Back home? Or back from home?
Whichever the case, I’m back in London from my trip to Chicago, and with the strangest sense of the blues.
Don’t get me wrong: I love London. Even when it’s is gray and raining and I have to step over chicken bones and dog poop to get to the Fresh and Expensive to spend £1.49 on a few sprigs of thyme (organic, of course), even when the neighborhood drug addicts go ballistic across the street in the middle of the night (or get shot on the corner in a ‘gangland’ drive-by), even when it takes my future employer 8 years to complete a background check so I can start work because everything takes way longer than it should in this god-forsaken inefficient metropolis (my new start date is January 15th). Even though I complain sometimes, I do love London.
Don’t I?
I love London the way I love any big city: diversity, culture, old buildings, food, architecture, art, and a ceaseless supply of things to do. But it’s still a foreign place to me. My return flight was fine. The bus ride from the airport to the flat, tolerable. But when I got to the apartment, I felt suddenly overwhelmed. You know that feeling when you return from a vacation? You had a good time but once it’s over you’re glad to be home? I didn’t have that feeling when I got back to the flat, and that made me sad.
So I’ve been unpacking my bags, full of new stuff that I bought in the States at bargain prices compared to London. And old stuff, things I couldn’t fit in my suitcase on the first trip over.
New:
“Business” type attire for the new job that never starts
Canon Rebel XTi
“An Inconvenient Truth” on DVD
A binder filled with plastic inserts that will serve as a recipe book
Thermarest
Bike gloves
Loads of tea
Woolen Coat
Northface coat (two coats? i guess i went a little nuts)
A really sweet camoflauge hoodie with embroidery, scored for $10 at Nordstrom Rack
Aslo hiking boots
Indian “breath freshener” (fennel seeds and yummy candies)
Shampoo, face wash, tooth paste scored with steff’s 20% Whole Paycheck discount
A badass tattoo
Old:
Japan mugs from Marcella
Photo mobile
Stars and moon mobile
Random photos
Dark gray Lucky cargo pants, the most comfortable pants in the world
Robes
Red Kenneth Cole girly shoes (from their spring collection last year, uncomfortable only because I’m not used to high-heeled shoes, but cute as a button and handy for my soon-to-be suited-and-stylishly-booted self)
Stuff stuff and more stuff. So much stuff I can’t even remember it all because it’s been unpacked and put away (a minor miracle in itself, given our storage space). So much stuff, but I forgot to pack the comfort of home. Cheesy, impossible, but it’s how I feel at the moment.
So here I am in my London flat trying to make this “house a home”. Yesterday, Tim and I went to the library for an old familiar browse and checked out some CDs along with a book on “Time” and the graphic novel, “American Splendor” by Harvey Pekar. Later, we filled the flat with music and cooked a comfort meal of chili, polenta, and red wine, then played Scrabble with a timer, only 1-minute per turn! I still won. Today we mostly stayed in aside from a brief singularity of exercise and the aforementioned poop-laden thyme errand which ended in a big pot of lentil & chestnut soup. There’s nothing like a rich creamy soup and a nice baguette to help cure the blues.
The only thing better is a big spoon to eat it with.
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