Coming Home

"Home" means a lot of things.  I tell people that I'm flying "home" tomorrow, and I mean Las Vegas.  While at my cabin, I say that we're going to go "home" when we're finished snowmobiling, and I really just mean going back to my cabin.  If I really had to define "home" for myself, though, I would define it as southwest Michigan.  That is the place where I really belong.  I grew up here, my family lives here, and I feel like a part of me will never truly fit in anywhere else.

Rex and I have been home since December 22, visiting family and friends for Christmas.  It has been a blast, but we have to go back to Nevada tomorrow.  As I sit here typing this in the final 23 minutes of the year 2012, I figure I will give you a few of the highlights of our trip:

1.  When we first got on the plane to come home, the kid sitting in front of us was crazy.  He was about three years old with mousy brown hair and skinny arms.  We called him "Rocketship Kid" because as soon as he sat down he exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be SO FUN!  It's going to be just like going on a ROCKET SHIP!"  He was talking non-stop.  I started taking notes so I could transcribe his words for you. Here is a gem: "Hey dad I love you dad hey mom where is our luggage is it in the belly of the plane wow I am so excited this is going to be so great!!"  I put no punctuation between those sentences because he said them as if they were all one sentence.  He kept talking and talking so quickly that Rex turned to me and said, "Uhhh...is this kid on speed?!"  He was so fun to listen to.  He saw another plane on the tarmac and declared that our plane should marry that plane.  His mom tried to explain that planes don't get married, but the kid wasn't buying it.  Finally his mom said, "Aren't you tired, honey?  Look, your dad is getting tired - he's closing his eyes!"  The kid jumped on his dad and yelled, "WAKE UP, DAD!  WE'RE ON A PLANE!!!"  The kid was hilarious for a few hours, but I think I would be banging my head on the wall if he was mine.

2. My family went to our cabin up north for a few days.  We had a great time snowmobiling, playing banagrams, and sitting by the fire.  In order to kick off our road trip, I offered to buy everyone some Starbucks with the plethora of gift cards that I received from my students.  My family is not a "Starbucks" kind of family.  They don't generally spend more than 99 cents for a cup of joe.  My dad ordered a large coffee, and when the lady handed it to him she said, "Here is your venti coffee."  For those of you non-Starbucks-educated folks out there, venti means large.  My dad misunderstood, though, and said, "Ew, a veggie coffee? Why would I want a veggie coffee?"  I tried to correct him: "No, Dad, she said 'venti.'"  My mom jumped in with, "Yeah, 'venti' is short for 'vintage.'  It's like, an older type of roast."  No parents, it's not.  My dad finally accepted the coffees and then called to the lady, "Have a latte day!"  I looked at him like he was crazy, and he said, "What?  I'm just trying to use hip Starbucks lingo."  I'm surprised my family didn't get permanently banned from the store...  Luckily I don't think they will go back again anytime soon.

3. My dad LOVED the Perry the Platypus shorts that he got for Christmas.  That's all there really is to say about that.

4.  We went to go visit my Grandpa Hubert, who is pretty much the most ornery man you will ever meet.  We talked to him about the "good ol'days" for a couple of hours.  He used to be in the Navy, so my mom asked what he did for exercise when he lived on the ship.  His answer?  "We'd just shoot japs."  Greeeeat... Then we talked about the sports that his son (my dad) played in high school.  My grandpa said, "Sports are fine, but do you wanna know what I played?  Spin the bottle.  Now THERE'S a good game."  We went to my dad's favorite pizza spot, Pizza Sam's, after we got wisdom from his dad.  He pointed out the parking lot across from Pizza Sam's where he used to "do stuff that I can't tell you about."  Oh my.  I am a little bit ashamed to be related to these people.  Just a little.

5. For New Year's Eve (aka RIGHT NOW), my mother-in-law is playing Scrabble with Rex, my father-in-law is watching a hunting show about killing elk, and my brother-in-law is making plans to go fishing in the morning.  I mentioned, "Hey, it's five minutes till midnight...maybe we should turn on the Times Square coverage."  They all glared at me and said, "No!  Who cares about that?"
Who cares about that?  WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?!  It's New Year's Eve, people!!!  We should all care about that!  Who cares about a random elk that died in Nowheresville, Nowhere is what I'd like to know.  Man, I married into a weird family.  I really, really like them, too, which might make me even weirder.

Well, there it is - midnight.  It's officially New Year's Day.  No confetti, no midnight kiss, no party hats or noisemakers.  Just a triple letter score and a dead elk.  Happy New Year, people.

It's been an up and down kind of winter break.  I've had some interesting revelations, a lot of fun times with family, and made some re-connections with old friends.  2012 was one of those "growing" years.  I learned a lot.  I'm that much more ready for the next year.  Bring it on, 2013.