Sunday, January 17, 2010

Ready to look at a Sunset




People often ask us what we miss about "home".  The things that come to mind immediately are the typical responses... family, friends, dog, community, Farmer's Market, our VW, blahblahblah.

But we have really been missing light reading.  We miss having our favorite magazines on the coffee table.  We miss plopping down on the couch and reading a little something for 10 minutes.  Sure, there are magazines in English here, but not really the ones we prefer.  One day, there was a Time magazine in my box in the office.  I have no idea who put it there, and it was about 2 months old, but I brought it home and put it on the coffee table and it was our reading candy for a couple of weeks.  In a dive shop on Roatan, I found a People magazine and read about Jen and Brad and how they have been spending time together and texting.  Whoooo!

So before my parents came here, I asked my mom to bring any magazines that she was done with, specifically, Sunset.  I love Sunset magazine  I love the gardening ideas and the yummy recipes.  I love the house remodels and garden make-overs.  I love the western states weekend travel spots and even the ads are fun to look at.  I love that there is a magazine that highlights all the great things about living where we used to live.  I was ready to read Sunset again.

I don't think I could have handled reading Sunset a few months ago.  To read about a Northern California fall with recipes for chili-roasted acorn squash, baked apples with cranberry molasses bread pudding and arugula, fennel and lemon salad would have been tough.   Even seeing an advertisement for a Subaru would have been painful.  The articles and images from "home" stirred up a lot of feelings about missing where we came from and the people there.  A few months ago, we were still adjusting to life here, at times asking ourselves "Why did we move here!?", thinking about Milo,  our fig and persimmon trees, our kid's sweet schools and our community.

But now time has passed.  Although this city and country still feel foreign to us, it is our home.  We have paid some culture shock and home sickness dues and we've come through to the other side.  Having our parents visit last month was a big pick-me-up.  They brought treasures like Trader Joe's hot cereal, Traditional Medicinal teas, a case of beer from Bear Republic Brewery (yes! a whole CASE!), Dr. Bronner's soap,  local honey, The Bohemian, a Sonoma West newspaper, good sunscreen, Sumbody sugar scrub and soap, and yes, Sunset magazine.

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