There's no place like home

I just got back from a short vacation in Houston, my old stomping grounds. This is my excuse for taking such a long break from blogging. We were only there for a short while, but it was pure bliss. The only place like my home here in Cali is my home back in Texas. There's nothing like my mom's home cooking, sitting back and letting my mom spoil my kids with attention and food, catching up on the local goings-on, meeting up with old friends, and cruisin' the local scenes.

Do you ever notice how your relationships with old friends always seem to just pick up where they left off? I often wonder if I lived in the same city as all my friends, which ones I would really still stay friends with. We claim to choose our friends based upon having similar ideologies, but how much of our friendships are based upon convenience? With out-of-town friends you have to set aside time to hang out, since you don't get to see them everyday. But sometimes when you live in the same city, you just get too busy to make time for each other. Ironic, isn't it? I find it equally interesting that when we do get together with our old friends we inevitably wind up reminiscing for long hours about sweet memories we've shared together, instead of catching up on all the time we've missed while apart. How many times must we discuss the peeled shrimp at Dave & Shar's wedding back in '98, and replay the debaucherous evening afterwards at Abbey Pub?

It's amazing how much things change while you're away. Some things never change, though, such as the decor in my childhood bedroom, family routines and my baby bro. When I go back to Texas I usually spend a good deal of time at home. It's where I feel safest, because when I go out, there's a whole world that I hardly recognize. New shopping strip malls are constantly popping up all over the place. New housing developments are being built (and they're SO CHEAP - we're talking, 3000 sq. ft for a little over $200K!). New freeways are being constructed. New people are moving in or out down the street. New places to hang out and eat out are sprouting up and dying out all over town. Every time I go back and step outside my parents' home, it's as if I've time-traveled at warp speed into the future. By the way, don't plan any trips to Houston over the next few years. The whole dang city and each and every freeway is under construction, SIMULTANEOUSLY. Hello, planning! You work on ONE freeway and then move to the next. It's called traffic control.

Now that I'm back, there's so much to get ready for. While I was away, a good friend of ours had their baby. Congratulations, Julie and Leonard, who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, David. We have a lot more work to get done on our family room, several more tapings for reDesign, the start of my landscape design classes for the semester (which begin this week), the start of a ladies book club, a new dance class for Abby, and possibly a class for Sarah and me. Now that I'm back, bring it on!