Coming and Going Home

It is so nice to visit my childhood home. And it is so nice to come back to my home I’ve created for my family.

As we were waiting in the airport last night for our plane to arrive and then waiting on the tarmac in Atlanta for a gate to open up I started thinking about how going home always brings up such conflicting emotions. To “organize” these emotions I started a mental pros and cons list. And, since I’m a blogger, I’ve decided to share this list with you (because that is what is what we bloggers do, we share with you what is in our brains whether or not it seems interesting to anyone but us).

Pros:

• Seeing family. And, more specifically, seeing Monkey with his extended family. It warms my heart when he plays with his cousins or when his Grandparents, Aunt, and Uncles swoop in for a cuddle.

• Seeing old friends and their new children. I’m so lucky to have a friend who isn’t high maintenance (mostly because I’m really bad at keeping in touch). When we see each other we pick up right where we left off. And, she has the most adorable children, one of whom is enamored with “baby Kevin.”
• To go along with the first two bullet points, there are so many people around, I get a break. There is always someone willing to hold the baby, play with the baby, feed the baby, etc. I think on the flight home was the first time I was able to snuggle with my baby.

• Being in a house. A house with lots of windows, fresh air, and rooms that separate you from other people (all of this in contrast to the loft).

Cons:

• Coming home to a house with no food but tons of laundry. The food thing I get, before I leave I always clean out my fridge and take out the garbage. But the laundry thing baffles me. I do laundry at my mom’s house, how do I have so much to do here?
• Missing my cats. Remember them? The other members of my family? My four-legged friends really get a bum deal nowadays but I do miss them when we are gone.
• Feathers all over my clothes. Really this bullet point is for my mom, she gets it. Oh, I see, you want to get it too. Well, I’ll share with you, but you will soon find it really isn’t that exciting. My mom has these fabulous pillows on her couch. They are gorgeous, but feathers pop out of them all the time and seem to really like me. I just found one on a shirt I pulled out of my suitcase.
• Travel. Monkey is really good on airplanes and in airports, but travel still stinks. The packing, the lugging, the security… and did I mention I lost my license? Don’t worry, we found it again, but a word to the wise, don’t stick your only state issued id in the back pocket of your diaper bag because it will probably fall out when you put your bag on the x-ray belt and you probably won’t notice it for a little while until you give in to your husband nagging you to put your license back in your wallet. Then you will have to listen to your husband completely panic as you try and remain calm because all the sudden your husband is supremely worried about identity theft. Finally, you will go back to security, let them know you are a complete idiot and that you are looking for a Georgia license, and a TSA agent will hand you your license while giving you the look. You know the look, the one your father used to give you about not doing something so stupid again but he didn’t want to say the word stupid out loud. Yeah, that was fun.
• Missing things in Atlanta. This past weekend we missed a HUGE Atlanta festival that had a house tour I would have loved to see. But, we will be here next year so hopefully I’ll catch it then.
• Having to leave everyone back in New Jersey. Just when you get used to seeing them every day, it is time to say goodbye. It’s tough. I love that fact that I get to live in all kinds of different places and experience tons of new things. I just wish my family and friends could come along with me. That, or that the transporter from Star Trek would become real. I’ll take either option.

  

And there it is… my brain on paper. There is no significance to this list other than the fact that it is a list. It doesn’t make decisions, it doesn’t get a vote, it doesn’t even get second look. It just is what it is.

Now, let me go get my baby that is so far off of schedule he doesn’t even have a schedule any more (I guess that would be on the “cons” list). Fun times… fun times.

By the way, this is Monkey with his harem.  He established it in New Jersey.  You have to start young with these things if you ever expect to have a lot of girls: