So I used to have this blog what feels like half a bzillion years ago to keep my family and friends up-to-date on my adventures and thoughts during my year abroad.  And once I got back to the States I sort of let it go as I got wrapped up with moving to the east coast, getting a job, losing a job, working retail, getting another job, going to grad school, and getting yet another job.  Which was pretty dumb on my part 'cause it's clearly a good outlet for thoughts, musings, and observations.  Or I hope it is.  Anyway, I'm restarting this little gig.  So here goes.

Though this blog is titled "Life out of the big cornfield" I'm actually in the Cornfield as I restart this.  I'm at the end of my annual pilgrimage home for Thanksgiving.  My family does a great job with this holiday with my father cooking an amazing meal, my mother making outstanding pies, and the family hosting my dad's international students for a traditional thanksgiving dinner.  As much as I love living on the east coast, I really love trips home.  They sort of reset my system.  They remind me that life exists outside the beltway, that there are issues that Americans face that have nothing to do with big cities, and that there is a part of the world that remembers me when I was shorter, had longer hair, and was less cynical.  I was shopping at JC Pennys and the woman who rang me up proclaimed she didn't have to ID me (to check my credit card) because she had known me for over 25 years.  'Cause she also works at the grocery store my family has been going to for 28 years.  Part of me loves that this sort of thing never happens when I'm in DC; I sort of love the anonymity of big cities, with the "I could be anyone" vibe.  But part of me sort of misses the random people that knew me back when.

Either way, I'm headed out of the cornfield again tomorrow (weather permitting of course).  Back to anonymity, urban problems, work, metros, and smog.  It'll be good to be home.