Eight days in Arizona, and I’m practically a new person. A few weeks ago, I remembered a stash of frequent flier miles and quickly decided to visit my sister. So I did, and now I’m back.

Either two or three years have passed since we last saw one another (although we talk on the phone every day), and we were long overdue for a visit. The Girl (7) made a list of activities:

• Go to the park.
• Walk to school.
• Learn to ride her bicycle without training wheels.
• Watch Doctor Who.
• Go to the observatory.

Somehow we managed to add making balloon animals, juggling, roasting marshmallows, watching The Princess Bride, going swimming, and a visit to Desert Botanical Garden. The Boy (9) spent much time discussing Pokemon (“Do you know what I would do if Pokemon were real?”) and Bionicles. The Girl played hours of Webkinz (the stuffed kind, not the website). I had chai out on the patio. We talked. I wrote a few hundred words on my novel. We got lost a couple of times. We had an early mini-Thanksgiving dinner. Eight days passed in a blur. On the last night The Boy said “I wish tomorrow wouldn’t come for a thousand years.”

“Why?” I said.

“Because you’re leaving,” he said.

I’ve got a novel to write and a career to relaunch. I feel refreshed and renewed, ready to tackle these challenges.