Home

During a recent phone conversation with my sister, when I mentioned my hope that hopefully my husband and I will have some part of our lives rooted at 'home' within the next few years, my sister interrupted me, asking me where I think 'home' is.  "You've moved so many times, I just can't imagine where you feel like home is."  I was startled by the question; it's clear to me that I consider Minnesota home.  It made me wonder if what is in my head is not accurately conveyed to the outside world.

I wondered how she would define home, and it got me thinking about my own definition.  I felt a list forming in my head of specific descriptors and conditions, none of which are necessarily: "Home is where you live right now."

Lake Days and Horse Thieves

My husband and I are on a whirlwind trip to Minnesota.  We are out and about together, at home, and home feels amazing.  It makes me a little nervous to be here, because I just started feeling happy in Canada, and I'm worried about this upsetting the balance.  I wavered today, but a trip to the neighborhood bookstore helped.  Regardless, while I can't say that we are on vacation, because my husband has been working most of the time, I can say that I am on vacation and he has been stealing relaxing moments as often as possible.

Special Edition

Editor Note: This entry was written originally in 2007.

I'm still here. Not exactly here, not in Houma, but here, on the map. A flurry of activity…a move…an engagement…a vacation…a job search.

I'm here, back in St. Paul, and thrilled about it. It sounds funny when I just reviewed the last Houma Report and realized that the last time I wrote, we were on the New Orleans plan. Mostly the real estate market decided that one for us. If you have an empty house, common sense kind of dictates maybe you should live in it. Since we had that in St. Paul, and not in New Orleans, we went with that. And anyway, that has turned out to be a great thing.