I'll admit it, I love my hometown.

Just to calm your worries that I've gone off the deep end, I'm actually doing okay and appreciating literally where I am...

Yesterday we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday.  In short, she is an amazing lady.  I'm very fortunate that she's my mom and my friend (and so far a great roommate, too).

I was so excited to give her the present I got for her, that I gave it to her before I left for work (which was my first day!), versus at dinner.  Hopefully she'll get some great use and joy out of the sailing membership I got her!  She hasn't been sailing is some 30 years, but used to love it and teach it at a summer camp off the coast.

We ate at this nice restaurant attached to the mall (that has been redone a couple of times since I was a kid) which had outdoor seating, delicious food, and even better wine.  Oh, the wine.

Buzzed, we decided to walk through the mall to sober up and look for shoes for work/fun/summer.  I landed a pair of Michael Kors shoes that I'm now obsessed with enough I'd like to wear them around the house.

We had some fun playing around with hats and sunglasses that looked hilarious on us in Nordstrom, and laughed until our stomach muscles burned. Gotta love wine.  "Everyone can look like Julia Roberts dahling".  I was worried we might get kicked out.  Haha, well maybe you had to be there.

Last night was one of those summer nights where you can't tell if it's cool or not because it's a bit humid.  On my drive home after our buzzes wore off, things were quiet and still...except for my Civic.  Windows down, music blasting and my arm windsurfing as I drove through the tree lined streets of my hometown.

I flashed back to amazing memories of high school.


Walking through the halls of our school, being a part of the 420 or so of us that made up our class, bonfires, nights at the hut and tressel,  football games, the excitement of liking someone new, school dances, sports, my teams, being so sore at field hockey camp you couldn't walk up the stairs to your room, laughing, the same lunch table every day, driving around in a caravan of cars looking for something to do, 24 hour BK, decorating friends cars with cones from road construction, sledding down the aqueduct, ice cream cake police fake outs, parties - so many parties (keep your eyes open for a post about parties, soon), knowing where you can park your car and be near invisible to do whatever, knowing where you need to avoid parking your car, early release days walking to get pizza, not having a worry in the world but feeling like everything was the biggest deal, the video store I worked at, sneaking out the window at night (mom, you already know about this), crushes on my friends' older siblings and their friends, tackle football nights, getting into trouble for acting your age, not getting into trouble for things you should have...

This large town, which is very diverse in all senses (race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, nation of origin, occupations, life path's, etc), has provided me with a wonderful community to be brought up in.  There are parts of it that are beautiful and green, which I've appreciated so much more now that I had lived in the city for so long, there are parts that are city-like, there are parts you shouldn't go after dusk, and there are parts where when you drive by you can't help remember the good ol' days.

Last night, I became overcome by thankfulness that this is where I grew up and even more profoundly, that the closest friends in my life were given to me in the simplest of circumstances.  I posted a status on facebook that was similar to this posts sentiment, and several people commented and liked it, so I figured I might as well share it here.

What's more heart warming than the beauty of parts of the town, is the people that fill it or used to fill it, and have been wonderful parts of my life.

This past year alone there have been a number of deaths that have shaken our community. Every time a large part of my class gets together to support the loved ones, we always say that we have to stop meeting like this....and it's true.  We need to start having happy occasions bringing us together.  Hopefully I can round everyone up for our reunion next year at the very least.

We've been very fortunate, however, that our class has stayed so close.

In high school, like all high schools, we had our groups.  Those groups from what I can tell have stayed in tact for the most part, with some overlapping and branching out.

Very few of us went really far away and stayed there.  Most have ended up back in our town or in the city 22 miles away, and still hang out with our close friends from home.

My college friends, my work friends from my advertising days, and even my grad school friends, didn't often identify with still being very close with those from home.  Of course people still had friends from their own childhoods, but most of their friends were from college or after.  I'd say 90% of my large friend circle (I feel blessed by the amount of people I can call my good friends, not just on Facebook) is all from pre-school through high school.

I wonder if this is a unique phenomenon for our community since it's so large that our bonds had to be really strong? Or since we had some adversity and loss in high school days and since, that we're all 'in this together'?...I don't know what it is, but I like it that aspect of my community.

We've all changed a great deal since high school, but it's like we've all grown together since then.  Given the recent get-togethers (though seemingly for terrible reasons) I think I've noticed that there are people that I wasn't very close with in high school that I could see myself enjoying being closer friends with now.

At the risk of sounding like a townie (it's always said so negatively, but frankly in this town it's just recognizing a good thing, in my opinion)...I'll admit it, I love my hometown.

As I settle into this town again for these next few months or so, I'm looking forward to spending some time in my old stomping grounds, seeing some of the people that are here still, seeing people when they visit their families, and appreciating the trees.  So let me know when you're in town.

I'm definitely missing the city, but feeling a bit more relaxed about the whole thing now that the move is over.

...and hey, one of the best benefits of the suburbs? I can wear heels to and from work without commuter flats, because I'm in the car versus walking.  At this point I'll take it.

Until next time,
Hometown girl, E