This is what I was feeling, and what I said tonight, to my new summer friends.
I had a very busy week: starting with a delayed flight from BTV to EWR. Then I found myself in Newark not knowing how to get home--I preferred the train because it was pouring in Newark but I missed the Amtrak train into Philly I was trying to get. I wound up at my NJ home after having driven through the rain 40 miles.
Next day a very stressful first day of research followed by a second. More rain. More driving.
Next day, catch up day at home to keep up with 4 projects.
Next day, a presentation delivery from my car at 8am in the parking lot of a fast food place that wasn't opened yet but where luckily I could get WiFi, because I had to make sure I delivered a great presentation and then get on an 11:00 plane to Houston for a different client.
Houston Thursday and Friday. Too much client time for me--as an introvert. I saw my power waning through two days of meetings + dinners as quickly as the the little blue lights on the power pack I always keep in my computer bag. But still, I was wired at the end of the day, needing to decompress.
I heard early in the week that my very favorite aunt with whom I am extremely close, is in hospice. No immediate reason--just old age and frailty. So I decided on Friday that rather than go to my NJ home, I'd stay in a hotel in Newark and get up early and drive to the Connecticut facility she's in and then drive up to VT. I saw her.. she is very, very frail, but her beautiful blue eyes light up and she still has some sense of humor. I'm devastated about losing her. I was her flower girl, but she is my soul sister.
So I drove 4 hours to Vermont by way of New Haven, dropped off the rental car at BTV and then called Uber to take me 40 minutes to the islands. I was afraid he'd refuse (if he can). He's got a good gig with the college crowd in Burlington, but he didn't refuse.
The icing on the cake of the whole darned week was when I directed the Uber driver to my house down the narrow dirt road, and across the gravel path I saw 5 shadows--my neighbors and DH sitting around the weekend fire pit. I stepped out of the Jeep Cherokee and they all started in a chorus: "Catherine!!! Catherine! What a great surprise!! Come on over! [J...] missed you and so did we!!" They offered me moonshine (really) and fresh baked cookies.
Wow. I had felt all week that I really wanted to get back to VT. And when I drove up 89, and viewed the ribbon of road framed by grey/green mountain peaks, I wanted to be "home." I finally made it up here, and my neighbors confirmed for me that I am, indeed, home.
I'm not looking forward to the winter in NJ.