"back to reality"

I truly detest the saying "back to reality." It makes my skin crawl, boil, and flake off all at once. When people say it, I have an intense urge is to smack them, but instead, I usually shrug and say, "yeah, something like that."

Back up. Why? It represents the opposite of how i'm trying to live my life. That may sound a tad extreme, but it's mostly true. When I leave the day to day in this city to visit friends afar or paddle out in CR or take a day to drive around, I don't like to think of it as pure escapism. It's fuel and information and it's invigorating and inspiring.

I'm well aware that I'm one of the lucky ones that gets to have a career doing something I truly enjoy. So, I suppose there's less of a need to run away from it all. But like all work, it gets stressful and tiring and you need to shut that part of your brain down at times.

I guess I want it all to be my reality. I get really connected when I'm away (perhaps overly so :) ). Connected to the environments and the people and those unfamiliar routines that quickly become second nature. I don't like to think that all that gets locked away the second i'm "back." I'm never really "gone" so how do I get "back?" It's all one long thread with a million awesome avenues. Thank goodness for planes, man.

P.S. here are some photos of flowers.