You Can't Go Home Again

Well, you can go home again. I mean, it's entirely possible to get in a car or on a plane and transport yourself to the geographic setting of your childhood. I think Thomas Wolfe though, meant that our childhood homes don't feel the same to us as adults that they did when we were young. 

I've been staying with my parents over the holidays in the house we moved into when I was sixteen. It started as a small lake cottage, morphed into an awkward ranch home, and when my parents' decided to make it our home, it was a mess. They've made it cozy and uniquely theirs (I call they're decorating style neo-cottage). This house is definitely home for them but it's not home for me. 

Before this place we lived in a little ranch house while I was in middle school and the first part of high school and before that we lived in the house where I was a kid: the hundred-year-old bungalow about which I could wax poetic all day. So, my idea of home can't really be one place. I have, in fact, never been back to my childhood home. That would be trespassing. "Home" for me is a series of places. It's the dollar theater on the square in Independence. It's my grandparents house in northern Michigan. It's the lobbies of every ice rink in the tri-state area. It's the suburban roads on which I learned to drive.

One of the ways I know that I cannot truly go home again is that I don't feel absolute freedom driving down Colburn Road with music blaring (then and now: Weezer). Tonight, driving back to my parents' house I found myself thinking about job prospects, putting a garden in our backyard in Indiana and what groceries we'll need when we head back at the end of the week. While I get dreamy and nostalgic remembering what it was like to be a teenager in this town, I don't miss it. I don't yearn for it. I...appreciate it. It's where, to use a terribly clinical term, my formative years happened and those will always be wonderful (if sometimes really awkward) memories. This is my long-winded way of saying that I know I can't go home again and I'm cool with that.

Ozark Foodies?

Has anyone else noticed how awesome Midwestern grocery stores are now? Perhaps grocery store isles in the rest of the country have always been great or maybe they're still drab. In any case, I've noticed something.

Whether it's because of the internet or documentaries like Food, Inc. and Forks Over Knives, general human development or the coming apocalypse, there is much more variety in grocery stores than a few years ago. When I was in high school (scary that that was 10 years ago) you would not have been able to find quinoa or farro in our neighborhood grocery store. They're not even recognized as words by my spellchecker. Produce sections have exploded with wide selections of greens and multiple varieties of mushrooms. Malcolm Gladwell might convince you it started with mustard. Whatever the reason, there is more choice in grocery stores than ever before.

I wasn't surprised when I saw these changes in the Indiana college town where I live or in the upper-middle class suburb of Kansas City where my parents live. Recently though, Boyfriend and I took a trip to the Ozarks to spend a few days with his family. We planned to make breakfast for the crew one morning and so needed to stop by a grocery store on our way. He assured me that there was a store about a half hour from his parents' house in the heart of the Ozarks. We only needed a few things: eggs, cheese, breakfast sausage, so I figured a roadside grocery store in rural Missouri would do the trick. Little did I know we were going to the new Woods. If you travel in the Ozarks frequently you might know that Woods was your basic grocery store in Sunrise Beach (staple food items, generic beer) but has recently moved down the road and made some major changes. There, in the middle of the Ozarks, (This place is the home of rustic lake homes, party boats and raunchily named bars) one can buy fresh asparagus, craft beer or a Naked smoothie.

It's up to you to decide if this is progress or sad homogenization. I, for one, probably won't complain too much about being able to pick up turkey sausage or Havarti for summer weekends at the lake. 

Thanksgiving

Holiday travel season is quickly approaching! Actually, in our house it's more like Get-all-the-projects-and-papers-done-so-we-can-enjoy-the-holidays time. It's a mouthful. On our docket this year: Kansas City and Springfield, MO with a stop in Columbia for Thanksgiving, a nice long Christmas in KC and back to Indiana to move into our new house just after the new year!

Last year, Boyfriend braved Michigan with me and my extended family. It was fantastic. We ate too much, stayed up late making stupid jokes and it snowed! This year it's my turn to tag along for his family's festivities. We're headed to southern Missouri for Thanksgiving day. Boyfriend has a bunch of family there and we'll all be getting together for too much food and carrying on.

We might head back to Kansas City in time to see the Plaza lighting, which, for non-Kansas City residents is the city's official holiday season kick-off. The Plaza is a beautiful shopping district with Spanish architecture and high-end stores. On Thanksgiving night, hundreds, maybe thousands of Kansas Citians buddle up and mill about until a local celebrity flips the switch and row after row of lights outline the Plaza's buildings. It's one of those simple, pretty holiday moments.

The other side of Eric's family will get together on Saturday where the eating and carrying on will continue! Sadly, Sunday it'll be back to Indiana to kick into high gear and finish out the semester. Whew.

I've had a lot of picture-less posts lately. Allow me to remedy that. Here are some randoms I found on my computer. If you just can't get enough, I'm also on Instagram, Feel free to follow along, I'm pinsinthemap.

We made a feast a couple years ago...for two of us. It was awesome.

Boyfriend and I grinning excessively into my phone

Getting excited about the holidays? Trying not to think about it?

To the Ozarks!

This is one of a series of posts that mysteriously reverted to draft form. They were actually posted quite a while ago but they're here for now. Sorry about the craziness!


Boyfriend's parents have a place in the Ozarks in southern Missouri. It's the place where his family congregates several times a year for catching up, overeating, incredibly competitive Monopoly games and the kind of relaxed weekends I thought only existed in movies and on Sandals commercials.

For those unfamiliar with this part of the country, picture hills, not so much rolling as tripping over each other and doubling back, weeds that when left untamed turn into trees and a beautiful, humongous lake smack in the middle of everything. It is as beautiful as it is strange.

The Ozarks is also one of those places with massive resorts and fancy condos just miles down the road from fairly serious poverty. It is, in that way, just like the rest of the state. The wonderful thing about going to the lake is you can do just about anything. Lazy float trip down a cute, little river? Got it. Crazy tubing on the busy lake? Check. Napping on the dock? Yep. Eating round the clock? Of course! This is summer vacation, isn't it?

We headed down for the 4th of July. Arley came with us. She wouldn't miss the opportunity to sit on a dozen different laps in a weekend. She lives for that kind of thing.

Well, the dog got what she came for and so did we. The weekend was a blur of tanlines, food and sleeping in. Vacation success! I'm not getting any better remembering to take pictures...use your imaginations if you want to see me lazy and sunburnt.  

March honey, back off on the lion, little more lamb

I don't consider my corner of Indiana to be the Great White North. I have family from Michigan, they would not allow such misrepresentation. What's more, my parents live in Kansas City which has been all but completely buried in snow over the last couple weeks. So I don't have it all that bad. But no matter the severity of the winter, cabin fever sets in and the occasional weekend adventure staves off the Shining-level crazy. So, this weekend Boyfriend and I headed to...

.....Columbia, Missouri!

...for a documentary film festival!

...where we saw exclusively political films!

First, I'm not kidding and second, it was a fantastic time. I see, though, that you're going to need some convincing. Fine. Let me start by saying that we had a bunch of family in town (my parents and uncles, Boyfriend's parents, aunt and uncle) and with these people we could have congregated at a rest area in the middle of nowhere and had a blast. Luckily we were not in the middle of nowhere and therefore could eat ourselves silly. Cafe Berlin has vegetarian biscuits and gravy that I would happily choose over a real sausage version any day of the week. 

The reason we'd all come to Columbia though was for True/False, a documentary film festival in its tenth year. There are dozens of movies to see over the course of a long weekend. Serious, funny, sad, Sundance alums and premier showings. We chose a package this year that allowed us to pick three of the more major offerings. All of our movies were political in nature yet distinct from each other. What I thought would be a heavy, dry series of facts and talking heads was actually very engaging.

The first movie we saw was No, a dramatic interpretation of the advertisers who devised the 1988 political campaigns which contributed to the downfall of Augusto Pinochet. I was a Communications major in college and am usually fascinated by the world of professional advertising (although I've given Mad Men a couple tries and it's never stuck for whatever reason). The movie uses real footage from those TV campaigns and the rest of the movie was shot to match those clips- kind of an Instagram treatment for film as a producer said afterward at the Q&A (a perk of True/False, staying after to hear the people responsible talk about their work). 

Our second choice was Manhunt which, as far as I understand, is the real information behind Zero Dark Thirty. It was really interesting to see the whole process of searching for a terrorist explained. There are a lot of people who dedicate the better parts of their careers to learning everything they can about one guy half way around the world. The final movie we saw was Dirty Wars which was disturbing and educational, disheartening and eye-opening. It addresses night raids and secret missions by the military in the Middle East. As the credits rolled one part of me wanted to cry while another part wanted to run into the street screaming. There are so many destructive, immoral things happening every day that are kept so well hidden. Those films certainly made my day-to-day dilemmas seem laughable.

This certainly wasn't the most uplifted I've been by True/False. A few years ago I saw a great film called The Mirror about an Italian village's plan to get more sunlight into their little mountain community. The first year my family went my parents saw Racing Dreams, about kids who race go-carts and aspire to be NASCAR drivers. But, that's the beauty of this now not so little festival. There is a reason for anyone to return year after year. My reasons are many, interesting films, a weekend away and of course, biscuits and gravy with the fam.

Next weekend adventure? Bourbon tasting in Kentucky for Boyfriend's early birthday present. Here's hoping this trip involves considerably less snow.

How's the New Place?

As I mentioned some time ago, we've moved...again.

Having grown up in Kansas City, Missouri, Boyfriend and I got adventurous and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2010 (not before taking a month-long backpacking trip after only one year of dating, but I digress). We lived in Charlotte for two years packed with "firsts", the most significant of which was moving in together. Of course, that was as turbulent as you'd expect- gripes about cleaning, schedules, generally getting annoyed with each others presence. I am a total control freak so I actually got upset, not that Boyfriend wouldn't load the dishwasher but, that when he did, he did it wrong. I know, I know. But we've established that I'm crazy, right? Anyway, Charlotte was great, beautiful autumnal weather that lasts months, little to no winter weather whatsoever (!!!) and all the sweet tea I never cared to drink. Boyfriend got his Master's degree and I worked at a job I felt lukewarm about but with awesome coworkers I'm too lucky to have own.

Enter grad school application season. Boyfriend got accepted to three excellent Ph.D programs (because he's brilliant...when he's not obnoxious). At the same time I was shopping around for a Master's in Education program. Indiana fit the bill for both of us and after spending the summer in Kansas City with family and friends, we packed up and set out to become Hoosiers.

Do you know that feeling when everything's going so well that you're sure there must be disaster looming? Just me? In any case, I still feel that way about our most recent move. Boyfriend had a connection that found us an adorable house to rent, I got the first and best job I applied for and this town has exceeded our expectations on nearly every front. We're walking distance from a great little cocktail bar, make a weekly trip to the farmer's market and may never run out of international restaurants to try. I know I haven't even lived here two months but I think I may never want to leave.