Ocean air, mountains and muscle memory

I am sitting in the downtown condo I'll be calling home for the next month and then will head to my parents house for the night. I am looking out at the sun setting over the back of the Empress hotel and I see the mountains in the background. And I'm appreciating it all. For what seems like the first time. I feel like a tourist in a place that's so familiar. I've only been here a day but it seems like I've been here a month already. I wonder how long until that feeling passes.

It's strange going back to where you grew up but no longer call home and realize how much you do without thinking, just as if it's a force of habit you never lost. Example,  the car drove me to where I needed to go today-- I swear "I" didn't drive it. It felt instinctual and I didn't quite know where I was going but always ended up where I needed to go. (Unfortunately, this instinct was not quite so strong on my run with the Running Room folks, who I decided were too fast for injured me after 8km and insist they go on without me and I ended up taking a not so direct route back to the store. But in my lost travels, I ended up running past random places that I remembered from high school - but places I remembered without story or context.)

On my run today, I also ran past places that will be part of my new life/reality for the next month or so so THAT got me excited... and nervous too. And as much as I'm looking forward to the teacher training starting on Wednesday, I am also looking forward to the next few days of calm. So on that note, I am going to unpack and listen to some calming tunes and wait for the moon to come out...