What I miss, so far

We've been homeless now for 2.5 months, in Ecuador for one.  The travel's been fun, on both continents, and we've finally hit our stride here with movement, planning, adjustment to the fullness and limits of what we have. 

Some of you have asked, and its been an interesting reflection -- here's what I most miss at this point:

• Hugs, easy communication with friends and family - no surprise there
• The ease of any focused shopping, especially Amazon orders and deliveries - finding good binoculars in Quito, impossible
• Kale, steamed greens with garlic, brown rice, spicy foods, Sriracha/cock sauce
• Intuition that is useful and relevant
• Confidence in electronic access
• Easy, relevant communication with officials, folks on the street, interesting people
• Certainty -- of any sort, about anything
• Fully understanding a menu and having complete control over an order’s outcome
• Normalcy, predictability - any arena
• Certainty of society’s restitution
• Work's interesting coworkers and patrons, intellectual content
• A comforting, welcoming visualization of home (thoughts of the storage area don’t do it)
• Even stairs/steps of consistent depth
• Good, manageable Olympic coverage
• Communal understanding of US policies -- to those with whom we talk, it's a mystery -- gun policies? militarism? health care?  political stalemate?  religious fanaticism?  Really??
• access to more Community episodes
• Feeling a part of things, not an outsider

What I don’t miss:

• intense summer heat and its requisite air conditioning
• normalcy, predictability
• summer road construction
• certainty - the reality is I know so little about anything, nice to have that underscored
• US politics
• full moon interactions at the Library
• Steve - and I sometimes miss missing him

Steve commented that my list is unbalanced, that a balanced list would be more indicative of the pleasures of this traveling life.  It is an unbalanced list, but it is little predictable stuff , more an indication of foreignness -- a lack of ease -- than actual dissatisfaction.  And I think that's much of why I love travel, to wake me up, shake me up, force a different perspective on my lazy mind. 

Btw, OPPL  - I love the hat that your generous REI gift certificate gave me!  Thanks!