Vacation

As you know, I'm home. Home as in where I grew up. Home with my dad, aunts, and uncle. Today, Dad and I went to lunch with my aunt and uncle. This was a lot more amazing than it sounds. This was my mom's older brother and his wife. Ever since my parents divorced there's been war between my dad and my mom's family. Finally, finally, after thirty years, long after mom is gone, they're making peace. I don't know that they'll ever be best friends, but they seemed to get along fine. Thank God. This evening, I visited with Dad's neighbors, people I grew up with. I've known them all my life so they're family, too. The oldest son, who is two years younger than me, still lives next door. I swear, he gets more handsome every time I see him. He's 46 and man is he ever hot. Nice, too. And single. Unfortunately, I'm not single. Bummer. I could go for him in a big way. Isn't there a joke about the boy next door. I'm not joking. He is so cute. Tomorrow, Dad plays golf in the morning so I haven't decided whether I'll sleep in or get up and get a pedicure and manicure. Do I really need them? I like them. However, the manicures only last a couple days before they chip. If I get one tomorrow, it'd probably be ruined before Friday when I attend Lori Foster's event. My toes look bad though so I have to do something, even if I do it myself. I don't have a steady hand and so I usually end up painting my skin as well. Maybe I'll pay someone else to do it after all. I'd told Amarinda that maybe I was wrong about Cincinnati being heaven on earth. Okay, I was wrong to say I was wrong. Why do I love it so much? First, it is home and I have wonderful memories. Secondly, I still have people here I love very much. Third, I love the country and suburb areas around Cincinnati. I love the farms and the hills and the profusion of tall trees. It's got a wildness, a freshness, South Florida's lost. South Florida is so overpopulated there are hardly any empty fields left. It's all buildings. It's all city. It's totally flat. Believe it or not, palm trees get boring after awhile. Maybe I'm a country girl at heart. Dad's place is perfect for me. It's on the outskirts of the suburbs where the farms are just beginning. Thus it's not city but it's not so far out in the country that it takes forever to get a gallon of milk or go out to a movie or a restaurant. The air is so fresh here. Dad's yard has a lot of beautiful tall trees and a forest behind his yard. There's not much traffic so there's no much exhaust. The yards and houses around his are all well-kept. They're not cookie cutter houses like so many in South Florida, and yet, they don't clash. My first night in town, Dad asked me where I wanted to go and I chose this little old country restaurant where we went when I was a kid: Les Flick's. Well, we drove down to River Road, well into the country which was beautiful. Then we reach an old run down country farm house. It looked really run down from the outside in a country sort of way. We went in anyway to check it out and it was pretty cute and charming inside so we stayed and had dinner. It seemed much smaller than when I was a kid, but at first, everything did. Later in the week, I'm going to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. My cousin who lives in Zanesville is coming up and we'll get together. Next week, my aunt wants me to come up again and spend two nights and one of them is a camping trip. I want to go with them and yet, I want to spend a lot of time with Dad, too. And of course, my aunt asked if I'm going to call and see my other aunt and my neighbor asked if I'm going to call and see my old friend/neighbor on the other side of her. I want to see everybody and yet there's only so much time. I'm going to try, and yet my number one priority is my dad. By the way, Dad seems to be in pretty good shape. If he hadn't told me about his two bouts with the heart, I would never know except maybe for the fact that he's slowing down a tiny bit. He's not power walking daily around the mall and tomorrow is his only day of golf. Usually he plays golf at least 3 times a week. But I'm still trying not to wear him out. Maybe because if that I should go more to my aunt and uncle's. We'll see. I'll probably spend some time at the campout but maybe not two days. How I long to live back home again, full time. Barring that, I wish I had more time and funds to come home more often. Even once a year isn't nearly enough and it's been four years since I was last here. It didn't help that DH was out of work for a year. But now that he's back at work, I'll have to make sure I get here a lot more.