Home Sweet ... Hmmmm

Finally a few much needed days off have arrived. I left work late today and went home to pack for well, home ... hmmm. As I packed up to leave my WDM crib and head to the LC for a few days I began to think about that pesky word home. For the last six years I feel as if I have been a nomad, never really settling down in one place. Even if you were to peek inside my room at 187 you would find two boxes full of photos and things in the corner behind my door, still waiting to be unpacked. Here's the breakdown of the last 6 years.

Summer '03 - MWL dorms
Spring '04 - Back to the LC
Summer '04 - Back to MWL dorms
Spring '05 - Gateway Park apartment
Summer '05 - Walnut St. apartment
Summer '06 - 1st Mortensen apartment
Spring '07 - Shoreview, MN
Early Summer '07 - Apple Valley, MN
Late Summer '07 - 2nd Mortensen apartment
Summer '08 - 187 townhome
Fall '09 - .....

So that's 10 places in 6 years, all the while my original "home" began to feel less and less like home.

So now I sit at my parents house, one they have called home since the day they were married almost 31 years ago. My original room now is full of objects that are not mine and a bed that I rarely sleep in even when I visit. The LC is a mile-long strip and now a quiet retreat for me, where my mom makes me goulash and we drive 45 minutes to get to the nearest Target. They live a life I have trouble understanding now that I am spoiled by convenience. They split a car and the grocery store doesn't even carry red peppers. Things are slower here, much slower. Two of my childhood best friends call this home, they are going to be sister-in-laws soon.

But what do I have? 187 is where I live, it is not my home, and come Fall we will be moving somewhere else, but that won't be home either. I really miss the feeling of being home, where I sat at the table to eat without the TV on, where I rode my bike literally around the perimeter of town 3 times in the matter of and hour or two and where I sat at the LCMP and ate candy for the Summer. But that is not home anymore, nor do I want it to be.

I can't wait to find home again, to settle into the life I have ahead of me. I guess for now home will have to be where my heart is, as cheesy as that sounds, sprinkled across Iowa and other parts of the US as my friends and family have now split and gone in opposite directions, each carrying a piece of me with them.