Well I've Never Been to Heaven, But I've Been to Oklahoma.

So I moved away from home almost exactly 2 years ago but I don't think I've ever really been away from home until now. Sure I went away to college, but that hardly counts. It was only a 2 hour drive to get home, I could do it in a day if I wanted to and sometimes I did. Then I moved to New York. But even then, I knew we were moving back to Oklahoma for Erik's career course in a few months so it wasn't so bad. And now we're here and I can't just hop in the car and go home any more and it kind of sucks. That's right, sucks. Before we go on, I'm going to tell you that you shouldn't perceive the following post to be whining. It's not. Most days, I love living here, but sometimes I miss looking out and seeing wheat fields as far as the eye can see.

Did you know my hometown has the largest grain elevators in the United States? Well, you do now.

And did you also know that John Wilkes Booth allegedly escaped to Enid after fatally shooting President Abraham Lincoln and lived there for over 30 years? I bet you didn't, because I didn't either until a someone here told me and I googled it to find out.

Why the history lesson and ridiculous trivia, you ask? Silly though it might be, I realized the other day that when they conduct the 2010 census, I will not be included in the total for Enid. Also, clearly, I'm homesick. I'm homesick and I'm losing my accent, and I'm not happy about either of these things. Fortunately, the latter can be solved by watching a marathon of Paula Deen shows on the Food Network. The former requires a little more planning.

Erik and I decided (well I decided, he signed off on the idea) last night that we should go back to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. All I know is that I want to fly into an airport named after a man who died in a plane crash, I want to see the ugly wooden ENID sign with the buffalo on it, and breathe in the (preferably early summer evening) air as I drive up Highway 81 with the windows down (and no, I'm not referencing the smell of cow poo). I want to take Erik to the Cherokee Strip Museum and go to church in my church (and maybe go to Sonic afterward). Going back for Thanksgiving just gives me another very exciting thing to look forward to this year but I'm a little skittish about it. I know Enid isn't "home" any more and I'm happy with my life here, I just don't particularly care for that notion.

It's funny, when I was younger, I couldn't wait to get out of Big Fat Enid, but I really didn't plan to vacate the entire state, let alone the continent! Right before I moved to New York I ate a fortune cookie and I still carry around the fortune it had inside: "Sometimes travel to new places leads to great transformation" - I suppose that's true.

Some say it's a backward place

Narrow minds on the narrow race

But I make it a point to say that's where I come from.

-Kenny Chesney