Feels Like Home

Blog Portland tagged me for the five things you don't know about me meme, but because he decided to give his a thematic link (being tortured in many sadistic but entertaining ways by his older brother), and because I can never do anything exactly as assigned, I've decided to thematically link mine as well.

Five Cities That Feel Like Home
(in chronological order of my discovery)

1. Sure, New York feels like home because New York is home--in terms of the conventional "where you sleep" definition. But what I am talking about is an inexplicable feeling of connection to a place, and I have that connection with my hometown. I feel connected to certain boroughs and neighborhoods more than others; certain locations and attractions never fail to put me at ease. (But that's a list for a different day.) During my extremely abbreviated college hunt, someone asked me why I wanted to go NYU and my immediate answer was "Why would I want to go anywhere else?" I won't always live here, but I'll always feel that draw.


2. Whenever I talk about Florence, I sound like a starry-eyed teenager with a crush. Florence is the way to my heart. Enough said. For now.

3. Laura and I are wandering aimlessly about Europe. We know we want to stop somewhere in Switzerland, but can't decide where. She befriends some random person while I'm asleep on the train, and wakes me up.
"We're getting off the train."
"Where are we?"
"Basel."
"What's in Basel?"
"Lots of stuff. Get up."
I obey, and then I thank her.

Actual excerpt from my notebook: The cleanest and most efficient bathroom I have ever seen, complete with machines to make change from your francs, coin-operated turnstiles, and complimentary packets of moistened toilet tissue. Clean streets, Swiss flags everywhere, policewoman in little cup in large intersection controlling traffic. Home.

What any of those details have to do with my love of the city, I have no idea. It's like when you have an amazing conversation with someone and your friend asks you what exactly made it so, and you think of random things the person said, and then realize that none of them separately or en masse really have any relevance to why you woke up the next morning with that stupid smile on your face. It's more than chemistry; it's recognition. (I had chemistry with Prague--all sorts of chemistry--but no recognition.)


4. Key West. For some reason, I can't currently locate any of the photos I took in Key West. This might somehow be related to the fact that my living space looks like the aftermath of a tornado. So here's the cover of the notebook that I bought at the Hemingway House.

And here's a page from the actual copy of A Farewell to Arms that I attempted to read for my high school English class, excerpted from somewhere around the place where I decided that I could skip...oh...eight to ten chapters, give or take five more...and not feel guilty. This is not something I would normally do, but the idea of reading every word of this book was worse than the thought of getting paper cuts in my eyeballs.

Which is why I found it curious to feel such a strong connection to the neighborhood where this man chose to build his home, to his actual home, and to the lighthouse that helped him get his drunk ass back to that home every night.

This is a city that throws a sunset party every night. What's not to love?

5. ????? From the very beginning of this post, I knew that this was a four-item list, but I chose this topic anyway. Why? Because in the same way that I feel such a connection with these places, I feel inexplicably sure that there is another city I will want to call home. I just haven't figured out which it is yet. If you have any suggestions based upon this list (though I know I've not adequately explained what I...ummm...find attractive, alluring, and arousing in a city), do call them out. No need to raise your hand. This isn't your high school English class.

If you hate Hemingway, or feel inexplicable tenderness toward cities you've only just arrived in, consider yourself tagged. Or not.