I had a revelation while I was getting my eyelashes dyed and brows waxed...

I was laying there on the surgical table, getting my eye makeup removed, preparing for dark, luscious lashes.  This is my third brow waxer here in California, so I guess you could say I've been shopping around for something that I feel is competent with hot wax, near my eyes, and won't funk up my Brooke Shields brows that I've been working on for 27 years some time.  But I like this girl, so I'm back for a second round of, "Will she continue to pass the test?"

No, really, eye lash dyeing.  I thought, "What's an extra $10 bucks?"  So I did it.  They're dark now.  Super dark.  Like mascara-wearing dark.  Amazing.

So we're exchanging pleasantries, How was your Christmas??....New Years?, and other small talk conversations that come up.  I'm telling her that Christmas was great, we did a lot of traveling, saw a lot of family, but towards the end of being away...I just wanted to be back, not living out a suitcase, eating my hippie food, and crawling into my bed.  I just wanted to be home.

"So you're calling this home now?"

She's right.  Last brow wax, I explained how things weren't clicking right in the area, I had a less-than-stellar first experience with the "Wives Group," how the unemployment scene was not what I was expecting (I wasn't thinking end-of-the-world...I kinda should have) and how we're not sure we made the right move in wanting to come back to the West Coast.

But after all the traveling over the holidays, all of the hide-a-bed couches, the guest rooms, and the change in scenery (and temperature!), it's nice to be home.  I never looked at it that way until she was breathing all up my grill making sure every straw hair was tidied (she's meticulous...I love it!), but I guess we're doing our best at making this place work for us.  It's not ideal (hello rent-I've-never-seen-so-high-except-maybe-the-District-and-Manhattan), but it's where we're at.  And where we're at is with each other.  So as sappy and Nicholas Sparks-esque it is, I'm happy being here with a boy who won't face deployment until in the future, with a house set at 70-72 degrees, and the ability to walk to Vons (aka Safeway for my people) and find New Belgium brewery.

California: I guess it feels like we're home.  For the next 2.67 years.