Home Sweet Home

It's the first day of summer, and to Seattle's credit, the sun shines. The whole day has been beautifully blue, warm with a cool--not too cool--breeze. Oh, yeah, I think...this is why I love it here. Well, there are other reasons, but days like this are in the top three. In honor of the event, I sit outside at Top Pot, eat a donut and drink a decaf (yawn) iced latte...sigh...a good evening treat to be sure. Many years in a row, Shawn and I would find some place cozy to sit and watch the sun as it set far, far in the west. Sometimes we went to Discovery Park, or Golden Gardens. Even staying here, on the Hill. From my perch on Capitol Hill it looks to set behind Queen Anne, which is darn near north. I'd say it's a northerly sunset. By winter it will be dropping down near Magnolia, very westerly.
VERY early this morning, suffering from a bout of insomnia, I caught a bit of the national weather report. 112 degrees in Phoenix. Ugh. Do not miss that. Haven't missed it since the day I left. Never even missed it when I was living there and I'd be on vacation, blessedly, somewhere else.
Funny to think about the place that one considers home. I have two places, actually. One is "home" in the sense of where I grew up. Except that I only lived there 10 years and no one in my family actually lives in that spot. Twin Falls, 30 minutes north-ish of where our home was, isn't technically my childhood home. Yet, it is so familiar, despite all the changes occurring at an ever increasing rate, that my sentimental attachment to it makes it home. Going home for Christmas? Nah... I like to go back home in the summer or the fall. Arizona is unquestionably not home. Yes, I lived another large portion of my life there; 11 highly formative years, and I couldn't wait to get O-U-T, OUT! Going on 10 years in Seattle (gee, I'm at equal parts in these places...) and I can truly say that almost from the start, this was my home. Is my home. I feel very home-like here. I'm a happy homebody in this town. Home, home on the range. How lucky is that? I could have moved here and been sorely disappointed. Hated it. Gotten bored with it. I'm not bored. Are you bored? People get bored with Seattle. Several of my friends have left this boring town, or want to leave this hum drum burgh... O. like my boyfriend. : ( But I really like it. Really.