Home is Where the Heart Is (1329 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.65 on 41 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Stin (View user info) at 2005-11-05 20:50:06 EST
Home is where you make it.
It's the place you rise from in the morning and the same place you lay your hat in the evening. Something about it is warm, familiar and inviting. It doesn't matter where that home is. It can be here, or there, or anywhere in between. At the top of a hill or at the bottom of a ravine, you know where your home is.
I moved home not that long ago. Not in that "I'm going to pack up all my stuff into a box truck and drive for three hours" kind of way, but in that kind of "I'm going to sell over 80% of what I own, put the rest in storage and spend many hours filling in immigration forms" kind of way. And I like it here. Home is the place where I live, love and leave from, the place where my scant belongings have a place on the shelves and my clothes hang neatly in the closet. It's the place where my fish swim, and my husband sleeps. It's not just a point of existence, it's my home.
The home I left had been my home for a long, long time. 18 years, in fact - over three quarters of my life. In many ways it was very similar to my current home; it was still the place I lived, loved and left from, still the place when my family lived. In other ways it was different; the second floor, the grass outside, and the view from the window.
I have no regrets about moving my home; moving myself across the Altantic and wiping down the slate to start again. That doesn't mean that I don't miss where I came from.
Tonight was Bonfire Night. I listened to the bangs and whizzes as I spoke to my family on the phone, and closed my eyes to remember.
Fireworks displays as a child, being enthralled by the pretty colours and scared by their accompanying sounds. Getting a little older and being disappointed that the magic and sparkle had faded a little. The first year I was old enough to drive to a fireworks display, sitting huddled in the car with a friend and wiping the mist from the windscreen to see the explosions. The smell of gunpowder lingering in the air, and the smoke patterns illuminated by the subsequent pyrotechnic glory. Standing in line for a hotdog, followed by toasting marshmallows in the heat of the bonfire.
The fizzing of Catherine Wheels and the whistle of Roman Candles filled my ears, and for a fleeting moment I felt as if I had never left. When I opened my eyes, the spell was broken and all that remained were the walls of my apartment, the smell of stale cigarettes and the sprinkle of water flowing into the fish tank.
As much as my home is here, tonight I have a longing to be in a muddy field, tears running from the smoke and feet numb with the cold. If I could just drive down over the hill and see the lights in the valley, smell the chipshops on Bournemouth Pier and spend a few precious minutes with the friends and family I miss so much, maybe I'd appreciate America all the more.
User Reviews
Submitted by mrwolf (user info) at 2008-08-27 11:01:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely done.
Another writer that should return.
-P
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-11-06 21:04:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
oops again
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-11-06 21:04:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
oops
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-11-06 21:03:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Very thoughtful post.
Look on the bright side...while you might have lost bonfire night, you've gained the 4th of July!
Oh...shit...:$
I'm sorry. Move back now before you get tarred and feathered! :P
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-11-06 16:39:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Cool...I think I would like to know...and obviously find out how you landed in the States ANYWAY.
nolan.at.baseballwriter.net
If you blink around here, you miss everything.
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-06 16:12:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Shlongy, there is an answer, it was nothing to do wtih Silvrwolf and a lot to do with me. I will email you if you like.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2005-11-06 15:30:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
thanks for mail, i mailed you back biatch!
Submitted by yeahthatme (user info) at 2005-11-06 15:10:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked this.
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-11-06 14:58:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very, very nice.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-11-06 14:22:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Stin loves Shlongy...I'll probably get SOME kind of an answer.
FOLLOWED by a "none of your business".
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-11-06 14:16:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-11-06 13:49:37 (#)
Ranking: 0
Wait a fucking second here...Let me get this straight.
Stin and Sivrwolf didn't work out - despite a couple of celebratory Uber posts about this union -...and three months later, she's marrying some OTHER guy and moving to Maine?
Is THAT it?
What the fuck is/was the rush?
Need a "green card" that badly?
There is no love in this world anymore....ore....orrrre....(Buzzcocks)
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Good question, although the answer is probably none of our business.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-11-06 13:49:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Wait a fucking second here...Let me get this straight.
Stin and Sivrwolf didn't work out - despite a couple of celebratory Uber posts about this union -...and three months later, she's marrying some OTHER guy and moving to Maine?
Is THAT it?
What the fuck is/was the rush?
Need a "green card" that badly?
There is no love in this world anymore....ore....orrrre....(Buzzcocks)
Submitted by Orla (user info) at 2005-11-06 13:02:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I moved in September.
Also from a place where Bonfire night is celebrated, to one where it is not.
I find it odd when celebrations go unmarked in a new place.
Submitted by Foonbo (user info) at 2005-11-06 12:47:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
You like to see homos naked?
Submitted by SilvrWolf (user info) at 2005-11-06 12:36:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
What a time for me to drop into the old Uber...
Shlongy, things didn't work out between Mrs. Stin and myself. No big deal, though. C'est la vie. I still want the very best for her no matter where her life takes her. I'm not too proud to admit that I miss her but I think that the decision she made was more than likely for the best anyway.
In the end, I really needed to get my own life back on track anyhow and women have this tendency to distract me from that as I obviously fall too easily. It's working out well, though, or at least I'm not unemployed, anyway. I'm starting to ramble through this wonderful hangover here, so I'm going to go take a nap. I might come back when I'm semi-coherent. Or not.
----
Stina-girl, you'll always miss the island, I'm sure but just keep that head up. You seem to be doing well. Good luck.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-11-06 10:20:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Stin- I'm extremely confused.
I thought you were moving to Virginia when you married and moved to the states.
How the hell did you end up in Maine?
Where the hell is Silvrwolf?
I have in-laws still living in Maine...
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2005-11-06 08:31:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
You didn't miss much - it was just like a very windy, very cold, and very rainy Beirut, with a larger than normal probability of losing an eye.
Submitted by mikethescottish (user info) at 2005-11-06 08:05:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great post. Glad to see you're still kickin' around here.
Submitted by missflibble (user info) at 2005-11-06 07:00:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
awwwwww..... get someone to send you marmite. it helps aparently.
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-11-06 06:14:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I shouldn't really give you the +2 cos you are encouraging the fireworks.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-11-06 05:26:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I kind of know what you are saying, however, if you had been here listening to the little fucks setting them off for the last six weeks you might not be so sentimental about them.
Post more often.
-Dave
Submitted by Xcuses (user info) at 2005-11-06 04:49:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 20:57:38 (#)
Ranking: 0
Damn, it's been so long since I posted that I feel like a noob all over again.
How depressing.
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Far from it. A noob does not know how to describe things the way you do. You are very descriptive when you write. It's always enjoyable to read.
Submitted by DJMattB241 (user info) at 2005-11-06 03:48:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
miss you on MSN kiddo.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-11-06 01:51:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Sometimes we long for the familiar. It's what makes us cozy at night.
Submitted by Required_Reading (user info) at 2005-11-06 00:38:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
welcome to america. i hope to be moving myself between aug-sept 2006, as far away as you have but in a different direction.
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:57:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
YOU LIVE!!!!!
This is good. I might have some reading for you soon....
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:54:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I always loved your unpredictability Stin.
I'm trying to reverse my sleep pattern in preperation for my forthcoming unemployment. It's the sort of thing you've really gotta train up for.
Submitted by starshine (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:49:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yay america!
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:47:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
What the buggering hell are you doing up at a quarter to four in the morning, Spamuel?
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:45:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
don't ask what I'm doing up at this time of night.
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:44:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Quite odd this, I've a couple of old friends staying with me at the moment who've just returned to the UK after three years miliking yaks in mongolia and it's been really strange to watch their childish delight at the really simple things about this place that I take for granted (Snooker on the telly, warm beer, prawn cocktail Walkers crisps, MoTD etc). It got me thinking about all of the things I would miss if I ever had the oppurtunity and/or balls to leave this godforsaken country.
Bonfire night was pretty high up there.
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:31:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm sorry Ghola, it wasn't meant to be aggressive. Just a question.
Jamie, do you have a US cell yet? Feel free to drop me your number if you like, and we can be Brits in a strange timezone together!
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:19:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:06:49 (#)
Ranking: 0
Ghola, have you ever moved country to country? I moved around in the UK, but I never felt this way until I settled in the US.
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what i meant to say, is that's a really nice sentiment.
whatever your case may be.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:19:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
you know love, this is the first +2 I have given you and meant it.
I had similar feelings today when I was included on a group text from one of my mates, it wasn't so much about bonfire night, although that was the excuse, it was mostly about everyone meeting at a certain place and going out on a big 'un.
I have only been here a week and I feel it.
You managed to be wistgful without bathos.
Bravo.
Submitted by CookieLass (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:10:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Well put, love.
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 22:06:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Ghola, have you ever moved country to country? I moved around in the UK, but I never felt this way until I settled in the US.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2005-11-05 21:57:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i've honestly never felt that way.
i suppose i'm just too detached.
Submitted by MandaPanda (user info) at 2005-11-05 20:57:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Awww.
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-11-05 20:57:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Damn, it's been so long since I posted that I feel like a noob all over again.
How depressing.
Submitted by crownofsuns (user info) at 2005-11-05 20:54:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by Dante_Alighieri (user info) at 2005-11-05 20:54:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Auto sentimental post +2. This was actually really good.