No Place Like It

I've complained about my apartment many a time, including here on this blog. But for nearly two years now, it's been my home base - which means I've officially lived in this little space for more consecutive months than I've lived in any other place since moving out of my parents' house in 1999.* I still might have my complaints... but.

After spending most of the last two weeks traveling, not having slept in my own bed for quite some time, I got home Sunday afternoon, let myself in the door, and felt an oddly comfortable thought cross my mind: Ah, I'm home.

My couches. My books. Holiday and birthday cards from friends and family lining the bookshelves. Photographs of favorite faces. And of course, Sof wagging her tail (probably no more excited to see me than to see the friend who dog-sat for her all week, but oh well).

Sometimes it takes being away to make us appreciate these little comforts of home. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I suppose. I felt genuinely grateful to putter around my apartment, fixing myself some tea, curling up on the couch, doing some writing in my own little corner of the world. It's not so bad, this address. It feels cozy. I'm lucky to have a place as nice as this, and glad to get to spend some time here.

Still wish my windows could open, though.

*This is true. Since 1999, I have lived:
1999-2000 East Quad dorm
2000-2001 Castle Suite with the boys
2001-2002 Rosenthal Suites as an RA
2002-2003 In a lovely apartment in a haunted-mansion looking house near Watertown, MA
May-July 2003 The infamous CRAPHOLE cottage in Belhaven (Jackson, MS)
July 2003-2004 The cool 1950s "GE House of the Future" in Belhaven
July 2004-July 2005 The Seminole Kids House in Fondren (Jackson)
August 2005-May 2006 The odd Colgate apartment in Oak Park, MI
Summer 2006 Ridgeland, MS
August 2006 Terrifying Apartment Where Someone Got Shot Right Outside My Window, Ypsilanti, MI
September 2006 My parents' place (hell of a commute to grad school)
October 2006-April 2007 The Townhouse, Ann Arbor, MI
April 2007-now: This Place (well, this building; I lived in a one-bedroom for April-June 2007, and moved into a two bedroom in July 2007. This Place still wins for longest residency)