Homesick

Staying home all the time gives me lots of time to think. Lately my thoughts keep turning to home. Although I left Eureka in 1978 and really never lived there again, it will always be home to me. My main priority for finding a college was that it be near the beach and the weather had to be good. Humboldt County is insanely beautiful, but it rains a lot and there are a lot of days that are just gray. At 17 I longed for sunshine and the beach. I remember saying to my sister "I don't care if I never see another redwood tree." I was young and stupid! Now that I'm older, I long for the redwoods, the mountains, the rivers, the gorgeous coast and empty beaches...

I have not been home since the high school reunion before the last. That would have been in 2003, I believe. I have been feeling homesick and have been longing to go up there. Casey, being a southern boy from Georgia, has never been north of San Francisco. Every summer we plan to go but circumstances intervene and we don't make it there. I hated missing the last reunion. It was the only one I have missed. The cliche of the miserable class reunion has never been true for my class. Our reunions are fun and we all love seeing each other.

The older I get, the more I have come to love it when it rains. I am still not a fan of a gray, dreary day, but a good hard rain makes me happy. When Casey and I retire, I think we will be heading north. I can't say for sure until he has a chance to go up there, but I predict he will fall in love with it. He also loves mountains, rivers and trees. I see us in a cabin that has a deck overlooking a river, with redwood trees and flowers all around. In the meantime, I'm hoping to make a trip up there this summer. I want to show Casey how beautiful northern California is, and I want to go back to the ranch with my big brother and our spouses.

Namaste,
Jill