’ll sweat out a whole pizza, two beers, and a piece of fried chicken before the night’s over.

But really, no regrets. I enjoyed every–delicious–calorie. Plus, who in his right mind would turn down pizza followed by cheesecake? (Obviously, not me.)

Now that I’m back home, I’m doing my best to play catch-up. By catch-up, of course, I mean laundry. (It’s super fun.) Also, I’ve been going through all my snail-mail, emails, and text messages. Last night while at dinner with a friend, I got a message from the library that said I had two books overdue, that I owed them a grand total of, like, a dollar. I re-checked-out the books online in order to not owe more, but for a minute there I felt like a total law-breaker, a reading rebel if you will. The best part–it felt great, like, I’ve got your overdue books, and what are you gonna do about it?

God, I need to get laid.

This afternoon I’m going to the pharmacy to get two vaccines that my immunologist wants me to have (to see how my body produces antibodies), and I’m nervous about intentionally injecting viruses into my already “quirky” immune system. But I guess this will provide the doctor with another bit of information, another piece of the puzzle. Plus, other than my skin being full of histamine, I have been feeling pretty good lately, so here’s hoping everything will go well. Last night I had dinner with a friend who went through years of health problems before they finally figured out what was wrong, so I’m taking their advice–Keep going, keep pushing for an answer. There has to be one–don’t stop ’til you find it.

The last night in Hot Springs, a few of us went out for a final drink. Walking home from the tavern, we came across a courtyard decorated with lights. It was this surprise, this unexpected beautiful thing, and everyone stopped to take it in. This is how I see my recent travels–something I wasn’t looking for but that was absolutely stunning (and delicious). Yesterday I spoke with my therapist to confirm my next appointment and told her what a great time I had during my travels and what wonderful people I met. She said, “This is what patience gets you.” So I’m doing my best to trust that in all things work, health, and life-related, answers are coming together, that there are more beautiful surprises just around the corner.