There's no place like home....

Recently I went back to Florida for a work trip. I adore my job and happened to be really looking forward to a return trip. I wanted to see all my work buddies, my family and my cropping friends that I hadn't seen in months. Even though it was a working trip, there was time scheduled for fun with friends and family. Originally I had planned on just going down for the few days I needed to be there, but when The Doodle had a guest teacher coming in, I was easily convinced to stay an extra few days so I could take some classes. When I told Charles that I was going to be gone for a whole week he was pretty sad. I was sad too, but I did have all those folks down there to keep me entertained.
When I was packing I was really excited to be packing shorts. I was gonna get to have some nice warm weather again for awhile. I didn't pack one sweater and never once thought about layering!
It was a whirlwind from the moment I spied Henry in his Indiana Jones hat waiting for me by baggage claim at TIA. After dinner at Pei Wei, Dianne, my lovely hostess, took me to her house on Snell Isle in St. Petersburg. We were unloading my luggage and I looked up at the night sky. In PA there is a blanket of stars at night and I was just checking to see how many stars I could see. Not any. But I did see a very familiar sight-palm trees. This evening there happened to be a soft breeze blowing from Tampa Bay and those palm trees were swaying and making that rustling sound the fronds make as they move against each other. I thought, "This is home to me." But in my heart there was a slight disconnect with that thought. I am a 4th generation Floridian and the "homeland" has always been special to me, but through the entire week every familiar spot we passed, every favorite restaurant we ate at or local joint we visited there seemed to be a foreign feel. Because I was kept super busy there was no real time to think about it. But when I was flying home it hit me... It is a fact that I miss my friends and family bunches! Bunches of bunches! But sitting on that tiny prop plane headed back to Elmira I realized that for me, home is not the place where I grew up. Home is not the places where we created so many memories. Home is not even the place I keep all my crap in! Home for me is the man I chose to spend the rest of my life with. My sweet, crazy, exasperating husband, Charles. It doesn't matter what state we live in. What kind of door we put our key in. Or even the crazy amounts of snow that are gonna be dumped on us shortly! All that matters is that he is there! I felt so happy when I landed and couldn't wait to get home!