The Celebration.

My return was not the only reason to gather friends at an Undisclosed Location somewhere in Southern Virginia. A mutualFriend also wound up getting married on her birthday, (Aug. 3rd,) so glasses were raised, JagerBombs were dropped and 'good' American beer was more than available.

It was strange twisting the caps off bottles again.

As we sat on the back porch talking, laughing, sharing tattoo experiences/advice/artist's names, and downing Coors Light - I kept thinking in the back of my head that this is my last vacation for a while. Then I thought: why am I looking at my hometown as a vacation spot and not my home?
It became so clear last night that I don't live here anymore. I mean, I don't really have a permanent residence at all. I live at Carnegie Mellon for most of the year, but I don't tell people I'm from Pittsburgh. At the same time I am not registered to vote here in Virginia. The only mail I get at my parent's house is from the local bank, and mail that has been forwarded from Pittsburgh from my P.O. Box in Oakland.
I also don't carry membership cards from anything, or save those repeat spender coffee cards when I don’t frequent anything for very long. I have two bank accounts, (and at one point three,) to make travel easier. I haven’t had a job for more then three to four months at a time. I have managed to dwindle down all of my belonging to fit into three bags - one of which is specifically for my computer. The artifacts from my childhood are in a storage unit 30 minutes from my parent’s house along with more of my mother’s inheritance. When I’m in town, I sleep in the attic, not my childhood bedroom, and share a space with Christmas decorations and my mother's forgotten craft projects.
All this when written down and organized sounds a little sad and I might seem a bit lost. The reality is though: this is the transition from high school to the adult world that is known as College for most folks my age here in theStates.

I was asked by Someone last night, (as I always am here,) if I am coming back to stay after theBigDay in May 2007. I answered the way that I always do, “I’d like to, but we will have to see what happens this year.”
Give me about four months and theFuture might seem a bit more clear.