Early morning sunlight slices through a thin gap in the hotel room curtains. As I open my eyes, I think for a minute about where I am, and how I got here. Yesterday I woke up in my bed in Carrboro. Then I went to the airport for the first time in eight months. Two flights and nine hours later, I arrived at a Residence Inn just a few miles from SeaTac airport.

And this is where I will spend the next two weeks.