“I Feel Home”
June 22, 2011O.A.R
Well in the end, we can all call a friend, well that’s something that I know as true
In a thousand years, and a thousand tears, I’ll come finding my original crew
Cause to me throughout eternity there is somewhere we are welcome to go
I said it’s something free that means a lot to me, when I’m with my friends I feel home
In a thousand years, and a thousand tears, I’ll come finding my original crew
Cause to me throughout eternity there is somewhere we are welcome to go
I said it’s something free that means a lot to me, when I’m with my friends I feel home
I feel home when I see the faces that remember my own
I feel home when I’m chilling outside with the people I know
I feel home, and that’s just what I feel
Cause home, to me, is reality and all I need is something real
Home to me is reality and all I need is something real, I feel home
A favorite song of mine by a great band, and as I moved to Indianapolis in 2004 and traveled to race on both coasts and everything in between, it’s something I reminded myself often; home is where the love is and friends and family reside.
In the past 72 hours I have stepped back and said “wow” to how fortunate we are with the love of friends and how lucky we are to be able to share our lives with those we care about.
I don’t get to see Rockville nearly enough, best man at our wedding, best friend since the first week of college together, and my usual cohort in all things uncivilized. I suppose we’re real adults now, jobs, significant others, mortgages, the realization that we can’t party like we used too; but the chance to catch up with him is always something I appreciate. Before The Crash I always said that even though I was an only child I had two brothers I could always count on; Jim and Rockville, it’s a relationship that means more to me than ever after everything we have been through. So yesterday when I received an email that he wanted to bounce a few ideas off of me and use my “blunt wisdom” to gauge things and I quickly obliged (the other perk of being an adult…there is always beer in the beer fridge now). After a few beers and a few life discussions at the world famous Hanley Tiki Bar in our dining room (not that adult yet I suppose…), it was agreed upon that we need to do it more often now that life has settled down and get back to our Schooner routine at Chumley’s.
When I met Lauren I also quickly got to know many of her friends; just like I brag about having the best in-laws ever, I’m also bragging about two of L’s closest friends, LM and Law School whom I love dearly and always enjoy seeing. LM was in town last night on the return leg of a long trip. We had the joy of picking her up from the airport, getting dinner with her at Kilroy’s Indy, and just sitting back and catching up. I always try to coax her to move to Indianapolis every time I see her as L and LM are perfect counterparts and Lauren loves spending time with her and is always in a good mood when she is around, maybe one day she’ll take me up on the offer!
Then there is “Law School”, the reason Lauren and I met; a friend to both of us separately before she introduced us; and by far the person I laugh hardest at when she comes up for air from school. Law School has just graduated from law school; and is now studying for the Bar Exam, but instead of studying for hours a day; she chooses to study for weeks on end. I sent her a text last week after she had been off the grid for weeks and simply inquired if she had moved to Russia because even though she lives 5 minutes from us there had been zero sign of life. As usual she popped up randomly days later with an even more random text…supposedly we’re seeing her Saturday night; though with Law School we’re never quite sure…
Last but not least, my friend Penny whom took a job last year halfway around the world in Singapore called me Monday morning as I was dealing with the lightning strike aftermath. We had been playing email tag for weeks and she finally held me to my promise to be available; so I sat down and talked to her for 20 minutes catching up, it’s always good to hear her stories and what’s going on with her currently. I didn’t tell her about the lightning strike situation as I just wanted to catch up and not drown her in something that was irrelevant, and the email I got from her later after the Blog posting was something along the lines of “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”….at least I know she is reading The Blog now…
Top that with getting to see B and Captain Fire (yep, it’s changed from Fire Captain to Captain Fire or CF for short) this past weekend and life is good. Funny thing about this Blog, we’ve heard from more people in the last ten days than we have in the past year outside of the small group listed above. We’re not sure if people are realizing we’re not nearly as scary or functionally unsociable after The Crash as they expected; but we’re enjoying hearing from old friends. If you’ve been on the border about reaching out to us and not knowing what to say, we suggest a “hey, how are you guys? Want to grab a drink?” Even though we’re adults, those words are still music to our ears. Don’t be shy, don’t be a stranger, because when we’re with our friends…we feel home.
Cheers
-th