Who Says You Can't Go Home?

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to." -- John Ed Pearce

My mom got really upset Sunday morning when I said I needed to get home. She informed me that this (this being my parent's house) was my home.

Sorry Mom, but for the first time ever, it's not.

I have my own home now. I pay rent and utilities. I clean and decorate. I sleep in my bed and sit on my couch and unload my dishwasher and check my mail. My home is in Baltimore now.

But, that's not to say I don't still consider Darien home. I do. And when people ask me what I did this weekend, I tell them I went home.

So I guess I have two homes -- and that's okay. It's a good thing to feel like you belong in two distinct places.

So I went home to Darien for the weekend, and it was nice. I got to see Coach and Burt, who was back on leave from Kuwait for two weeks and Kimmy and some of the volleyball girls. I got to go to the boys' volleyball practice, which was a trip. It was a little strange to see a gym full of boys running through the drills that gyms full of girls have been running through for 25 seasons. Boys definitely function a lot differently than girls when it comes to athletics. But it was nice to be able to stop by the gym and help out again -- I miss coaching, and part of me wishes I was still in Darien so I could help with the boys' season. I even got to play a little bit for the first time since I broke my hand.

I got to see Kevin and Erik and everybody at Fitness Together, which was really great. I forgot how much I missed joking around with those two -- and they just love to harass me. We just hung out for like an hour and a half, catching up, making fun of each other. It's cool to know that they're still supporting me, even though I'm not their client anymore. They think I should do a triathalon, and you know what, I'm considering it. I think I could do it. Probably not fast, but I think I could finish.

I actually didn't see much of my parents -- my mom was working all day Friday and Saturday and my Dad was painting the kitchen cabinets and chauffeuring Brian to lacrosse. But we all went out to dinner Saturday night, and that was nice. I missed Meghan and Mark though -- my family has a completely different dynamic when all six of us are together.

So it was good -- the driving kind of sucked, but I got some extra sleep and some quality time with the dog. And there's just something about shopping or running errands when you know all the back roads and all the best places to park like the back of your hand. I don't have that in Baltimore yet, but I'm getting there.

Home is always somewhere I'll go back to. My family and my friends and my history are all rooted in that little town in Fairfield County, no matter how disfunctional it can be at times.

But home is my apartment with Matt in Mt. Washington too, and our friends and the city. And I think I'm starting to put some roots down here.

So, you can go home. And you can leave home to go home, too.