Home Sweet Home….

Just got back Saturday evening after spending a little over a week in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Actually, I’ll take everyone’s word for it that it’s beautiful, because I didn’t see much of nature due to spending most of our time in the city. However, I did manage to catch a glimpse of Mt. Ranier after accidentally driving in the wrong direction away from the Arboretum (which is where we were headed). I told my husband, “I think you were meant to do that so we could see the mountain. We definitely wouldn’t have seen it from the other direction.” We also saw it, and its sisters as we flew over them on our way out of Seattle.

Anyway, it was back to good ‘ole Home Sweet Home. As usual, it was bittersweet. Although I very much enjoyed my one week holiday, part of me was definitely ready to come home. The other part of me (the adventure loving/shopaholic/shutterbug side) hated coming home to Hilliard, which isn’t exactly known for its plethora of culture or nightlife. For that, we usually go downtown to some place like Short North which has a gallery hop every month and no shortage of quirky shops and galleries to browse away the afternoon.

As a sort of “Material Girl,” one of the best things about being home is being surrounded by ‘my things’ again. Of course it’s also nice to get away from all that baggage and live a minimalist life out of a suitcase for a little while. I am always envious of people in movies and on television who can pack up all their life’s possessions in just one or two suitcases and be done with it. My book collection alone would take up more than that! I am slowly trying to “lighten my load” of possessions, but find it difficult not to acquire more. Thankfully my husband tolerates me and my collections.

Another reason I am glad to be home is more control over the menu. Although I very much like eating out and getting out of the kitchen, I found myself craving simple comfort food after just a couple days, and often dreaded deciding where we were going to eat dinner. The best meal we had was brunch on the Space Needle. I’m not just saying that because it was our most expensive meal. It really did taste outstanding.

The worst meal I had was at a Chinese restaurant where every type of food had its own page, so there was certainly no lack of selection. I just chose wrong and ended up with a plate full of mushrooms, celery, water chestnuts, and just a small amount of chicken and tiny pieces of peanuts. It was very bland and I just ended up picking out the chicken and leaving the rest, which is something I don’t normally do, but was a little fed up with my selection.

Probably the biggest reason I was glad to be home was to see our kitty again! Poor little Tamsin was at the kennel all week probably pining for us every day. We certainly thought about her quite a lot – especially after meeting the “Cat Whisperer” at the Pike Market in Seattle. He had two cats sitting on a little platform of sorts. Of course, being cats, neither really wanted to stay very still, so he took turns carrying them over his shoulder, much like a mother does with her baby. One of the cats was a tabby, like our very own precious “baby,” while the other was one of those 6-toed cats like Hemingway used to have. I made a small donation and he let me take photos to my heart’s content.

Now I just have all that unpacking to do…