I'm No Nomad

I knew long before we embarked on this 5-week tour that it would make me homesick. I knew I would miss my friends, my family, my apartment, my local parks, my favorite restaurants, and many other specific people and things. I have definitely missed all of those people and things... a lot. But I have also missed something a bit more abstract that I hadn't really expected. I miss being settled. Anywhere. It's not about the place itself or the people or the things in it. It's simply the feeling of having a home base, my own personal space, somewhere to go back to.

During most of this trip, we've switched hotels, cities, and often states every single night. On the occasional day when we don't have a concert or when we've driven on to the next city after an evening concert, we have the rare luxury of staying somewhere two consecutive nights. It is these rare two-night stays that make me particularly aware of how much I miss feeling settled. On these occasions, I'm very consistent. After every two-night stay in one place, I miss that place, no matter how dingy or seedy the room, no matter how sleepy or generically commercial the area. There's nothing special about that Comfort Inn or Super 8 except the one extra night we spent there, the one extra night that was enough to make it feel very slightly more like home.