rooted

lately i have been completely overwhelmed with a desire to return home. and by home, i mean oregon.

most of the time when someone asks me where i'm from, i say 'the west coast', because we moved around a lot. if pressed, i'll say oregon because i was born there, and have lived there the most (probably a third of my life).

within the last year, my parents, sister and her clan have all returned to the sweet, misty green of oregon. for a lot of that time, my parents were in a bad way (shitty situation with my uncle, then living out of a hotel for the last few months) but finally the heavens (in this case, government) blessed them with some low income housing. i haven't blogged about their situation much, because it was rather depressing and there wasn't much i could do about it, but they have a place to call their own now, and the relief i feel, it is great.

my sister and her two lovely boys moved to oregon in november. they had a rocky start too, but have settled a little more quickly. they're situated enough to get camera phones and send me some nice pics. :-D

now my parents have always - gently - pushed me to live closer to them. for many years they lived in one of the Hottest, Driest, Blandest Places On Earth (phoenix), so it was really easy to say no. my sister also lived there, but never asked me to move, probably because she hated it too. scorpions? not really a selling point.

now they're all up in oregon, and getting pretty cozy. apparently it's so nice (as if i didn't know oregon was nice) that really, can't i just move up there? apply to jobs up that way? my sister was practically pleading with me a week or so ago, and since she has NEVER done anything like that, it just about killed me. my chest ached for wanting to be there with all of them. because she just missed me. and i miss all of them.

the part that really hits me as funny is that there is no drama surrounding this. nobody needs rescuing (and of course, that's good!), but i'd swear someone activated some kinda homing beacon or something, because the drive to pack up and leave is insane. the good(?) news is that the insanity has spread to min -- without my really saying anything -- so at least we're both infected. it'll be interesting to see where this leads…

ps. no i am not just writing this because i've had a hard day/couple of weeks.
pps. yes i've had a hard day/couple of weeks. :-p