Homecoming

My brief stay in NoVA is already 1/3 of the way over. Since I lack both gainful employment and formal school-time, I have dedicated a good deal of time to seeing people. As I bop from place to place, I am discovering the sure signs of homecoming:

1) Talk of politics. My homecoming coincided with a beautiful example of Washington politics at their most agreeable. In addition to the glory of the debt deal, Republican candidates for the 2012 election are starting to pop up. These events keep me entertained as friends and family keep analyzing and offering opinions on them.

2) Highways. In NoVA, we gossip about our highways the way stereotypical small towns gossip about people. And with the new construction of HOT lanes on the beltway, I-495 provides endless conversation, and we are constantly looking for detours and other routes.

3) Fresh tomatoes. Nothing says summer at home like garden-ripe tomatoes pulled from the backyard to color a salad, or be eaten on their own. I tend to forget what real tomatoes taste like until I eat one from my father's garden.

4) Mosquitoes that eat me. Part and parcel with the garden, unfortunately. The only place on earth where mosquitoes genuinely like me is in the backyard garden, when I am picking those tomatoes that I love.

5) Starbucks. In general, I avoid chain coffee shops and try to find local places to satisfy the love of coffee shops I discovered with Ana in St. Louis. However, we have essentially no local places in my neck of the woods, and Starbucks provided a home for my particular subset of the high school youth group. I'm still friends with those two lovely ladies and whenever two or three of us are gathered, it happens at Starbucks.

6) Decaf tea. For some reason, I don't buy a lot of it on my own. But when I'm at home, I drink it like there's no tomorrow.

7) Friends and family. Really, it's people who make home. And while I'm missing a few specific individuals like mad, I have a blessed gathering of awesome people close to me!