Home again

Oo, I'm so glad to be back! Tony and Jorge (my first re-encounters) were kind of weird, but Vijay and Sharon and Nick and Jimmy and Dion and Chris were so reassuring! I was especially worried about Chris, but he punched me hard and friendly in the arm and shouted, "Hey! You're not in St Louis anymore!" laughing and sounding genuinely joyous. A lot of people thought I was pulling an Alyssa. But I'm back, and glad to be. The apartment was toasty and glowing like a real home last night. And I took a cab, alone! Painfully expensive (my entire Rocky pay with tip - over $40), but the guy seemed to think I knew my way around a bit ("Take the BQE, right?"), and it was bliss stepping out of that yellow fly-by-night onto the silent shining familiar streets of Chinatown. Sliding my own key into the deadbolt of 5209, smelling that same indefinable mission apartment air I first inhaled at 16. Rolling my worldly goods into the beloved place I have willingly and now fully moved into. Man. It was so hard saying goodbye, but it's good saying hello again. To know that I do belong here and am more and more making this community and these people my home.