Home with a Capital "H"



DeKalb Ave is a block down from my apartment.
Never too far from Home :)

 



So I've been thinking lately about a few different things that all share the common theme of "home." First off, there's home like the place that you're from. When someone asks where you're from, what do you say? Being in a new city, that's a question that I get quite a bit and my response is always the same, "I'm from an hour outside of Chicago, but I go to school in Missouri." Is it really necessary to have the addition about Missouri? Well yes, Missouri is the backdrop for the past few years of my life and my ventures into young adulthood. And while I spent the first 18 years of my life in DeKalb, it doesn't seem right to ONLY say I'm from DeKalb, period. If someone were to ask me about current events there, I wouldn't know a thing. By the time I conclude my time here in NYC, I will have been "home" once in the last year. However, when I do specify home as in my origins, I'm sure to say DeKalb or an hour west. I don't say Chicago; I'm not a false claimer, and I'm not from the city--I'm not a city girl and don't know much more about the city than a visitor.

On the other hand, I'm also sure to make it clear that I'm not FROM Missouri, because that sounds country as hell. Lol and that's not the case. But when I say "home," I'm talking about Columbia, MO 85% of the time. Like now, lately I’ve been plagued with thoughts about the things that I miss back in Columbia--things that no other place in the world has. I miss my car, I miss my bed, I miss my room, and I miss my regular life.

Russ Mitchell and at some point, on the private tour of CBS he gave my mom and I, he was talking about going home to St Louis, where he's from, and he called it his Home with a capital H, and NYC is his home with a lowercase H. It was an interesting thing to think about. For the rest of my life, when asked where I'm from, I'll have to fit DeKalb in there somewhere, regardless of how long it's been since I've been back, so  it's my capital H. And at the present time, Columbia is my lowercase, but in time, my lowercase can, and in all probability, will be in at least a handful of other places.  It's weird being in a transitional point in life. After graduation in December, I don't know where my home will be--At least the lowercase. I'll always appreciate my capital, but for now, I'm kind of missing my lowercase and my real life.

That's the next thing, how can I be in New York City missing boofoo Columbia? It's like when you're on vacation; it's amazing and so new and exciting, and ideally you'd love to spend forever there. But realistically, eventually it's time to get back to your normal life.  It's kind of like I'm living a lie or faking for three months. In all honesty, I think I could move to NYC and live here permanently and enjoy it. But at this point, this isn't regular life for me, so it's weird. Granted I've never been good at appreciating the present. I have a hard time being content and living in the moment, I'm either nostalgic for the past, or anxiously anticipating the future. But I'm not being ungrateful for this experience, or wishing away the summer  to speed up my arrival back in Columbia, I just think it's important to note that this isn't really real life. And I miss real life.

That concept is just weird because I don't ever miss DeKalb. Probably because my regular life hasn't been in DeKalb for almost four years, it's more of a visiting destination now. I remember I was here in November for this 2-day career workshop; it was when I first fell in love with the city and swore I'd find a way to be back here for the summer. But I'd met and networked with Mizzou alum and CBS correspondent 

"HOMOS FOR CUOMO"

NYC Pride Parade 2011

     Sunday was Pride in the city and it was ab-so-LUTE-ly nuts!! The parade started at noon, but since Dee and I had only gotten home five hours before, we didn't make it into Manhattan to meet Jeff and Drew until about 4:00. By 5:00, the parade the still going on. One police officer we talked to said that it was the longest that the parade had ever been. 

This past Friday, New York became the largest state to approve Gay Marriage, and as a result, Pride was extra prideful! It was an amazing atmosphere. It reminded me of Mardi Gras in St. Louis, except on steroids and just intensified. The parade was mostly through and around Greenwich Village. It was packed, everyone was happy and excited--it was electric. Each float in the parade was playing good music. Most of them were playing either PitBull and Ne-Yo's "Give Me Everything," Beyonce's "Who Run the World," and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"--naturally. But some of the floats were a sight to see!! The queens were out in full drag, while some people were out in barely anything. But every homosexual there was OUT and proud, and it was beautiful. 

Age, gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status; none of that mattered. This sounds so cheesy and so corny, but at different points I would see a couple kiss, or just see people so excited, or  overhear people talking about being able to get married and it gave me goosebumps, because it was so perfect.

 One float came through playing Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind," and when the chorus says "there's nothing you can't dooooo," a guy on the float was pointing at his ring finger and it was so perfect! 

                     
Seeing so many people being proud to be who they are, regardless of society and what others may think was empowering. Granted, at some points, it looked like some people were a little too free and comfortable--like this old man who barely had a piece of cloth covering his goods, but it was awesome. 

After the parade, we went to a pier by the Hudson, and there were still just a ton of people out and around there. It was a pretty perfect place to just sit and people watch. The weather was nice, and the sun was glistening against the Hudson behind us. It was a pretty cool moment in time, just sitting there watching people being happy and content. By that time of the weekend however, I was dead. I'm used to spending the better part of my weekends on my couch, so I was strugglin' hard to keep going. So I headed home while the other three went to dinner and drinks.

     

Some Friends Flew Out to See Me!

Dee and I

     This weekend was a lot of fun and absolutely wore me out. Thursday night Dee got into town, and Friday Jeff and Drew arrived! Saturday morning we all got up and decided to do some sightseeing. First, we took the subway to High Street and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a little over a mile long, so it didn't take very long, and it provides some stunning views of the both Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty. It was awesome. However, it was also incredibly crowded, and that got old incredibly fast. But the views were phenomenal. As we got closer to the end, we could see buildings and city for days. 

Li'l Lady Liberty

Dee, Jeff, Me & Drew

     Once we were in Manhattan, we walked around downtown, stopping by Ground Zero and Walk Street. We grabbed lunch at a little pizza place right down the street from where the Twin Towers were, and sat and ate in this little square across the street. Saturday was the second anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, and there were some guys that had brought a big boombox and were dancing and stuff, drawing crowds. It was kind of cool. We walked through Battery Park and finally made our way to the Staten Island Ferry. It runs every half hour between Manhattan and Staten Island, and it's free. And it passes the Statue of Liberty. So we were able to relax for a while and enjoy the ferry, while seeing Lady Liberty at the same time. That was really cool because again we saw the lower Manhattan skyline. I don't know if that's something that I could ever get used to seeing. Everytime I do spot it, I'm just stunned because it looks so cool. 

Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxin' All Cool.

     By the time we were done with the Ferry, we'd been out and about for almost six hours and I was getting agitated being around thousands of people. It was then that I started to understand why it's believed that New Yorkers are rude. Imagine how you feel being on campus at the beginning and end of the year when there are tons of highschool students touring, and you're busy trying to get to class, and they're lollygaggin around in your way. It's like that...times a few million. Tourists get old, real quick. Tourist locations in Manhattan on the weekends will be avoided for the rest of the summer. I can't do that many people for very long.  But it was fun while it lasted. 

Lower Manhattan in ze Background

     Then we made our way back to Brooklyn to relax before heading out for the night. We went to TGIFridays in Times Square--big mistake, and for a few different reasons. Again, tourist location on a Saturday night = FAIL! Thursday through Saturday, Times Square is especially off limits. Then, we were at a chain restaurant in Times Square, so normal $6 appetizers were like $17. Gah! So we hung out there for a bit and then made our way around Manhattan. We stopped in Chelsea for a bit, and then Dee and I headed back up towards Mid-Town and went to a bar there. It was an extremely long night, and the subway ride back to the Brooklyn made it even longer. We started heading back at 5am, and didn't make it to my front door until about 6:45, but it was one of the most fun subway rides ever.

THIS really happened.

     We were waiting for the subway to come, and at some point, this woman--clearly drugged up on something sat down next to Dee, and started like wobbling from left to right and could barely hold her eyes open. And as she was drifting side to side, she ended up like taking up half of Dee's seat. It was hilariously uncomfortable, and then became down right hilarious. The women, who was visibly a few months pregnant, had passed CLEAN OUT! She was dead to the world. A few minutes later, these guys came and saw her and immediately identified the humor in the situation. And the pictures started flashing. Lol, it wasn't right, but boy, was it funny. The guys were super cool, so we ended up talking to them for most of the subway ride back home. When we got off the subway and made it to the street, the sun was all the way up--and as soon as we got to my place, we were dead to the world.

Awwwwwkwaaardd.