Saturday, July 12, 2008

Peppered

So I moved into my new place on Thursday, and decided Friday evening that it was time to buy some food.

You always have that massive grocery shop to do when you move. You have to literally buy everything. So I went to Publix expecting to drop $200 on said everything. An hour, $178, and two trips upstairs later, I was prepared to stock my kitchen.

At Publix, I picked up salt and pepper, not knowing for sure if I needed them or not, but just to be on the safe side. As it was, I found that I already had salt and pepper in my place, it had been packed with all my dishes by the movers in Seattle.

So as I was filling my kitchen cabinets, I came across a tin of Safeway brand black pepper, that I purchased in early Jan 2007 at the Safeway in Renton WA. I remember that day well. It was mid afternoon, heavy clouds, with a cold drizzle. Typical winter weather in Western Washington I found. I was standing there in the cold drizzle unloading the results of my "everything" grocery shop in the trunk of my light brown company sedan, and it kind of hit me what I was doing... the magnitude of making the move that I'd made, of how far from home I was. The stereotypical Seattle weather provided an appropriate backdrop for the ultimate "change it up" that I was going through.

Later that night, after making dinner, I went to a local Starbucks in the same shopping center as the Safeway to check my email since I didn't have internet at my new place yet. I sat there with this same laptop, checked the same email, read the same message boards, and thought about "home" and what that means.

And here I am again. Another big move, back "home" as it were, though I'm completely unfamilar with Buckhead in Atlanta. Same "everything" grocery shop, same pause that I had loading everything into the trunk of a light brown company sedan. The stereotypical late evening Georgia heat and humidity provided an appropriate backdrop for this next "change it up".

I'm even back at the Starbucks, because I don't have internet at my new place yet. And here I am thinking about home and what that means.