Getting My Ducks In A Row

What can I say?  I'm back and I'm exhausted.  I also feel cold.  After thirty-one days in Mexico early April in Vancouver is still like winter though the spring flowers are already in abundance.  The air is very fresh here, clean and drenched with oxygen.  I feel unmitigated joy being back again, but also joy for all that happened while I was away in Mexico, pleasant and unpleasant.  It was a kind of baptism, spending the entire month speaking only Spanish and simply being present in and with a different culture.  Several times I have said I am not going back for a while and I stand by this.  I will likely visit again after a few years but Mexico can be exhausting if you are meeting this country without the ballast and support of a comfortable tourist experience.  I feel immeasurably richer for this.  And tired.  Exhausted.  I already miss the simple and friendly spontaneity of Mexicans.  The instinctive friendliness which is simply drowned in the suspicious reserve of many, but fortunately not all, Canadians.  I also have to remember to speak to people in English instead of Spanish, though English is my mother tongue and remains the language in which I am more able and more comfortable.  I now have enough novels and other books in Spanish thanks to this trip to last me till I'm an old man, given that I'm a slow reader and usually have between three and seven books running simultaneously, in English and Spanish.
My shoulder is sore from hauling my luggage.  I refuse to use those sissy roller suitcases and if I get a bit sore from carrying my stuff on my shoulder so what, it goes away soon enough.  Following unpacking and an afternoon nap  I have had to pick up my mail and get my mail key after having to track down the new manager in my apartment building, go to the bank to reinvest my leftover pesos and then transfer funds into my tax-free savings account; I have initiated the usual game of phone tag with colleagues and supervisors at work, and I have done a couple of grocery shopping trips, fitting in a good walk as well.  I have had my first dinner at home, thanks to defrosted leftovers and a heap of steamed broccoli I bought today.  I have gone through my mail and now I am preparing to resume work on a painting.  I still feel tired and rather weak, such that a good sleep will likely cure.
I smell water everywhere.