May 18, 2020

Point Montara. Halina and I stayed in a hostel here the week before we bought our house in Illinois. That night, I found out we'd lost the first house we'd made an offer on and I cried through several chapters of reading Lassie Come Home aloud. The next day we drove to a nearby beach and practiced handstands. And then we went a goat farm and fell in love with the farm's herb cheese and lavender lotion.

 

I think of how Halina has found herself feeling homesick for California this year, even though she appreciates what she has here. I think of feeling homesick for the house we didn't get that night and how, when you're homesick, you just have to cry.

Halina and I also look at pictures like these and understand that we took California for granted. But that knowledge is something earned.

We've had a lot of rain here lately. It's rained 8 inches in four days in the Chicago area. Our real estate agent actually reached out to let me know that she heard that the house we didn't get had water over a foot deep in the basement. Lots of people do this week. Dodged a bullet with that one, she said.