Out of the Loop in Five Days

I exited New York City on time out of Laguardia on November 23 and arrived back in the city last night at 5:30 or somewhere thereabout. But in the time I was gone my reality was completely different and apparently I missed all kinds of things. My friend M spotted Orlando Bloom in her SoHo store last week, another friend returned to England and the weather went from wind chill in the teens to 60 degrees. But first I'll discuss being back in North Carolina.

Everyone was very excited to see me and to catch me up on gossip. One of my favorite local restaurants has closed because of a fued, some more friends from high school are married with babies, the neighbors found two little beagle puppies in a fox trap and decided to keep them. I almost completely ignored the national and international news, instead focusing on cleaning out my childhood room ( a project that will continue long into the Christmas holiday) asking questions about my nieces and nephew, trying to figure out why I had ever left this place, and then eagerly awaiting my return and escape to New York.

I miss my animals most of all, and my best friend B, who came over with her new boyfriend (though she's not calling him that because her divorce isn't finalized yet) on Saturday just to talk. We sat up for several hours, vaguely watching UNC lose 30-3 to Virginia Tech (DAMN HOKIES) and catching up on our lives. She's fully returned to North Carolina life, buying a house and settling into work in town, even dating someone local. It seems very easy and comfortable and is a hell of a lot cheaper than what I have going on up here. Her mortgage will be less than half of my rent on a three bedroom house with a garage. Her daughter is in kindergarten, her brother is in middle school.

Actually, being home I felt like nothing had changed. The house is still the same, the messy areas still messy, the clean areas still clean. My animals running around, several dvds spread out in front of the main TV. I was suprised. For some reason I felt like I had grown so much things would have changed but they are essentially the same. I read and watched movies and spent time with my cousins who came up from Atlanta, and my other cousins who are falling apart, slowly but surely. We went down to Wilmington to spend the day at the beach and I ate a ton of turkey and stuffing and didn't forget to go by Wal-Mart.

But, for some reason, flying into LGA last night, I felt a huge sense of relief to be coming back "home", getting away from the messes my family is in, and being my own anonymous person in the city. I love that. No one knows me from Adam, and I can be whoever I want to be. While I'm choosing to hang onto my southern heritage and may even move back there some day, I can say that new york definitely feels like home right now. When I came in and saw the latest issues of InStyle and US Weekly proclaiming that Jen posed topless (true) and Jessica is pregnant (unsure of truth) I was happy to be back in a city where this gossip makes a difference and people want to know what's going on on page six. I was also happy to be back in work this morning, where I am swamped with various activities and making phone calls like crazy and preparing things for publicity for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. This is where I belong.