There's no place like home...

Needless to say, Dorothy wasn't too far off. There is something about home that cannot be tainted. I spent the majority of my youth thinking about all of the places I would want to live. None was ever Central Illinois. But lately, a lot of people have been reminiscing about home. It seems it is catching.

For those of you who know little about Central Illinois (which is in fact 100 miles SOUTH of 1-80, Chicago!), it is farm country. Space and corn are plentiful. People enjoy life a little more and are a bit kinder. Men drive diesel trucks and everyone's uncle works for State Farm or Caterpillar.

Ok, so maybe I made it sound like a modern-day Little House on the Prairie, but we do have malls and good universities and these new-fangled things called "TV’s."

Here is the short, off-the-top-of-my-head list of the things I miss most:

I miss bonfires. The lazy conversations that happen around burnt marshmallows. The way everyone slowly gets closer and closer together as we scoot towards the dwindling fire.

I miss my brother-in-law. His strange house in the all-black neighborhood, where all of the little kids thought he and my husband were gay buddies who rode their bikes all the time. I miss his wit and sense of humor. I miss the way simply being together makes he and my husband relax.

I miss tomatoes. (Yes, I know, get off your high horse, Ann!) I tell you the tomatoes in Central Illinois are so good and big and red and.... well, all I can say is, the bacon and lettuce never saw it coming.

I miss comfort. I miss a cup of tea at a good friends house, where there is not a thing to do but catch up for hours. I will of course see them again in three days - rather than three months.

I miss driving to the store. I know this sounds like a novel idea when you live somewhere like Chicago. But it my home town you can get to the grocery store and home in 30 minutes. And, I don't just mean that it takes 30 minutes to get there. "I'll be back in 10" really does mean 10.

I miss the U of I. Champaign-Urbana is a really fun place. It is a community full of students, and grad students and PhD students. With this diverse group of (sometimes) highly-intellectual people, comes a great community of arts and food and nightlife!

I miss silly local festivals. In Chicago, there is always something to do… The Jazz Fest, Taste of Chicago, Old Town Festival. All of these are exciting opportunities to experience culture in the Windy City. But, what I love is a good corn dog and a demolition derby. There is nothing quite like my hometown’s Railsplitter Festival (as in, Abraham Lincoln used to split rails) and the town’s corresponding watermelon car (Lincoln christened the town with a watermelon, in case you were wondering).

I miss thunderstorms. You can actually see the clouds roll in across the fields. In the late spring and summer, the air gets heavy and smells like rain. Even as adults, we all count in our heads - one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand... - to measure the distance between lightning and thunder. And in the morning, the school yard is full of boys chasing girls with worms that were washed out of the rich earth and on to the pavement.

I guess what I am saying, is that I miss home, and all of the things and place and people that make it where my heart is.

What is your favorite thing about home?