Coming Home

I like to travel. Especially places I’ve been before. There is always more to discover in a different town. The first trip is like a blind date. You’ve heard one of two things from other people about the town. Either “You’ll love it!” or “It has its charms.” Both are totally misleading and you never know what you are going to get. It’ll either be a great dinner and days of fun, or a stinking T-shirt.

But probably my favorite part of traveling is coming home. It is the usually stuff: the comfortable bed, the kitties, a stocked fridge where a soda doesn’t cost a billion dollars. But the fun part is seeing what has changed in your hometown. Sometimes – not much. But usually there is something new too see.

Traveling in the spring and summer means that you come home to a garden that has too many weeds but something new has bloomed. The grass needs cutting and it’s always fun to see how far the neighbor has started moving into our lawn to cut the grass.

Winter usually means one of two things. Either it has snowed or the snow has melted. If there is snow, you can tell how many neighbors have used your driveway to turn around in. For whatever reason, this irks me. (Trust me, I’m covered with buttons.) I hate the ice that builds up in an unscraped driveway.

This time, coming home meant a thousand new fall colors. When we left, there was still a lot of green in the trees. On the drive to work today, it was like someone tweaked the colors in photoshop. The temperature dropped too. Granted, it wasn’t really warm when we left, but the high was in the lower 40’s when I left the house this morning. I think Max got bigger too. Now, he’s almost a full grown cat! He discovered a green mousey somewhere in the house and has decided this is the new favorite toy. He plays fetch with it!

But the best chance since we’ve been gone is that they resurfaced the road leading out of our neighborhood! We can drive on the road at speed and not have to worry about the potholes ripping the bottom out of the car. At first, we didn’t believe it when we were driving home. It was late and we were tired. But the further we drove, the more excited we got! It’s not completely new, but the worst parts have been resurfaced.

But one thing remains the same here in the Great White North: deer. We were greeted by two deer as we came into the neighborhood. We saw them in time, but I would like to come home one time and not see the garden-munching pests.

Another exciting thing at home – the first fire of the winter season!

Tutto da solo

We’ll, I’ve successfully survived a day all alone in Italy.

Jim went home to Okemos for a few weeks. Turns out he has this thing called a “JOB” and they want him to do some “WORK”. The nerve.

S’ok. I understand. Students need to defend a PhD, seminars need to be given to impress those program officers and grants need to be written. I’m so stinking jealous though, and not for the reasons that you think. I’m learning to live without ice. Italian TV is just making me study Italian harder. I’ve learned to cope with the shower. (There’s a really funny story that goes along with this, but I don’t want you all to think I’m gross or weird or anything like that.)

THIS is why I’m jealous:

Headbumps from the Missy! (Who is that dork in the upper left corner though? Gah, I’m so not photogenic!!)

Although, I don’t miss this next one all that much:

I call it “Cat Drooling on Desk”. She can’t help it!! She gets so excited that she drools as she purrs. (You can see from my expression – ACK!) But the good news? She wasn’t sitting on my desk. That’s Jim’s desk!!

Ahh… The wonders of iChat. It is very nice – no extra charges for the phone, but the time difference is going to be hard to work out.

I haven’t had time to get lonely. The past two nights I’ve spent reading theses and editing and preparing posters for the ACS meeting. I read three full theses yesternight. They were all very good and interesting, but man I wish I didn’t have to do it all in one day! Then pretty much all day today (even the time at work), I spent working on ACS posters. Four of my students are presenting posters at the American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans on Sunday. Jim is also heading to the meeting, so I’ll have him check up on them… He he he he!!

On a good note – I got another care package from home!! And what was in this package you ask?

Notecards on a ring. WOO HOO!! A lot of you asked if you could send me notecards and I said no. Just to explain, I didn’t ask for these cards. Lizzy just sent them to me out of the blue. Along with a mixed CD (NEW MUSIC!!) and a pretty notepad. Ahhh… Stuff from home. YOU LOVE ME! YOU REALLY LOVE ME! (Jim Carrey reference from the Mask, just in case you were wondering.)

She was all upset that they took so long to get here, but I think they arrived on just the perfect day. Thanks Lizzy!

Nurseries make me homesick…

And NO, not the kind that you are thinking of!

We went to Lucca yesterday, a small town northeast of Pisa. It was a 1.5 hour train ride to get there. The weather was GORGEOUS, highs in the upper sixties and not a cloud in the sky. Quite a difference from every other train ride we have taken so far!

On the train ride down, we passed plant nursery after plant nursery. (See I told you it wasn’t that kind of nursery!) There were rows of plants outside, just waiting. While we were in Lucca, there was a plant fair going on. Thankfully you had to pay an entry fee, so we walked along outside. If it had been free, I would have somehow convinced myself that our tiny, basically windowless little apartment could support a few spring plants!

The trees are starting to bud out and flower and the early plants like irises and the azaleas are in full bloom right now. The weather is doing that weird spring thing that the forecasters hate. One day 65F feels warm, the next day cold. It could rain or it could snow and no one would be surprised.

About this time in MI, I start getting itchy palms, wondering if spring is ever going to show up. I start visiting Home Depot and Van Atta’s, just looking at the flowers, wondering, wondering, wondering if I can put a few out now or do I do the smart thing and wait some more. I’m usually already outside everyday for a few minutes, walking around the yard, checking out the damage that winter (and the deer) have wrought on the yard. Have the crocuses starting peeking out of the ground yet?

I didn’t pull the gladioli bulbs this year. Because we would be gone, they wouldn’t get back in the ground come spring. However they are in a bed under the air vent of the hot water heater. Hopefully this kept the ground just warm enough for them to survive. It would be nice to come back in late June to a flower bed full of plants, getting ready to bloom!

Ah well, less than 90 days until my flight back. Not that I’m counting, really. I’ve just had to wait until less than 90 days before my flight to pick my seats on the airplane. Northwest (crappy airline that it is) has been keeping a running total for me!