Anniversary

I have been thinking a lot about this blog of late. We just passed the one year mark since we have returned to the United States and I thought it appropriate to give an update on where we are. Physically, we are in a community north of San Diego called San Elijo. Emotionally, I am not sure that we ever left London. Strangely, that city has become home to us in a very short period of time and keeps calling to us. Don’t get me wrong, while we miss London, we still needed to come back to San Diego for a number of reasons. Air conditioning comes to mind first… Suzanne’s pregnancy and the lack of good, centralized ac did not go comfortably hand in hand. Socialized medicine was another biggie. In fact, probably the biggest of the biggies. When we go back, we will be sure to immediately look into privatized health insurance. We also needed the peace of mind that came from the tests that were done on Suzanne’s heart. As anyone who has known us for some time is already aware, Suzanne had a defect in her heart that required repair when she was six years old. Whether or not the repair was strong enough for the exertions of labor was a major concern for us. After having a bubble echo done, we have that sorted. So what was all the rush home for? I find myself singing that Ryoksopp song that is played on one of the Geico caveman commercials: “It’s only been a week, and I’m failing to recall what I was missing all that time in England”. It has been longer than a week, and there ARE some things I missed that I have loved returning to. Family and friends of course. Sailing once a month with my dad is a big one. A dryer… Believe it or not, even though Suzanne does almost all of the laundry, I missed having a dryer. It was a royal pain always having to wait for everything to line dry. I have also grown a great deal in my professional life in the last year. I have learned a great deal about sales, marketing, even leading that I did not know prior to working for my current employer.

And yet, it still isn’t home any more. For all of the professional and personal gains, the bigger apartment, the dryer, the family, the friends, it still is no longer home. I can’t stand suburbia. I REALLY CAN’T STAND SUBURBIA. I hate talking to people who have never seen anything more than Southern California, or if they have seen more than SoCal, they saw it as part of a 7 day 6 night bus tour of Europe with all of its required picture spots and canned souvenirs. I hate that the only thing in walking distance is a gas station. How’s that for irony? I hate the gigantic SUVs with one person in each and every one of them clogging up the roads. And I hat e that it is going to take me another year to get home.