Virtual Good Night
It's this time of night that I find myself searching for something familiar to calm me before going to sleep. Even when I've been on fabulous vacations in the past, I long for "home" before the end of the trip. I realize we are no where near the end of our stay but I ache for familiar things at night.
I used to use my Tivo to wind down in the evening at home. I've tried watching TV here at night and realized quickly that I am not going to get the same effect. Everything is still too new. The shows are different, the words are different, the commercials are different. I can't turn on autopilot even when I'm trying because everything catches my attention.
I tried something new tonight though, Google Maps. I looked up our house in Endicott. The photo was updated in 2007 so we owned it then. I can't see either of our cars in the picture and was really hoping to see the kids pool or picnic table out on the back deck but even without those things, it felt familiar. Then I looked up my in-laws house up the road, then my sister in-laws house in New Jersey, then my Grandma in Idaho, then my Grandparents in Nevada. It seemed to give me my fix. All very familiar places with trees and cars and backyards that I know by heart. It was almost like I was visiting each house. I could imagine walking in the doors, the faces I'd see there, the dogs I'd pet, the food we would eat. The familiarity of not only the surroundings, but the relationships under those roofs.
Everything here is new. New places and new friends, both good things but to put me at ease, I need what I know. So tonight I'll imagine turning the tv off, walking through the kitchen, starting the dishwasher, turning the lights out, walking down the hall, opening the girls' bedroom doors, petting Eulie Dog and crawling into bed even though that routine is 8000 miles away.
I used to use my Tivo to wind down in the evening at home. I've tried watching TV here at night and realized quickly that I am not going to get the same effect. Everything is still too new. The shows are different, the words are different, the commercials are different. I can't turn on autopilot even when I'm trying because everything catches my attention.
I tried something new tonight though, Google Maps. I looked up our house in Endicott. The photo was updated in 2007 so we owned it then. I can't see either of our cars in the picture and was really hoping to see the kids pool or picnic table out on the back deck but even without those things, it felt familiar. Then I looked up my in-laws house up the road, then my sister in-laws house in New Jersey, then my Grandma in Idaho, then my Grandparents in Nevada. It seemed to give me my fix. All very familiar places with trees and cars and backyards that I know by heart. It was almost like I was visiting each house. I could imagine walking in the doors, the faces I'd see there, the dogs I'd pet, the food we would eat. The familiarity of not only the surroundings, but the relationships under those roofs.
Everything here is new. New places and new friends, both good things but to put me at ease, I need what I know. So tonight I'll imagine turning the tv off, walking through the kitchen, starting the dishwasher, turning the lights out, walking down the hall, opening the girls' bedroom doors, petting Eulie Dog and crawling into bed even though that routine is 8000 miles away.
Try Google Earth. It's free. Just download and install it. You can zoom WAAAAY in and even crank up the topography and zoom through the valleys following roads and stuff. It's just like being there, if you were invisible and flying and everything was kind of washed out and flat looking.
Brandie, your words made my eyes leak....