Time traveling

I have eaten so much I feel like I could spontaneously lose consciousness at any moment.

We are back in Washington for the day (for Thanksgiving celebration deferred) and on the drive down here, we went through all these little towns that have completely fallen off my radar now that I don't live in this part of the state any longer. Sigourney, Keota, West Chester, What Cheer. They are all players in the line up - the back way to Washington. It doesn't bother me coming back here - not as much as it used to. As I have said before, it helps immensely to be able to come back here and NOT own property here as well as in Ames, so there's that. I remember all too well the trips down here before our house sold that in addition to being trips to see Heidi's mom, were also trips to go down and walk through our empty house and wonder why on God's green earth I couldn't get anyone to make an offer on it.

But still, every time I come back here, it feels like I have stepped out of the Tardis and into a time gone by. It always feels a bit like I dodged a bullet - like but for the grace of whatever God there might be in this universe go I had I not had the foresight to get the hell out when I did. There is something about small town Iowa that just wants to strangle the life out of anything different. Years ago, we really thought a small town was what we wanted - local color, relatively free of the soul-sucking conglomerates (except for Wal-Mart) that seem to homogenize the landscape of the country. Ultimately though, the small town culture was the soul-sucking part.

Where we "escaped" to (to be especially dramatic) is, at times, only marginally better, but I think that overall, it was a smart move. No, losing money on a house sale was not in the plan, nor was sitting on a house for 18 months while I paid double mortgages. Moving away from the small town did not magically fix everything, but what it did do was force me to realize how much there was also something I needed to fix in ME, and that it was not just a function of being the victim of a small town mentality.

And besides, being the victim is so goddamn boring anyway!

So it's been a day full of turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes (my personal favorite) and all the other Thanksgiving staples I missed on Thursday. There has been pie and Anna even tried cherry pie (it ended up being too tart for her, but kudos to her for stepping outside her comfort zone.) In a while, we'll begin the trek home. It'll be in the dark as we'll be most likely stopping by to see some friends prior to leaving, but it's all good. Even though I think I would have rather spent the day lazing about the house, this has been its own kind of good. And for that, I am thankful.