Globe Trotting and New Beginnings

What is home?

According to an entry on wikipedia — A home is a place of residence or refuge and comfort. It is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and be able to store personal property. While a house or a residential dwelling is often referred to as a “home” in North American English, the concept of “home” expresses itself upon a much broader denotation of a physical dwelling. Many people think of home in terms of where they grew up or where they lived, a place that brings back old memories or feelings, and a home can even be a time rather than an actual place. The phrases, “There’s no place like home.” or “Home is where the heart is.” come from these sentiments.

Home is ALL that and much much more. Recently I have been feeling a lot of anxiety over leaving our home in Austin. Over the past couple of years I have become more and more of a “homebody”. I am not entirely sure if that’s a good thing or not.

As we have started packing up and are getting ready to  leave Austin the thought of leaving this wonderful place we call home has just been making me really really sad and I want to procrastinate it just so I can prolong it and soak it all in till the very last minute.

It has been really hard for me to detach myself from this house because it has been a first for a lot of things.

Some of the things I will definitely miss…

– The view! It’s very soothing and definitely brightens up my day when I wake up in the mornings.
– Cooking in my cute little kitchen. It’s always been a source of stress relief for me.
– Sitting in my closet in the mornings half asleep trying to figure out what to wear.
– Cuddling on the couch with Sahir and the cats while we watch a movie.
– The weird sound that comes from the chimneys when its really windy outside (I have been too scared to investigate what it is!)
– Chinky meowing to go into the pantry for whatever reason. (shes a funny cat!)
– Our wonderful neighbours Anuj & Anar. It makes a really big difference when you have such good friends as your neighbours and its so much fun to do things together and hang out.
– Biking from home to downtown, to townlake and to UT games etc.
– Hosting Couchsurfers.
– My annual summer potluck 🙂
– My wonderful house cleaner Zoila. She is amazing! I can only hope to find someone like her again. She has cleaned our house like it was her own.
– The amazing feeling when we go on a trip somewhere and come back home and as soon as we open the door the cats are right there staring at us and meowing/asking us where we’ve been.
– Winters in this house have always given us SUCH a cozy feeling.
– The random deers that we keep seeing in our parking lots.
– Ricky, Coon and Ra-Ra – the friendly Stillhouse Canyon raccoons. 😀
– Our walks from home to check the mail.

It’s weird how one can get SO attached to a house. In reality it is just a house with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms! But as you keep decorating the house, doing things in the house and fixing things (even though we complain about it SO much) you get that much closer and attached to your house. And of course the memories you create in the house are priceless and that is what gets you attached even more.

Some events/incidents that happened in this house and will forever be remembered…

– My little Stolu falling off the balcony and Sahir looking for him in the canyon using his blackberry as a torch!
– Me falling flat on my face because the new hardwood cleaner I used was too slippery!
– The ONE time Sahir and I watched a movie in the kitchen because he wanted to smoke hookah and it was too cold to go outside!
– My Bridal shower. It was an amazing party.
– One of the random crazy parties when Navin tried jumping on Shekhars back (to piggy back or something) and both lost balance and fell flat on the ground! HAHA
– Having my niece and nephews over for the summer.
– Me getting stung by a scorpion!
– Both sets of parents visiting us.

I still remember the day we decided that we were going to leave Austin and our home,  Sahir and I were in the living room and as a joke I layed down on the ground as if I was hugging it. These days, I feel like doing that everyday! I sincerely hope our next home can live up to the high bar unit # 235 has set.