Home, or not

More thoughts from our East Coast trip, although I promise no more talk of salmon skin: Several times during our travels, Judybat sighed longingly and talked about how at home she felt back in Westchester and thereabouts. The accents, the winding, tree-lined roads, the New England-style stone fences, the general sense of history dating back before, oh, 1950, the traffic jam on the Garden State Parkway. This is where she comes from, and where she wants to return to before we get old and gray.

Myself, I didn't exactly feel it. Which is odd, because I grew up not far from where she did, even the even more bucolic wilds of Connecticut. I know the accents, and the stone fences, and the bumper-to-bumper traffic with WCBS giving me the world for my 60 minutes. The New York skyline still gives me pangs, and I miss my people in the big city. But at the same time, I realized something this time around: The Tri State area stresses me out. Partly, being back there reminds me of junior high and high school, never a good thing. Partly, I don't know if I want life to be that difficult. Everything is easier here, except maybe going to see a Broadway show or an exceptional art exhibit. And with a 2-year-old in tow, how often are we going to do that? Simply going to see the new Star Wars is proving logistically difficult.

I'm not saying we're staying here long-term. Being close the in-laws and nearly everyone else we love is important to me. At the same time, heading east reminded me, for the first time, how very, very happy I am to be living where I am at the moment.

It doesn't hurt that it was 85 degrees and gorgeous today. With no humidity. Boy, was leaving North Carolina ever the right decision.