Homesick

A friend from the midwest asked me the other day if I ever missed Iowa.  I told him that I haven't been gone long enough to be homesick yet, but that I missed my friends and family.  I like Iowa, but I'll never miss the place enough to even compare to the "homesickness" I feel and will continue to feel for my loved ones who are located there.

I miss running the trails around the Des Moines metro area with my friends, usually with an over-excited bloodhound dog in tow, and then frequently hanging out after the run to stretch, talk, eat, and watch tv.  I miss carpooling to dinners and events.  I miss frequent "drop-in" visits, whether at my house or my friends' homes -- the kind of stop where you come by to drop off a borrowed item, show off a new purchase on the way home from the mall, or just because you were in the neighborhood and needed to kill a little time.  I have tinges of sadness at having to miss out on the things my friends in Des Moines are doing -- girls' sushi nights, dinners out, birthdays, and baby showers, to name a few.  I miss my friends' kids and pets -- Riley, Lily and Lauren, Lloyd, Cleo, Ahnyong, Muth, LadyByrd, Addy, and Lou Diamond Phillips, to name a few.  :)  I had to get a little "dog time" with a friend's dog (which I think is a Rottweiler/German Shepard mix) the other day, and I'm going to have to find a lion fish to feed soon!  Maybe it's time to start doing some volunteer work at an animal shelter...

Anyway, I knew when I moved to Austin that I was going to be leaving my friends behind and moving that much further away from my family (who mostly live a few hours from my old home).  Technology has helped make that easier -- between cell phones, texting, e-mail, Facebook, the blog, and Skype, I'm able to stay in touch pretty well.  In fact, my relationship with my family isn't all that different because we lived too far apart to see each other day-in and day-out even in Iowa.  However, I miss the personal interaction I had with my friends a lot.  I'm lucky though -- since arriving in Austin for good in January, I've had two visits from Iowa friends.  First, Emily (from Cedar Rapids) came for a weekend.  Then, Jenny and Justin came for the half marathon and a couple days following.  I have two more Iowa friends (Hart and Sheppard) planning a trip next month, and I'm really looking forward to that as well.  Also, I have some of my best Iowa friends down here in Erin and Chad.  Finally, of course, I'm have and am making more friends down here and am happy to be reaching the "pjs are acceptable and knocking is not required" stage of friendship with some of them already.

At the end of the day, I'm just experiencing some of the "growing pains" of making a new life and creating a new normal.  My old "normal" often included a stop by Hart's for some couch time and feeding Lou Diamond Phillips, then maybe swinging by Kristine & Bobby's for dinner and time petting LLoyd and trying to gain Cleo's trust.  Now, a normal night for me is having dinner and watching Jersey Shore at Erin & Chad's, with Cloris Leachman (their cat, not the aging actress from Iowa) watching us from atop her cat tree.  I love both of those.  My homesickness isn't because the latter isn't just as good -- it is, and I love my Austin friends! -- but it's because I was lucky enough to have an awesome life in Des Moines too.  And I miss that. 

I think I'll post some pictures soon of my new place to help combat this nostalgia/homesickness for my Iowa life.  Look for that post in the next 24 hours.