Home sweet Homes

As Lacey continues to do what she does best, destroy the house, I sit down to write this long overdue post.  As usual, I feel like I have nothing and everything to say at the same time.

Let's start with where we've been.  Home.  Or one of the many places we refer to as "home"; the city that we've spent most of our lives in, the place that we rest our heads at night, the house that holds all of our belongings.  None of them feel complete.  Each duo is missing the third component.  We traveled 'home' to Louisville this summer and Gran gave us a wonderful 'home' to sleep, and eat, and shower, and rest, and play while we were there.  But, we began to miss all of our stuff, the things that surround you and make you feel like you.

Our first trip back was excellent.  First and foremost, thank you to everyone who welcomed us and invited us, and many others, into your homes to celebrate.  We did so many wonderful things, it's a task to recount them all.  But, believe me, I took alot of photos!  It was thrilling to see so many loved ones and hear your voices after 10 months of separation.  I know many of you were thrilled at seeing what 10 months did to the girls; they grew!  

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder".  This can certainly be said about the relationship I have with Louisville.  

Coming back, I wanted to see everything I had taken for granted before.  I became a hometown tourist.  We made trips to museums, got food from as many different restaurants as possible, strolled around downtown several times, stayed at the Galt House, hung out at 4th Street Live, hung out on Bardstown Road, and took in a show or two (I thought Kentucky Show! at the KY Center was excellent and, of course, Dora Live can't be beat). We had such fun and I discovered that, like a lot of the other most important relationships in my life, this move has only strengthened the one I have with Louisville.  

Now, as for Japan...

I started this post after I got home from walking Stella to her bus stop.  As we waited there, several Japanese women came out of their houses and started to sweep up the leaves that had fallen into the street in front of their homes the windy night before.  This is one of the nuances about Japan that I am fond of; the pride that is taken in the things that are theirs.  We used to have a tree in our front yard that snowed white cotton like stuff all over the place.  We never cleaned it up out of the streets or even our neighbor's yard.  Daily, you will see someone outside, with their old fashion brooms (something you'd imagine a witch riding) and their dust pans sweeping the streets or manicuring their neighborhood in some way.  I've seen groups of elderly women, wearing their mama-san aprons, gathered together to clean up a small patch of green space on a busy street.  Pride and community awareness.

This is not to say that it was easy to come back.  We had a surprisingly great journey back (used miles to upgrade to Business Class - Wow, what a different scene that was) and as we walked out into the airport and then outside of the airport, things seemed familiar, not crazy and foreign as they had the last time.   There are things I missed about Japan, yes, but you usually don't leave a loved one without some kind of heartache.  So, now we were back 'home' to the place where we are surrounded by all of our things and in our 'home' where we can rest our heads, but the third component is missing again, the city where we grew up.  My heart started to ache a little for Louisville.  The three earthquakes in four days didn't help the situation either.  But, we got past our jet lag and made a very fun trip to a very happnin' Zushi beach, a thing that reminded me of all the adventure that still awaits us.

Pictures on our Photo Journal site