Landlegs? Maybe.

I got back to my native Merrie Land on Sunday and my hands are softening up at an alarming rate.
On Monday we went to the first AWE (Antietam Women's Ensemble) choir rehearsal, and it was great to see all the ladies again. Tuesday I got a haircut and ran errands for mom, Wednesday and yesterday as well as today have been pretty quiet, just getting things done around here, sleeping, snuggling with Circles my little feline angel, watching Oscar Wilde plays with the Parental Units, etc.

The day that Mom and Dad came to pick me up we were going out in the evening to drop anchor and fire off our carronades for the 1812 Overture being played ashore, so they came along on the ship to get an idea of what 'd abandoned them for, unfortunately it was a pretty awful outing, as it rained the entire time and wasn't very exciting. I also wasn't on the ship most of the time, as I got put on the work floats we were using as light barges to illuminate the ship so the people on the shore could see that we were sitting there with our sails up looking pretty. When I was on the ship I was on a gun crew handling the tools. My favorite position, and our crew was the fastest, so that was pretty exciting, for me at least.
It wasn't until afterward when we had to go back out and fetch the barges and I was sitting in Cutter I soaked through and shivering, holding a flashlight in one hand and a radio in the other, watching the rain streak through the lights on the floats and thinking about sleeping in a dry, warm bed in a room all to myself the next night and starting to feel as though I was going to start crying that I realized how much the ship had become home.
It was hard to leave, but it's good to be back home, well, at this home at least.