Things I'm looking forward to...

I'm really looking forward to getting through this last ten day stretch at work. This time when I have my three day weekend, I'll only have five more working days left.

I'm looking forward to the ferry ride to Haines.

I'm not really looking forward to the drive through Canada and Alaska to get home, but I'm looking forward to being home again.

I am looking forward to spending some time in Tok. I'm looking forward to finally meeting Donna in Tok. She's an awesome woman. Anyone who can spend fourteen months living in a tent in Tok is pretty awesome in my book. And the fact she did it with her husband and their two kids is even amazing.

I think I'm also going to meet another lady in Tok. I hope so. She appears amazing in her own way, too.

I'm looking forward to me new future. I still don't have a clue where it will take me, but I know what it won't take me away from. My home. Even if I have to leave my home for a while, it won't be long term.

Mostly I am looking forward to going home. It's been a very long journey.

I remember the first time I topped Bay Crest and saw Homer. I knew then that I wanted to call that spot of the world home. It was July 1997. We wouldn't move there until March of 1998, but in a few short months we'd found a way to call Homer home.

When we opened our business one of the newspapers had an article about our new business. They asked me what I thought about Homer. It was true then, when I was brand new to Homer and it's just as true today, with almost a decade of calling Homer home, Homer is where the heart is.

One of the realtors uses that slogan now. I have no idea if she used it back then. Maybe she found that saying the same way I found it...she looked in her heart and it was filled with Homer. It doesn't matter, because it's home to many people and for most of us, it really is where are heart resides. Even when we're not there. Homer is where we leave our heart because we know it will be safe there. Our family and friends will take care of it while we're away.

It snowed again yesterday. Last night I went to work with it still snowing. Once I parked in the parking lot, I looked around me. I love the first real snow of the season. It's gorgeous. I looked around me. Snow was piled on top of the wires, tree limbs, benches, it covered everything. I wished I'd remembered to put my camera in my backpack. It was so pretty.

But as I walked toward the hospital, I longed for the first snow fall in Homer. I can't wait to see it snow on the landscape that is familiar to me.

I'm looking forward to sitting in my house while it snows. I'm looking forward to hearing the vehicles from the village speed down the hill and thinking how stupid they are to drive that fast in the snow.

I'm looking forward to the pizza at Fritz Creek.

I'm looking forward to the Homer Bookstore.

I'm looking forward to my grandchildren.

I'm looking forward to going home.