It’s 9:40 on Sunday night, and I should already be in bed, but I’m procrastinating calling it a day, because the next major event is Monday.

I don’t feel like Monday is inherently bad. I love my job, and I love the company I work for. What I do Monday through Friday allows me to do other stuff I enjoy on the weekends. This is just how adult life is. I’m fortunate that I’m happy at work; so many are not.

The problem with tomorrow in particular is that it represents the day everything goes “back to normal”. The house is finally in order, the luggage is all put away, the laundry is done. Tomorrow it’s back to the 4:00 am alarm, exercising, then the drive to the Orlando office. I’ll attend a bunch of meetings by phone. I’ll have to decide where to eat lunch because I have no food in the house to take to work. I’ll go grocery shopping on the way home.

Tomorrow I will field the question “How was your vacation?” a dozen times.

My vacation was excellent. It was the best vacation I’ve ever taken. I wish I could live that week over again. Of course I cannot. I can only try to hold on to the memories and the feelings and the people from it.

I returned to Florida a week ago today a different person.

I read somewhere recently that life changes subtly and imperceptibly every day, and then it changes in a great leap. My MUP cycling trip was one of those great leaps.

I went back to Michigan for work for the majority of last week. I’m starting to feel at home there. I have new friends from my trip that I’ve already seen again. There are those I want to and will see again up there. I feel comfortable in the Southfield office because they all get me. They know what I do, they appreciate the value I bring to the team. Not that those in my “home” office don’t. It just feels different. I prefer the way it feels in Michigan.

So I have to blend this new me and her new allegiances into my regular life. At my request, accepted happily by my managers, I’ll be spending more time in Southfield, traveling there once a month. I want to do things with my coworker friends there, like checking out the mountain biking scene (yes, we know it’s just trail riding). There is an important man there who I cannot wait to see again. I’m going to be logging a lot more Skymiles.

My favorite quote ever is from a Rush song. Anything can happen.

No matter what happens now that it’s back to “real” life, real life has changed, and for the better. The path of my life jogged to one side in a very perceptible, almost seismic way two weeks ago. What’s coming down this road I’m now on? Where does it lead? I have no idea. But I’m looking forward to finding out.