Home Sweet Homer

After all of my drama in Philly, I thought I would never make it home for a visit to my old stomping grounds.

Well, Tuesday afternoon after much debauchery Monday night (more to come on that later... boy oh boy were the Barrymore's fun!!) I finally dragged myself out of the house, into the car and onto the highway headed north.

It's been a pretty stressful summer. Scratch that, it's been a really stressful YEAR. As I was leaving the city of Philadelphia, I felt something akin to a panic attack washing over me. All of the strain and pressure from the wedding, my season, my bouts of depression, our financial troubles, our first year living together seemed to be buzzing around my head like a swarm of angry bees. Listening to NPR certainly wasn't helping... the Dow is down again, blah blah blah, the politicians are at each other's necks again, blah blah blah. On top of that, it's been a while since I drove a long distance, so horrible visions of car crashes were playing luridly in my head. Blah indeed.

I realized that I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles were white. It was really time for me to snap out of it. I turned off NPR and popped in my favorite Neko Case CD. That really did the trick. I was able to look around and realize that it was actually a gorgeous fall day and that driving four hours would allow me to have some time to myself, to think and reflect and meditate on the year ahead of me.

It was a lovely drive, and I was very grateful for my time alone in the Subaru. I arrived in Homer safe and sound yesterday afternoon, and had a lovely dinner with Mom and Dad. Today I had my teeth cleaned at my childhood dentist, dropped my car off at the mechanice for a NYS inspection, and then spent the afternoon tooling around downtown Cortland NY, the city of my childhood. I took lots of pictures, which I will post later as I simply cannot find the USB port on this computer here.

I spent the late afternoon and evening with two of my oldest and dearest friends, Matt and Weas. It was so awesome to see them and actually get some quality time in. Things are just so rushed these days. It's comforting, though, to know that after several months of only the briefest communication between us, we can still pick up right where we left off. Old friends really are the best. They have redone their living room and game room, and what a difference a little painting and floor treatments make! Plus they have the biggest garden/home food enterprises I've ever personally witnessed. Seriously, Weas has a whole chest freezer full of the stuff that she's canned from her garden. Matt is growing mushrooms, brewing his own beer and making his own cheese. They have a worm compost and a regular compost. They have a huge herb garden, a flower garden and a gigantic vegetable garden. Weas has to keep a dry-erase white board in their foyer to keep track of everything that she's canned and frozen. It's truly amazing. Of course all of this is on top of their full-time jobs, their myriad extracurricular activities, and Weas' illness. I'm truly in awe of my industrious and creative friends.

We ended the evening just the way I like it: with a riotous game of Hearts between me and my folks and a late-night ice cream run to Friendly's with Matt and Weas. Both Matt and I worked at that particular Friendly's when we were mere youths. We don't miss it.

Tomorrow: Mom's taking me shopping. Woohoo!