En. Why. See.

This weekend I occupied myself with getting to know the East Side a little bit more, and the girls and I (Molly and Anne) took a little road trip to New York City. Now, I’ve only been to NYC once, and I absolutely hated it. I admit, that might have had something to do with the fact that it was pouring the whole time, I didn’t have an umbrella, and I was on my way to Africa in the morning. Maybe. But This time, it was a whole different story.

Molly, Anne and I left South Hamilton Saturday morning so we could get to the city by noon. Once there, we ate a delicious lunch of New York style pizza (ain’t got nuthin’ on you, Chicago!) and salad. Then, we hit Central Park and The Met. After walking a bajillion miles, we ate some more, this time Mexican with a cupcake chaser. Fabulous. Sunday morning we went to Redeemer Church and had the privalage of hearing Dr. Tim Keller speak. I say “privalage” because He was preaching, not because he’s famous. I’m quite serious about that.

[I’m going to iterrupt this current blog post for a minor rant…hope you won’t mind. I really struggled that morning at church. There is something seriously ary in the church when on the doors there is posted a sign that read, “no flash photography, please.” Seriously? The person behind me took several pictures of Tim after the string quartet finished leading us in hymns. I’m bothered by this, friends, and I can’t put my finger on why. I know I have to pray that the Lord with guard me from pride in this conversation because I know that those there were probably brothers and sisters in Christ to whom I am intimately adjoined. How can Tim pastor that congregation well when he’s become a celebrity of sorts? What would that look like? I don’t know… Okay. Rant complete.]

we then spent our afternoon walking through more park and then the theater district and Times Square. Then we shopped. Yay for boosting the economy.

And I think I learned something about myself through this trip. No, it wasn’t on the trip per se. It was when we pulled up the driveway. Just as we turned the corner to circle our little cul-de-sac in from of our little house, my heart sighed, “home”.

Yeah. I think this is getting quite close. I think this place is slowly but surly becoming home to be, and certainly more quickly than any other has.

It’s everywhere and everything. It’s the ivy that sprawls itself across our old bring building, and how she’s showing off her fall colors. It’s the smell of autumn that makes me happy and sad, just as I had hoped. It’s the library and the excitement I feel when I look up from my desk and see how many more books there are still to read. It’s the girls that live next door and ice cream excursions with them. it’s the professor who weeps in class and the one who tells yet another Bible joke. All these things…

Yeah. This place, I think, is something like home.