Boomerangs: a trip back home.

[101 in the shade.]

I don’t think you’ve had to read this blog very long to know I’m extremely over-sensitive. There’s a lot of feeling going on. So the move—as 100% fantastic, positive, and sunshiney as it was—bowled me over. I don’t care how ready you are to leave somewhere; it was once your home. As somewhat of a transient in my single days, I’m no stranger to not really knowing where ‘home’ is.

So going back to the cradle this past week—on the heels of being slingshotted back into my other hometown—was sort of giving my brain mental stretch marks. Apply the salve! But, of every pilgrimage I’ve made back to her sandy shores, this one was the most rewarding.

[Morning coffee.]

That’s the funny thing about life’s boomerangs: they come back, but you’ve got to be ready to catch the clunky bastards (and how!) or you might a. duck and miss it altogether or, b. lose an eye.

I actually had something really big come back to me this time around—a friend. Like, a living breathing friend. Can you believe that? Crazy boomerangs. Here I am up in/down in VA again reuniting with old friends left and right and making new ones, and I pop back to FL for a baby shower and BAM—where’d the last 10 years go?

Lately, life has been about standing in a catcher’s stance with full-body padding, waiting to stomach what life beans at me. I’m pretty sure up until recently, however, that was not so; cool and aloof is no way to hang on to the things you love. Not saying I’ve completely grasped that yet, but admitting it is the first step.

[Beach walk pep talk with dad + a Rum Runner post.]

[Spent 90% of the week here.]

[There was Cruiser’s sangria.]

[And there was dancing.]

I even got to see one of my Grannies. She was sweeter than ever, an unflappable, sunny sense of humor emanating from her wheelchair, even as she asked me where I was living 4, maybe 5, times. And if I had a beau yet. I always think I could learn from the way Granny checks her problems at the door; she’s just plain happy to see you.

Other items of interest: Mom and I whipped up a phenomenal batch of vichyssoise one day, talked about life a lot, watched The Outsiders, went shopping, and split a Cruiser’s burger while watching the leading edge of a monster storm roll north toward us, a bolt of lighting from which struck right next to the car and almost deafened my right ear. Do not roll down your window to photograph the sky under the leading edge; dumb. She even let me take a roadie in the car on the way to the mall—what a gal.

[A hazy farewell.]

FL, thank you for always being there. And in this instance, offering a little more than what I’m normally willing to glean from you… and all the inordinate amount of errors I made within your state lines.

Happy to be back with my Bobo’s, though—the human and the fur-covered.

-Carey