If you’ve been following along with us on Instagram it’s pretty clear that we are “home” now.  We arrived in Casar, NC in mid-December, low-on-funds, tired, cold, and eternally grateful for 2015 on the road. We loved it. It wasn’t always easy and certainly there were some surprises but it was everything we’d hoped and planned for. And so much more.

I suppose with the start of this new year I’m officially unemployed. I’ve begun my job search knowing that it will take some time to find the right professional fit. Jessie has the good fortune of being highly employable and began an open-ended/temporary position in her medical field in Shelby, NC. This should allow us to continue to eat, pay bills, and give us some flexibility moving forward.

I have been spending a significant amount of time at the local YMCA training for my upcoming triathlon season. It’s been good to get back into workout routine. I’m officially in the best “winter shape” of my life. I guess that is the major plus of being without work. If I can avoid injury I’m hoping for my best season yet. I plan to cap it off with Ironman North Carolina. Problem is the entry fee is $715. Yep. You read that right. So I’m in the process of trying to justify that expense while I’m out of work all for the privilege of propelling myself through 140.6 miles of pain. When not at the Y I’m spending time at the county library where internet is slightly faster and more reliable than the satellite internet at my in-laws.

Being “home” has been more challenging than we anticipated. The holidays were great but now that Jessie is back to work and I’m working hard on finding meaningful employment we feel greatly unsettled. Much more so than at any point last year. This is counterintuitive to us. We almost never knew where we were headed next in 2015. We frequently started the day not knowing where we’d sleep. Yet now that we are somewhere familiar and have more of a routine we feel out-of-sorts.  Perhaps this is/was to be expected. We underestimated it.

That said we are happy to be home. Catching up with family and friends has been wonderful and while we ate well on the road, nothing can beat home cooking.