happy

I don't even have words for how happy it makes me to be back in Gone West, you guys. 

I read this thing a few weeks ago where some advice guru told people that where you live is not as important as what you do, and this is possibly true, but where you live matters so incredibly much. I had a fine life in Universe City. I had friends and activities and routines.

But living in Gone West feels like I've come back to life. I remember again how you can actually love the place where you live. It doesn't have to be merely the backdrop for your life; it can be a character in your life. 

I wandered up through my favorite neighborhoods today. I walked through the school playground. I drank tea in my favorite cafe. I shopped in little boutiques. I wove through the park around the water towers. I came down that long flight of stairs. I meandered along one of my favorite streets. I sat in that pretty little park.

This afternoon could have happened three years ago.

People keep asking how it is to be back, and the strangest thing is how it feels like I never left. Maybe I only imagined those 2.5 years in Universe City. 

I have fallen right back into the same places and routines that I had before I moved away, and it feels like nothing has changed except that suddenly I find myself lost in this bigger Trader Joe's, because even though it was my first, familiar Trader Joe's, my brain now expects the layout of the smaller one in Universe City. But then in the chain grocery store, I know exactly where to go, as if my brain remembers this one better than the one in Universe City.

I am so very happy to live here again.