Such a great time was had!

My week in the northwest was amazing! So relaxing and fun to hang out with my friends (and the time with family wasn't bad either...hee hee). As always, I took this time away from the routine to really take stock at where I am in life. I had such a sense of freedom and destress that I realized how much I have to start protecting myself and my time. I need more balance in life and I need to start fighting for that. I am a person that has always been able to make things happen. I wanted to be a teacher...I did it. I wanted to work in music...I did it. I've stopped making things happen for myself. I want a social life, but I've felt paralyzed to make that happen. No longer! I want to get out there and take some hours in my week to get to know people and be out doing things that I love to do. I need to be my number one priority...not my career. I've struggled most of my adult life with being identified by my career and that has become a crippling identity. I know I have to be so much more than what I *do*.

I'm gettin' outta town!

In less than 2 weeks now, I will be going to Seattle and Portland! I am soooo thrilled to get a week to see friends, a little bit of family and just see the beauty that is my old home...the Northwest. I have so much to do to plan and prepare. So much work that needs to be done so I can just go and be. I have one dilemma about this trip. My desire is to be selfish on this trip and make this my vacation...to see the people I want to see and do the things I want to do. Already, the tug of war begins. I have 1 family obligation...my brother is graduating college, but I don't want that event to drag into a multi-day affair. I want to come down for graduation, spend the evening with the family and jet back to Seattle as soon as I can the next day.
Have any of you guys done that...gone "home", but wanted to experience home in your new adult eyes? Treated home like any other vacation spot? How does that work? How do you set boundaries without causing a riot?