Mama, I´m Coming Home!!

Here we are in Real de Catorce, magical old mining town in the Sierra Madre, and all that stands between us and Houston, TX is 18 hours on three buses. Am I ready to leave Mexico, the road, guacamole, tequila? You´d better believe it. I miss my momma, my pops, my sister, my friends, bagels with cream cheese, driving my Ford Probe through the hills of California, and wearing anything other than the four shirts I´ve had with me this year. My quest for perspective on the upcoming momentous return was waylaid yet again, this time by an impromptu hike to a ghost town up the hill, a bottle of wine and a sunset, and a riddle about a mummy that consumed me for an afternoon (There are 13 mummies--12 are filled with rocks and all weight the same amount, and one has a fabulously precious ruby that is either lighter or heavier than the rocks. You have a scale and you´re allowed three weighings of the mummies before you must choose which mummy has the ruby. If you choose wrong, you release the mummy spirits and they eat your brain. How do you find the ruby?) Nevertheless, I´m starting to get ahold of some of it all. Behold, our very own Harper´s Index: Number of countries we visited: 20 Number of flights we took: 35 Accumulated hours of time on buses: 28 days Number of different beds we´ve slept on: over 100 Number of friends and family who came to visit us on the road (not counting massive-ass karaoke rager): 17 Fraction of the year that we spent with these friends and family: 1/3 Total cost of the trip: $15,000/person (5K for flights, $20/day for living, and $2800 for the occasional fancy splurge) Number of sisters who got engaged while we were gone: 1--As of yesterday, my little sister Leela´s gonna make an honest man out of her boyfriend Sam. WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!! The people who come to visit keep telling me that I haven´t changed a bit, which is a little disconcerting. I´m just not okay with finally fulfilling this lifelong dream and being exactly the same person I was when I left. So I´m hoping over the next few weeks, as Meg and I reunite in Houston, head to California, tour medical programs on the West Coast, and then split off so she can finish med school and I can become a cowboy, that just maybe I´ll discover some profound knowledge that I gained this year that I never could have possibly figured out in America. As soon as I come up with it, I´ll let you know. For now, I´m content with knowing I saw an uncountable number of beautiful things this year, and I saw it all with the woman I love. It don´t get no better than that. --rahul