Coming Home

    Walking in the door with bags of clothes, toiletries, and whatever else. Some stuff you picked up along the way. Cold outside, warm inside. Dog running up to you like you've been gone for years and wanting to clearly monopolize your time, at least long enough to be sure you won't be leaving straight away again. Getting to your room, unpacking. Really truly being home once everything is back where it belongs....or tossed near it. Making sure to let some people know 'hey, I'm back. See ya in class/work/etc. tomorrow.'
    And logging in to Second Life and happening to see a friend or two before they log for the night and being able to talk to them, if only for a short bit.
    Home.



    I'm tired, yet here I am typing away and such. I don't know, but the lure of writing with pencil on paper, the sound and feel of it, as well as the sound and feel of typing are two completely different things. Both of which I have not done since Thursday, some on Friday. I feel withdrawal symptoms, or something near it as strange as that may sound. While I had a nice, interesting, exploring sort of weekend, I did miss some key things.
    I had my laptop with me and, while I could have used it on two of the nights probably, I didn't. Really just because it was late and the days were long, so i was tired and went to sleep right on the hard motel bed. Super fun. But, yea, so I missed some things. Like my friends. The ones in SL included. Now, that's not to say I was completely withdrawn from those ones, thanks to the wonderful thing called email. How people got along before it, I'll have no idea. I know I used it quite a bit this weekend. But such things, whether they be email or texting or whatever, they don't make up for the face-to-face contact, or, in the case of Second Life, the virtual contact. So, in a lot of ways, getting back in SL was a bit of a...coming home of sorts in it's own way. At least it was such a thing as I was able to do some IMing before there was logging, on their as well as my part. So, yea, I missed some people. Hard not to after being around one another for a long while. How I see it is that you can see who truly matters to you, by how much you miss them when you're away. Again, texting and other forms of communication put aside from the form. But...if you don't think of someone at least once, then they're not that close to your heart, at least not in most respects. I know there's a few people who I call friends simply for the sake of ease and not really meaning it as much as the word should mean, so, yes, I sadly do throw it around form time to time. But I also know who my real friends are, the ones who are near and dear to my heart that, if I could, I would have hugged them soon as I got home and said i missed you.
    Of course, as I type this, i realize I did say I miss you even though I was IMing missed people. Of course, I would hope, it would be known there was missing involved by some way and that that I'm not that hard to read on that front. If it is hard to tell then, to those who should know better: I missed you and I will tell you this tomorrow in IM, too!
    Like I said, being able to grab a friend in IM really did just add to my whole coming home feeling, even though i swear I only logged to clear out my notices. It was nice, unexpected, but...just made things good.
    If anyone ever takes a few days away from wherever, don't try and think on anyone, jsut let the thoughts of those people come to you. You'll see who truly matters, either by knowing them in RL or SL, by that simple thing, and, hopefully, you matter to whoever your thoughts go to as well.