Bicoastal

I went back home for the long weekend for a number of reasons:

• Our dearest LWC is the first among us girls to have a baby bump! I couldn't miss the celebratory shower of the bump (and eventual baby).
• I got a call that Cisco Systems wanted me on the cover of some print ad of theirs. Turned out to be their annual report. How funny is it that? It helped pay for my trip, so I was happy to strike a pose.
• I visited possible wedding venues.
• The girls and my family fed me and made me feel very loved at early birthday dinners.
• Got to hang out and just enjoy being San Franciscan again.

My days were busier than I expected them to be. In many ways, I felt like I never left. It was so easy to slip back into the old routine of eating and coffee catching and shopping and eating and hanging out - and did I mention eating? My mom often talked my ear off; and when I thought she was finished, she simply moved on over to the other ear. If God thought about the fact that I was being born to this mother of mine, He should've equipped me with five ears.

There were some differences too. People moved away, so I didn't get to see them (Chenja). People lived in new places in the city and owned new things like cars (Lee). New restaurants popped up; I wasn't used to not knowing the latest and greatest happenings of my city.

But is it still my city?

I thought San Francisco would always be home to me. I didn't feel out of place. Not yet. But I could sense, for the first time, that there may very well be a visit down the road where I'll actually feel like a visitor there. While it still felt like I was going "back home" to San Francisco, returning to D.C. also felt like "coming home" too. Can I have two homes? Don't I have to pick? If my friends and family moved away from San Francisco, would it still feel like home then?

I've come to realize that home isn't necessarily defined by a physical location. If I could gather all my loved ones together somewhere - anywhere - THAT would be home. Heck, stick them in a big, white box and throw in Taboo and Scattergories! (Oh, and maybe Scrabble too. And the Food Network. And Project Runway while we're at it. You know what I mean.)

But without that white box? I consider myself officially bicoastal!