when it comes to nouns, people/ persons are the most important. and so, I am back in America, back in Washington, back in Edmonds where the usual April showers have taken a vacation allowing plenty of days for the sun to shine. being the sun-worshipper that i am, this makes being home a delight.

the first thing i did was walk: partly because it feels odd to not walk at least a mile each day and partly because i wanted to reacquaint myself with the town i did not expect to miss.
my favorite part of home is the smell. nothing beats fresh washington air. i walk and can't stop thinking about how beautiful it is here. cherry blossoms have been sprinkled on the sidewalks, every senior citizen is in their garden, an entire population of teenage girls have migrated to the beaches with gallons of baby oil for their pre-prom bronze and little girls in pink dresses wear chocolate ice-cream on their faces. I can't believe I live here. I can't believe how little i've appreciated living here.

i take cari to cucina-cucina, i am back just in time for our regular dinners before she heads off to Grand-Turk. We doodle with primary colored crayolas and catch up with our crazy lives. She eats her barbequed-chicken pizza while i down some blackberry cobbler. In a matter of days my best-friend and I have crossed several oceans.

it's good to be with kiersten again. we don't do anything special. it's enough to be in the company of someone who's heart you are certain not only understands yours, but follows the same beat.

I will leave again in June, for England, France, Italy and then some, only for a month or so. Eventually I will go again, perhaps to South AFrica, or maybe Australia, Thailand or Brazil. For now, I enjoy home. I enjoy knowing the staff at the local grocery store and running into old faces at the beach, not using a map and the chorus of seagulls that can barely be heard as the train moans on by, while I watch a little boy wearing an Ichiro Jersey skip a rock across the sound.


"There are few things pure in this world anymore, and home is one of the few.
We'd have a drink outside maybe run and hide, if we saw a couple men in blue.
But to me it's so damn easy to see that your people are the people at home.
Well I been away but now I'm back today and there ain't a place i'd rather go.
I feel home when i see the faces that remember my own
I feel home when i'm chillin outside with the people I know
I feel home and that's just what i feel
Cause home, to me, is reality and all i need is something real.

We're feeling alright headin out tonight maybe off to a dark driveway
I say now, some feel bored, and some are looking for more, but we all just decide to stay
We got nothing to do, but when I look at you I see something that I know and love
And with the crack of a smile we all stay awhile, we know from home their ain't nothin above

Well in the end, we can all call a friend, well that's something that I know as true
In a thousand years and a thousand tears, I'll come finding my original crew
Cause to me throughout eternity there is somewhere we are welcome to go
I said it's something free that means a lot to me, when I'm with my friends I feel home"