Family Is Where the Home Is

Moving takes your life and shakes it around. It jumbles around the pieces inside until you are left lost and confused with how things have ended up. I had some moments where I was just confused towards the beginning of the month, especially around 4th of July where I just realized that I would miss holidays away from my friends and family in Long Beach. I had an amazing holiday spent with new friends from Arcata, but it was just not the same.

I booked a flight home for a one-way trip from San Francisco to Long Beach. I bought the ticket a couple days prior to leave me enough time to figure out how I would get to SF. I could get a direct flight from Arcata...but it is pretty pricey. I could drive to SF...but I didn't really want to. I found this girl Erin through Craigslist that was offering a ride through "rideshare." Its pretty much a part of the craigslist site where you can post if you are going somewhere and if you have a couple extra spots in your car to take people along. Call it modern-day hitch-hiking (which was my second option). We agreed I would pay her $40 for gas from Arcata to SF....so that part was set.

My flight was at 6:30PM on a Wednesday evening, so I had the whole day to get to the airport. Erin picked me up at my house @ 5am. She is also an HSU student and was pretty easy to converse with. She made me grab her itinerary paper which had a list of people she was picking up. She was driving down to Palm Springs and picking up more people. I saw her next stop was in Berkeley, so I told her she could drop me off there.

I LOVE the city of Berkeley. It is pretty much Arcata on a wider scale. I've always had this idea to crash a class...so I looked up what classes were happening at UC Berkeley. I decided on this Psychology of Sleep class, which was holding its second meet day and which was in a big lecture hall. I was trying to do my best not to stand out. Then again, I look like just another student.

I settle into a chair in this lecture hall, and I am intrigued by the very first word from this professor. UC Berkeley is known for using student teachers, and she was one. Even so, she knew how to teach. I was grasping onto every word...and would take that class in a heartbeat.

After about twenty minutes, all the sleep terms were starting to get to me. I didn't want to talk about sleep...I wanted to sleep! I stormed out of the class and walked onto this grassy quad area and found a tree to sleep under. I got a good thirty minute nap in. After that, I explored downtown and the areas around Berkeley. I got a wheatgrass shot and a veggie juice at this juice shop. I kept exploring and decided to get onto the BART.

I got off at the Embarcadero and explored. I walked around and just took everything in. I found a pizza shop and got a slice of cheese pizza and just sat and watched the world unravel before my eyes.

About thirty minutes or so, I make the decision to head to the airport via the nearby BART station. As I was at the airport and on the flight home, all I kept thinking about was what it was going to feel like once I walked back inside my "home."

A short ten minute drive later, we arrive at the front steps. I open up the door and walked inside. Something was different. It did not feel the same. It did not feel like home anymore. It just seemed like just another place...but it was not home. Well... "it was" home.

After spending a couple days back in Long Beach meeting up with friends and family...it started to feel like home. That's when I realized that home is not in any particular place. It is comprised of the people that are in your life. Family and friends are where "the home is."

Where you live will change multiple times throughout your life. You can make where you live very very comfortable to the point where you consider it as "home"....but really it is not what makes it up. It is the people that are in and around your home.

My new home is tucked away in a less-traveled part of Arcata that is a short walk away from Humboldt State. It is home because I have my friends and family supporting me every step of the way.

First of July...and The Last Full Month Before Grad School :D

The first day of July has been a day of new beginnings. A new group to cycle with, and new friends---with one of them being 3 1/2!


My day started out with a glass of fresh juice from five organic carrots and one organic apple. After I had that for breakfast I suited up in my CSULB Triathlon kit to go for a bike ride with Adventure's Edge:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventures-Edge/114978086582

Adventure's Edge is the main outdoor/cycling shop in my beautiful city of Arcata, CA. They have daily bike rides leaving the shop, with each day being either a road bike ride or mountain bike ride.

Today was going to be my first ride with this group. I've heard a lot about them...but haven't waked up early enough to go out. I woke up early this morning...so decided to go.

The ride left the shop at 9:30AM and was a group of eight other guys and two women. One of the guys from the ride was from the HSU Cycling Team (which I will be a part of in August), so we talked about the team. I found out as we went along that I inquired about his spare room in his house a couple weeks back. Of course, it was one of the unsuccessful attempts. Small world, especially up here. I have an AMAZING roommate that I'm living with that is also part of the cycling team.

Anyways, we rode up to Trinidad (about 15-18 miles north from Arcata).

It was mixture of bumpy road, single track, and HWY 101. I've never been on such a bouncy ride on my road bike. The ride was great...got some sprints in--and got to show off my power on the hills. Overall it was a mellow ride that was pretty much a social event. I was friends with everyone by the end of it. One of the girls that was riding with the group works at the shop Adventure's Edge...and gave me a FREE cycling kit! Free cycling jersey, wind jacket, and a pair of bib shorts (gotta wait on them...till they get my size). I haven't experienced such generosity from people I just met like that. It shows how amazing the community is up here!

After that fantastic workout and meeting new friends, I got back and did some stock trading. A little later I decide to bring a book over to Redwood Park. As I was about to head out, I get a text from a friend of mine who wants to join me. So we head over to the park and have an amazing time.  

After that we went to pick up her daughter, who is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! I hung out with my friend and her daughter at the downtown plaza and we had so much fun. After that we went back to my place and we made dinner. While the food was cooking--I pretty much became a kid being around her. I was having so much fun playing. Here (in this Harry Potter-ish resembling picture)---she was trying my glasses on while writing on my Buddha Board!