Home sweet home for four glorious days. At times it felt like I'd never left, like I'd only been on a long vacation, an out-of-body experience, or sleeping for a few months. The only difference was that I don't have a bedroom anymore. The boarder sleeps there. But that was okay because in four short days I saw almost every single person that I love in this State.
Sunday began with a long drive and a flight. We flew down to Baltimore where I ran into one of the admissions counselors from my college (who happened to be on the same flight into Columbus) and then flew over to Columbus and picked up a rental car. It's a pretty nice car, a 2009 Hyundai Accent. Black. Nothing is automatic but the transmission. But a nice car, and good on gas mileage. We drove to the nearest restaurant where Neal got out of the driver's seat and I took over to take us into downtown to visit my sister and brother-in-law. Fifteen minutes later found us at North Market eating samosas and Jeni's ice cream and chatting it up with church friends of the newlyweds. An hour later, after a long chat, we took off for home and proceeded to get stuck in traffic due to a three car(well, one truck, one van and an RV) pileup. Traffic literally stopped and I actually put the car into park. Neal nearly got out to go ask the semi-truck driver what was going on. We called my family to tell them we'd be later than we had originally thought. Due to my visit we decided to have my little sister's 21st birthday celebration a week early. We did finally arrive, but it took half an hour longer than it should have. The remainder of the evening included really good food, friends visiting, and the birthday song sung in three part harmony.
It also, however, included a discussion of my parent's current health situation.
The growth that was removed from my mother's body last week was malignant. she has to go back in for testing to make sure the cancer hasn't spread anywhere else. They aren't worried as of yet because #1 there's a phenomenal prayer chain all across the nation for my family, #2 it's an extremely rare form of cancer and #3 the last case my mom's doctor came across was fifteen years ago and that woman had three different lumps removed and hasn't had a problem since. So I'm not that worried, but I will be a little until she goes for testing and we get the results.
After this conversation I went up to my sorority house to see the girls and chat and then came home to sleep.
Monday. I was awake early, since I sleep on the couch and half the house is up before 8. But I'm okay with that because it means I have more time in my day to do things, to talk to my mom, to get myself ready, to plan. I wrote in my journal on the front porch in the warm breeze and cried a little as I did so. Neal and I took off after some time with my mom and visited the preschool for a bit, where I reconnected with Tristan the troublemaker, and then walked all over town. We went for lunch at the coffee shop downtown where I ate chicken for the first time since Valentine's day and enjoyed it. We then walked the remainder of main street and headed up to the college where I gave him the tour of campus and my dad gave him the tour of the new football locker rooms. I took him all over campus, from one end to the other, and then up to Montgomery Hall to visit all my old coworkers and have a chat with each. I talked about how much I hate my job and that I really miss Ohio and the slowness of it and how much nicer people are here than they are on the East Coast. Stories were told, plans were made, and then I went to choir. My good friend Dorothy, whom I haven't seen in months because she spent last year in Spain, came running up to me and gave me a big hug and we talked for a bit. When she started talking just to Neal I excused myself and headed up front to see Adam. While I talked to Adam, Danielle ran up and tackled me. More plans were made until Bob yelled at everyone to get on stage and then Neal and I sat, listened to them warm up and start to practice, and then we left to go visit the Business Office, which we originally missed because of not enough time before choir. After all this we finally went back to the house to chill with my mom and watch some old videos before going out to eat at Theo's restaurant with Jennie and Anne.
Tuesday. Up later than Monday due to staying up late chatting on instant messenger with Kenny about all kinds of things, especially how I was going to be in Cincinnati and then how he was going to Chicago and the stuff he wanted to do there. My mom cooked eggs for herself and Neal and we sat and talked for awhile just chilling out until Neal and I left to go pick up Adam and his friend Jake to go eat at the Chinese Buffet. This was good and also great fun and the fortunes were totally lame. We came back relatively soon in time to play Scrabble with my mom and her friend Susan. Since Neal and I play Scrabble on a regular basis with his mom we've gotten pretty good, but my mom beat us all and I, who usually wins against Neal, lost, go figure. But it was fun, and we had a good time until afterwards when Susan began asking about my job and my life in Connecticut. I, being a female who has been under severe stress for months now and holding it all in, cried as I talked about it and Susan sympathized and gave advice, as she usually does, and at the end of it all she and my mom prayed for me. Neal disappeared somewhere in the midst of the crying. Mom volunteered me to drive Susan home (she'd been dropped at the house by her husband in their one car) and when I went to tell Neal where I was going he told me that I need to get out of Connecticut and that he was okay with me leaving if it would make me happy. And that has become my plan. I will move back to the midwest before Thanksgiving whether I find a new job or not. I'll work two part-times if I have to. I came back, changed my clothes, washed up and fixed my makeup, and then Neal and I left for Cincinnati to visit Jessie. This was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to, seeing my best friend for the first time in months, even though it was only for an hour or so. We met up at a Buffalo Wild Wings that I'd found relatively close to the interstate and I ate chicken, yet again, and we just sat and talked about whatever. Of course food doesn't last that long so once everything was consumed we went to the rental car and took a drive to a park-looking thing down the street to walk around for a bit. It seems, though, that we brought CT weather with us because once we got here it got very cold and rainy so the jaunt around the park-like area, which turned out to be a high school, was kind of chilly. The visit was too short, but I'll see her again soon enough and we text all the time so it's not like we aren't in contact. We got home relatively early and watched Iron Man. Rather, Neal watched Iron Man and I got tired and went to bed early.
Wednesday. On Monday my friend Beth and I had made plans to meet up at the coffee shop on Wednesday morning to catch up, so Wednesday morning found me with crazy curly hair walking downtown for cider and scones. Beth hadn't arrived yet when I got there, but I found two women from my parent's church and sat down to talk to them for a bit. One understands my Verizon Wireless call center pain because she managed a call center until the stress kept her from sleeping and she quit. So as I talked she nodded and completely agreed with me. I've decided she'll help me on my book about what it's like to work in a place like that, kind of like The Nanny Diaries only not. Being home and seeing all these people and how happy we all are to see each other and catch up really is refreshing and definitely a stress reliever for me. Neal can see the difference. Anyway, Beth arrived shortly after and we sat down to talk and eat and we talked about life and friends and weddings and babies and anything else to can imagine. What helps me is that after listening to me talk about the life I have in CT they all are unanimous in saying that I need to leave that place. It's not healthy for me. The only person who doesn't know about this decision is my Dad, but he'll know soon enough if Mom hasn't already told him. Anyway, Beth and I talked for two hours and then split because she had to get ready for work and I needed to get home so Neal wouldn't be all alone. Though I didn't need to worry about that, since he had just woken up when I arrived. My mom was on the phone but the moment she was off she called me upstairs to tell me that my Aunt had a good idea. She and my Uncle own a heating and cooling company and are part of this bigger company called Nexstar. She has decided that, based on my experience and personality, I would make a wonderful dispatcher for a heating and cooling or plumbing company and directed me to the website and told me that if I'm interested to email her my resume when I'm back in CT and she'd post it where all the different company's owners would see it and maybe, just maybe, I'd get a job back in the midwest. I was ecstatic, and of course I said yes. In between the phone calls to and from her Neal and I went to the preschool again and then home to eat some food and relax a little. The end of the day plan included driving to Marietta to visit with Josh and his girlfriend Chelsea and then to Byesville to see the Hendersons. The Marietta thing went well considering it was ex-boyfriend and girlfriend with new boyfriend and girlfriend having dinner together like a double date. It was nice because Chelsea and Neal have no problem getting a conversation going so there was very little awkward silences and dinner went well... until Chelsea choked on her baked potato. I hear a weird noise and see Josh reach for her and look to see yellow gunk on her face under her nose, like something had come up her nose, and she went to blow it when her mouth opened wide and she sounded like she was going to throw up. Josh let her out and she ran off to the bathroom only to come back minutes later jumping up and down motioning that she can't breathe. Josh calmly got up and gave her the Heimlich until she could breathe again, and the moment she could she said "Oh, that was embarrassing" and ran off to the bathroom again. Josh told us that she tends to have little accidents like that, like how she fell flat on her face on the sidewalk on their very first date. When she came back she hunched over in her seat obviously wishing to be invisible and we left soon after. Quite the event, and I feel kind of bad because that incident is what I'll remember most from that occasion.
We got back waaay to early. June wasn't due back from Canada until 7:30 and we were back in Cambridge by 6:45 so we went to Petland to play with puppies until I got her phone call. Since June and I haven't really been close since our freshman year of college due to a whole host of reasons I was expecting a short visit. Instead we walked in and said Hey and introduced Neal and I hugged Bill and we stood in the doorway talking. It used to be that she seemed very politely interested in what I would say and it would be a very one-sided conversation. Instead we ended up sitting down and Neal sat over on a chair by himself and eventually picked up a book because june and I were talking to each other and not really to him. We moved downstairs to show and a really old, semi-embarrassing video from when June and I were nine years old and then June and I continued to talk while Neal and Bill discussed video games. June and I covered a good two years of time and she apologized for being such a jerk for all this time. We had a conversation that was like it used to be once upon a time, and I loved it. I'd missed things being normal with her, and somewhere between me moving and me coming back to visit she suddenly reevaluated her emotions and why she wasn't really my friend anymore and decided it wasn't worth it for things to continue that way. Neal and I didn't leave until 11:30.
Now it's 12:54am Thursday morning. We leave today to go back to CT where I will immediately send my resume to my aunt and hope and pray for the best, find out what I need to do to put in a two weeks notice at Verizon, begin talking to my apartment manager about leaving, and save money like a fiend.
Don't worry, Ohio. I'll be back.
