I'm actually really happy to be home. But then again, home is what you make of it. 5 years ago when I moved out of my parents house, I remember telling my mom that it just didn't feel like home to me anymore... I think that really hurt her feelings. Home is comfort, love, and acceptance that I was just too blind to see. I felt like I just wanted to escape into some kind of ideal that I had built up in my head but didn't know how to attain. Here I stand, 5 years later back in the same place I started. I used to say that I've come so far and I've got nothing to show for it, but I have so much knowledge and life and amazing experiences that I've gone through and that, to me, is just as good as gold. I'm 25 years old and feel like I'm just beginning to live my life. I don't have a plan for the future, hell I don't even have plans for tonight, but it feels really damn good.
My parents have been in Florida visiting my sister since Saturday so Joe and I have been staying here with the dogs all week. It has been the absolute laziest few days of my life. We are so lucky to be able to spend all this time together... thank you funemployment! The way I look at it, we need to get as much enjoyment out of it as we can, when will we ever be able to spend this much time just enjoying each other's company again? He has started looking for a new job lately which I can support. I, on the other hand, have not. I am planning to ride this out for as long as I possibly can. I am going to travel to as many places as I can and take full enjoyment of the lack of responsibility for a while.
So... that's about it. Today is Veteran's Day and Joe and I are scoping out what kind of free shit we can rake in today. We are celebrating at the mansion later tonight as well. He said in the past years he hasn't thought much about it, but lately he has been showing a lot more pride in his service which I think is great. I mean shit, he was in Iraq at war voluntarily for 6 years! He told me that being in the Marines you experience the deepest admiration and the deepest hate from everyone. I know I couldn't put up with that. I think he carried that idea of hate with him for a while too, but I told him the other day that the people in Ramadi didn't hate HIM, just the idea of him. I think that's the way that most of life goes though, so many people are judged before they are given a chance. We all judge books by their covers and feel like idiots when we are proven wrong. That's a part of life that I am trying to let go of but is not easy to do.
