Homesick

Lest anyone think that we are always deliriously happy, living a European dream or, worse yet, that I've succumbed to the present-a-perfect-picture-of-my-super-perfect-life (that-no-one-can-possibly-believe) blogger syndrome, let me assure you that we do, in fact, miss home.

Our homesickness isn't so much of that deep, angst-ridden, wishing we were there instead of here, but rather a sort of dull pang of longing for the familiarity and ease of our lives back home. Truthfully, I think we would be feeling this, on some level, no matter where we had moved.

Now, before you get all worried and think about sending me plane tickets, tissues and/or Prozac, let me assure you: we are fine. We are happy here and are enjoying this new adventure in our lives But it's a pretty major change. Maybe even more major than I often let myself admit. And, it would be pretty disingenuous of me to try to convince you otherwise.

So here's me being "real:" sometimes, I just miss home.

And, here is my (not exhaustive) list of things I am missing (in no particular order):

• Driving (it's seriously been nearly 2 months since I've driven a car!)
  
• Only having to haul groceries up 3 flights of stairs (versus 1.5 miles from the store)
• Being able to call people without having to figure out the time difference
• Being able to call people when they are available without having to stay up until 11:00pm to make the call
• Breakfast with Audrey
• Thursday mornings with Maria
• Friends who know you well
  
• Being around to help out friends when they have hard stuff going on (MG, I really, really just want to come babysit your kids!)
  
• Internet at home (working on this one)
• Knowing how to get places
• Knowing what places there are to get to
• Talking to my sisters often (that time difference is hard to work around, especially when people work during the day and want to sleep at night).
  
• DeMun
• Forest Park
• Kaldi's
• Being blissfully unaware of exchange rates
• Watching Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night at 8:00pm
• Watching any TV as it is actually aired (and, without paying a TV fee)
• Hulu and abc.com
• Being able to call people on my way home from work
• Working (I can't believe I just wrote that)
  
• No difference between calling a landline and a cell phone, in terms of fee charged by the phone company (why, o why, is it free to call a landline but not a mobile???)
  
• A church that we really love
• St. Louis Botanical Gardens
• Renting movies inexpensively and hassle-free
• Knowing what size clothes and shoes I wear (UK sizing confuses me)
• Knowing what you need to know to cut through the red-tape
• An oven that uses Fahrenheit

So, there you go. Now that I have made you feel sufficiently sad for me, here's my shameless attempt to leverage your sympathy in my favor: leave comments on my blog. It will make me feel better.