More things that are fantastic about coming home:

1. The people. They might try to kill me on Paseo and turn signal use is still only on a case-by-case basis, but I cannot imagine a more united group of people, even if we find our unity in making insulting jokes about our neighbors to the east. New Mexicans are friendly, surly, contrary, cheerful, backwards, forwards, progressive and as red as they come, but they're my people. On our last day in Honolulu, I saw a guy wandering around in a UNM t-shirt and I couldn't stop myself from yelling out "LOBOS!"

He shouted back "WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"

And, you know, I would have shouted out "AGGIES!" with just as much joy. Seeing that little bit of here there made me all the more anxious to get back home, where I belong.

2. Green chile. Good lord, by the end of the trip, I was dumping half bottles worth of Tabasco on anything, including into open cans of Diet Coke, and it still wasn't enough kick.

I'm not joking.

3. The high desert and its lack of humidity. My hair grew a full inch when we hit the Albuquerque tarmac, and that was just the beginning. It's so brown here, except for the sky, which is so blue and wide and open.

4. The Sandias. Honestly, who doesn't get a little choked up seeing them after weeks away from Albuquerque?

5. Local news. Oh, Tom Joles, how I've underrated your immovable hair and dulcet tones. Say bosque for me. Really get into it: "Booooooooosque!" Now tell me about a shooting and a meth lab and what King Bill's up to.

Also, the paper-of-record-who-also-happens-to-be-my-employer-but-should-not-be-named-because-it's-not-that-kind-of-blog is a fantastic paper, both visually and content-wise. I'm reminded of that every time I travel.

God, I love being home. I love being in New Mexico. Adam claims I'm about six weeks away from getting that Zia symbol tattoo, and I have a feeling he might be right.