I didn’t even realize I was homesick until I was back here. Don’t get me wrong, I had an absolutely fabulous time in NYC working and spending time with my brother (and lots of other people I’ve been excited to meet in person for quite some time)! I shot some beautiful families, ate some delicious food, and met my new boyfriend, Michael C Hall. haha 😉 But I’m not going to lie, something felt a little off about the trip because James wasn’t with me.
Since we went full time with our business, I’ve only taken one other major solo trip (to What If in the Dominican Republic) and after that James and I vowed we’d always travel together (or maybe just I vowed that in my head… haha). While I think lots of things about traveling solo to NYC were so very good for my co-dependent self, most importantly being able to see so many people and do so many things while there without feeling like I was putting James out by planning up every moment of the day (which he isn’t a huge fan of)… I still kept thinking of things I wished I could talk to James about, or things I wished we’d experienced together.
While I was there I knew I was missing he and Chloe (sleeping solo in a very empty and sterile NYC apartment/airBnB on the upper west side felt sooo strange), but I wasn’t letting myself wallow in it for fear it would ruin a perfectly awesome trip! So I lived it up to the fullest, ran myself completely ragged (to the point of now being sick, apparently… wee!), and loved every minute.
So naturally, it came as bit of a surprise when my plane descended below the cloud cover last night and I set my sights on my city lit up below me – how HAPPY I was to see Chicago. What was even more of a surprise was when my plane actually touched down to the ground (after a bit of a wobbly and turbulent end), I got seriously choked up… as in – I nearly started sobbing big, fat, happy tears. I don’t really know what it was – maybe missing James & Chloe, maybe feeling a little under the weather and exhausted, or maybe missing the smiling faces of fellow Chicagoans on these clean, tree-lined streets 😉 … but man, I was happy to be home.
