Sunday, May 27, 2007

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Moving back home is like slipping on your favorite pair of corduroys after unpacking them from summer storage on the first crisp day of autumn. (No, it would have to be something more tropical-feeling than that, because while it hasn’t been hot yet here in Texas, there’s nothing crisp about it.) It’s certainly comfortable, though. I hadn’t realized how alien my life was to me in Boston, when here it feels so natural. We shop at all the same grocery stores, hang out with all the same friends, run all the same errands we used to run, just as if we never left. The dogs are noticeably happier, and our cat is a brand new man, no longer hiding in the bathroom cabinet. He comes out and stirs up trouble just like the old days.

We’ve had rain for two weeks straight. In Boston, incessant rain was always a first-world-tragedy, bringing worries about delayed trains, slim footwear options, flimsy umbrella cursing. But here, rain gives me this odd feeling of relief and delight. I realized it is because here, rain means happy garden. However, I don’t really have a garden yet, so the feeling must be just an old, worn path in my ancient neural forest. The only one of those little thought reflexes I have left from Boston is when I see a quarter. I still want to snatch them up and secret them away greedily. But now, they’re just twenty-five cents, might as well be two dimes and a nickel. I’m no longer desperately hording them, counting them, meting them out with strategic care for laundry loads, vending machines, and bus fair. I could even buy a pack of fresh corn tortillas with them--ah heavenly delight to be back home again, home again.

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