So, I'm actually home in Allentown right now, but only for one more day. It's been an insane couple of weeks - I got a new job, took an impromtu vacation home, found out via phone that I would have lost my old job starting Wednesday if I wouldn't have taken the new one (not by my own doing - things are changing with my old boss and she wouldn't need me anymore), went to DC for a couple of days, and now I'm just relaxing near my parent's beautiful fish pond with teeny tiny Greta in my lap (my parent's schauzer-poodle mix, who is possible the best tiny dog ever) getting some work done before I head home tomorrow.

The flight home was pretty interesting. I always have this mental image of the pilots actually being my parents - my dad driving, hand behind the passenger headrest as he checks behind him to back the plane out its parking spot; my mother next to him, slapping together ham sanwiches with mayo and passing them back to us. Sitting in that economy class seat, I can almost hear my dad roaring "If you touch her ONE MORE TIME there will be NO POOL for ANYBODY at the hotel!"

The last hour of my descent into Philly, I struck up a conversation with a woman next to me who was on her way to Ireland. We talked about families, and I was struck by the realization of how unusual my own family is. It's something worth exploring in its own post, I think.

Allentown is beautiful. It's hard to believe that I'm saying that, but it is. We drove to Penn State to visit my brother and the leaves were all gorgeous and fiery and amazing colors, and the weather is perfect, and it makes my heart ache. I can almost guarentee that I'll be teary upon coming home to California. I mean, I love California, but I only now realize how much I missed Allentown/Pennsylvania/DC/my friends/my parents and siblings/grandparents. On Wednesday, I saw Jon and Kelli as they drove up to New York for Jon's brother's wedding. On Friday, there was a party at Neal/Anne/Sam/Amy's house, where I saw lots of people and gave lots of hugs and stayed up until three in the morning talking about how complicated straight girls can be. On Saturday, I went and saw the Rude Mechanical's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and saw some old RM people and then went and saw my old boss and coworkers at All Fired Up and then just walked around DC for a bit, feeling teary and sitting on benches to read Rubyfruit Jungle.

Before I left DC on Sunday, I spent time with my grandparents, who introduced me to their friends at the American Legion. We had brunch and then went back to their house and talked for a few hours. On the way home, gas was $2.99 in the middle of nowhere, PA. I filled up the tank.

Today is just a day of hanging out with my family. Tomorrow I fly home again.

I miss everyone already.

I'm going to leave you with two songs that I heard on the radio on my trip home yesterday. The first one is No Handlebars by Flobots, and the second one is Undewear Goes Inside the Pants by Lazyboy. Both are rap songs, but even if that's not your type of music, I'd recommend that everyone give them a listen. I really enjoyed both of them, especially the first one (and the art in the first one is great - the second one is just a user-made video, I think). Both aren't very safe for work, so I'd wait until you get home. Enjoy.