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A Letter in Three Parts, Part Three: What I missed about home

Even when I was having a fabulous time living in France, eating baguettes and camembert with an earthy cote du rhone in a cafe in Aix-en-Provence, or jetting around Europe, there were plenty of things I missed about home. I even missed the little things, the kind of stuff you don’t really think about until you’re gone, like peanut butter and crossword puzzles.

So here it is, part three of the Letter in Three Parts (here’s part one and part two):

  1. My family.
  2. My friends.
  3. My dogs.
  4. Understanding everything.
  5. Driving.
  6. My CDs.
  7. TV–Buffy, Party of Five, Friends, MTV, The Weather Channel, X-Files, The Simpsons (um, not really my favorite shows anymore. Especially MTV and the Simpsons.)
  8. Poptarts, peanut butter, marshmallows, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, and Chewy Sprees.
  9. 24 hour restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, and gas stations.
  10. Good beer.
  11. My house–summer nights on the porch.
  12. The fluttery feeling when you actually like a guy.
  13. Playing real pool.
  14. Z-Teca burritos, Dragon Express, Jiffy Treat, Unos, Pizza Express, and Ritters.
  15. Dennys. Perkins. In one night.
  16. The corn.
  17. Strawberry milk.
  18. Regular sized people, regular sized clothes.
  19. Half-price Books. Target.
  20. The Greenbriar. Clearwater Crossing.
  21. Caramel Corn!
  22. Weights in pounds and ounces; measurements in inches, miles and feet.
  23. Crossword puzzles.
  24. My plants.
  25. The sound of silence in Carmel on any given night at 10 p.m., except for the occasional siren followed by the national guard to pull over a kid with long hair.
  26. Doing 465.
  27. 9.23 and X103 and yes, even 99.5.
  28. Live music–the Bluebird, Second Story, The Patio, The Vogue, Deer Creek, K of C, that other place on College, what the hell is the name, and where has my memory gone?
  29. Bloomington. Bloomington. Bloomington. Dunn Meadow. The Union. The Von Lee. The Den. College Mall. Sororosluts. Frat boys with khakis and North Face vests.
  30. Good lotion.
  31. Aveda.
  32. My hairdresser.
  33. Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Griffy Lake.
  34. The BBC.
  35. The Princess Bride.
  36. People who can pronounce my name. It’s not Natalie. Not Bedlami.
  37. Kisses that mean something.

How different I am now. I had to really think about some of these to remember what they are, and why I missed them. I don’t even remember liking Chewy Sprees, Z-teca, Uno’s and Strawberry milk enough to miss them. Maybe it was the simple fact that I missed what I couldn’t have in France. Maybe I need to make a list of things I love/hate about D.C., and laugh about it in eight years.