November 4, 2014
14 hours! Actually 14 hours and 5 minutes!
That is how long a direct flight takes from New York to Beijing, China. I know this because I am on that flight right now. For weeks I have been panicking about sitting on a plane for 14 hours. I am not very good at sitting. 
I bought me some Sleep Well and in an hour or so I plan to attempt sleeping so that I can try to be right ready to jump onto China time. That is probably wishful thinking since they are 13 hours ahead of my time, meaning that I should already be asleep now as it is 3:30 am tomorrow there right now. I know … confusing! I might as well admit to myself now that there is a very good chance I will not be posting on Wednesday. 🙂
I am so excited to visit China. I have never been to China and there are so many things I am looking forward to seeing, but mostly I am excited to see my daughter! ❤ She has now been in China for 10 weeks and still has another 6 1/2 weeks to go. I can’t wait to hear how much her Chinese language skills have improved and it will be so exciting to see China through her eyes, as well as my own. We will be spending a few days in Beijing, which will be new for her, and then I will accompany her back to Shanghai.
I am posting a new song today by Tristan Prettyman. This song is from her new album, Back to Home, which was just released last week on October 27. I have been a fan of Tristan Prettyman’s music for many years. She released her first album back in 2005. I think her music is so pure, raw, honest, and soulful all at the same time. Sometimes it feels light and breezy, reminiscent of her California surfing background, and other times it is just an incredibly deep lyrical song backed by great music. This album has a much different sound than her older music, but I love it! Today’s song is definitely my very favorite from the new album.
I really connected with this song – “Back To Home.” As I am sitting here on a plane off to China it struck me that I am off to find “home.” Home is not necessarily a place; I have learned that over the last 23 years through all of our moves and changes. Home is where I am with the ones I love. Home is where my heart is … and right now my heart is spread far and wide.
I was texting my son right before takeoff and I said, “I am so excited for you to come back home!” He responded, “In like 2 weeks?” I obviously think we disagreed on how close it seemed. 😉 I am just so excited to have him come home and I guess as I am off to visit one piece of my heart, I started anticipating having another piece return back home. I know that home will always be there. Life is a journey and my little family is certainly having a journey, but I find a lot of solace in the line of this song that says,
“All of these roads lead us back to home.”
No YouTube videos for any songs on this new album yet, so I have attached a recording of the song from SoundCloud. I hope you enjoy this new music as much as I have.
Let’s see … just 11 more hours to go! YIKES!
