Okay, so I want to go home. For some, I've made this perfectly clear for ages now. Others, they have no idea that Columbia is not home to me. I want to go home badly. There are, of course, many reasons I want to go, all of which would have made me barf in high school (back when I wanted to get as far as humanly possible away from home, and I thought kids were nothing more than a virus that plagued your life). I want to be near family, first and foremost, especially since I am having a third child, and I will need as much close support as I can get. I'm betting that my mom will totally delight in her three grandchildren, and want to spend oodles of time with them, smothering them in love and spoiling. That's just fine by me, as long as I'm not ALWAYS required to be there with her! Then, of course, there's the familiarity of it all, and being able to tell my kids stories about growing up and actually showing them where the stories happened. TJ is also madly in love with downtown Charleston, and, well, it's kind of a far drive from here just to hang out there. As well, I would have access to two pools there (hint, hint) of very close friends and family (well, both on mom invites, of course), and Taryn has a seeming love of water already that just makes me think she would be in heaven in a pool.

Then there's the other big reason I want to go home: Julia. If you've been reading this for any period of time, and I'm sure you haven't, you would have learned way back when that I met Julia in third grade. I believe the teacher's name was Ms. Quiat (Kee-ot). It was the beginning of the schoolyear, and we were doing one of those icebreaker things and had to draw names of animals and pair up. We both drew tigers, and were automatic friends. Mind you, this was a BIG deal to me, b/c I was a rather hefty child in third grade, and it's not easy to make friends when you're in third grade, new at your school, and a fat kid. Therefore, the fact that Julia was nonjudgemental made her an even better friend to have. Of course, as fate would have it, she was soon moved to a different class across the school, but we still saw each other on our Friday trips to SAIL (smart kids class--never would have guessed it, huh?). We remained friends, and she was not forgotten when she moved to the next district over.

It must have been fate, b/c when I moved to that same district, lo and behold, there was Julia at the same middle school! We became friends again, and suffered some ups and downs, and then in high school finally got over our differences (mostly from peer pressure from others) and became close friends again. As this whole fate thing goes, shortly thereafter, I moved in right down the street from her, about four houses down. Oh yes, it was meant to be...

Since then, we have remained friends. Admittedly, we lost touch for a while when I moved away and she started the whole married life/having kids thing. I just wasn't there yet, and really couldn't understand what was going on in her life. However, I feel like now, even though we're pretty far separated, we're pretty close, and I really look forward to every opportunity to see her and hang out. She's the only person who actually gets me, and, well, doesn't think I have too many screws loose to admit to!

Here's the kicker, though. I was thinking about Julia while I was washing the dishes a little while ago, and it occurred to me that we really are pretty much opposites. Allow me to elaborate:
Julia was hardcore for nursing. The thought of a little person sucking on my boob makes me sick to my stomach.
Julia used cloth diapers. I am all about destroying the world if it means I don't have to wash any more clothes than I already do!
Julia takes the time to cook healthy, natural, vegetarian meals for her family. If it takes me more than three minutes to cook from start to finish, and I can't do it in my microwave, toaster oven, or Foreman grill, I want nothing to do with it.
Julia is a vegetarian, has never had meat in her entire life, not even fish. I am all about some chicken, steak, salmon, pork, you name it.
Julia has thin, straight hair. I have THICK, wavy hair.
Julia married the kind of guy I always saw myself married to. I married the guy I always saw her married to.
Julia, overall, is a pretty quiet, private person. I am loud, talkative, and wayyyy too open to anyone who will listen.
Julia will stand up to people in public and ask for what she wants (this I've seen her do, and totally admire). I cower and just suffer.
Julia was once told she has a 'badoonkadoonk'. I have no butt to speak of.
Julia is more a fan of laid back, 90's type music (which I also like a lot of). My personal tastes tend to bend a little more toward the hardcore, loud, headbanging kind of music.
Julia is organized and a great homeschooling teacher and mom. I am still working on it, but I have ZERO organization skills, and fear that homeschooling might just be a major mistake for me to try b/c of that.
Julia has great logic skills, as well as math and science-type thinking. I am awesome at English-type stuff, but I have the common sense of a rock, and SUCK at math and science.

I could go on for days, I'm sure, but I think you get the point. Now, can you blame me for wanting to go home to get more facetime with such a great person? I just think it's so awesome that we can be so very, very different, yet get along SO very well. I love that Julia doesn't judge me for my worldly views and personality, and that we can still get along so well despite our differences. Now, don't get me wrong, we do have a lot in common as well. That's what I think is even that much more amazing!

Really, though, you get those lame emails all the time about friends, and how you need to send them to all of the friends in your life. How many of those people, though, can you say have been lifelong, and will be lifelong friends? I can name one (one, which, btw, knows better than to send me all of those lame emails!). Her name is Marie. Ha ha! Just kidding! I did that to piss off Julia! Yeah, yeah, her name is Julia.

Anyway, it's insanely late for me. I have to be up in about a minute, or so it feels. I must be carrying myself off to bed now. Welcome to the new, deeply hormonal Christi. Well, at least I'm over the morning sickness! Have a great day! I'll see you soon!