Back Home from the End of the Earth

I'm not entirely exaggerating. I spent two weeks (plus a few days' travel) on a wild Central Asian adventure. It's the longest I've ever left the guys, so it was hard, but you can't exactly day-trip it to the 'stans. It really did feel like the end of the earth --the kind of place where you had to bring your own bottled water and toilet paper and translator and gasoline cans if you ever left the capital and then had watch out for the livestock grazing on the dirt roads.
Because of some dire warnings about luggage not making it all the way to my final destination (and only one flight per week), I decided to carry-on my luggage. I thought I was going to be in a hotel (without laundry) the whole time, so I had to pack 2 weeks worth of clothing (office and hiking and casual) into a bag my mom permanantly "loaned" to me because she thought it was too small for weekend trips. If there was a "packing Olympics" I would have been in medal contension. Thank goodness for the new 2.5 gallon Hefty ziplock bags, so I was able to vacuum-pack my stacks of shirts and pants and socks. Unfortunately I couldn't bring on any liquids, and there wasn't exactly a CVS readily available at my destination, so I had to find tooth powder and a bar of shampoo (this was before TSA relaxed the rules) and then buy what I could in the duty-free shop. So all I had was my backpack (which has its own story) and my little weekend carry-on bag, wheeling around the world through 4 airports in about 28ish hours.
On the way back I ended up with two more bags of shopping (mostly ceramics), conveniently padded with some embroidered fabrics (wasn't exactly a t-shirt and fridge magnet sort of place!).
The backpack I took has been everywhere with me, quite literally. When I started Junior High, I begged my parents for a *real* backpack. Mom finally caved and got me a purple backpack from Eddie Bauer, but she said "if I'm spending $40 on a backpack it darn well better get you through college." Well, it's now getting me through grad school (I think it'll have to be bronzed if/when I ever graduate). It's also been icefishing with reindeer herders in Lapland, biked down the C&O canal, and now hiked through the mountains of Central Asia. Yeah, I'm a little too attached to it.
More about the actual trip and Eli's adventures later. Eli welcomed me home with a cute sign at the airport (taped to his stroller), although he was pretty tired by the time I finally got through baggage and customs. So was I!