Southbound

For me - as a military brat - I knew I had found a home whenever I was sad to leave one particular duty station or another.

For me - as an adult with no real "hometown" but rather numerous memories of home in a variety of towns - I knew I had finally found the home when my plane took off from La Guardia, and I realized I was sad to be leaving even for just a few days.

I am at my parents' house tonight in scenic Western North Carolina and happy to be here for the Thanksgiving holiday. But the sky seems strangely open, the streets seem oddly dark and the world seems very quiet. I didn't expect to feel such a drastic change within less than four months of urban dwelling among the highrises of the concrete jungle. It's not an uncomfortable change, just more different than I thought it would be.

Thomas Wolfe once said that "one belongs to [New York City] as much in five minutes as in five years." To quote Mr. Big, a character on Sex & the City, my response would have to be his trademark reply: "Abso-f***ing-lutely."