Rainy Days and Sundays (always get me down)

I dread Sunday afternoons. On Sundays, I really miss my family. I miss home. And by home, I mean Louisiana. I still don't consider Montgomery, Alabama home. I doubt that I ever will.


We are trying to make the best of it here by starting our own family traditions. For instance, every Sunday morning we go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We have the same waitress, Salena, who knows us and reserves a table for us now. Others go to church but we worship those home-cooked eggs, blueberry pancakes, sausage, freshly baked biscuits and that coffee that keeps coming. After breakfast, we do our grocery shopping for the week. We look forward to it every weekend and we're usually home by 10:30 a.m.



But by Sunday afternoon, we are bored. We have gotten all the house chores done. Generally I've completed the laundry, cooked 2-3 meals, unloaded the groceries, played with Vivian and prepared for the coming week. Kirk has done the yardwork, paid bills, kicked back several beers and surfed the internet.


When 2-3 o'clock rolls around, we become lonely. We miss our families and friends in Louisiana. We know that if we lived there, we would be at some barbecue, fish fry or other fun gathering. Or we could be at a movie or playing trivia games at a buffalo wild wings restaurant. Probably we'd even be hosting our own fun party like we used to do all the time. We had our regulars -- my parents, Kirk's mom, his sister or our friend John.

The Regulars (of the old days):



John or Kirk's mom would come over and we'd play games and watch movies until midnight or so. Fact or Crap, Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Scattegories and Sequence are some of our favorites. John is flippin' hillarious and does impersonations and quotes lines from random movies. He, Kirk and I go back and forth all night long cracking jokes.


My family takes turns hosting different holiday family functions. My dad has the coolest barbecue pit, made out of brick. They have a covered patio in the back of their house. It is probably one of the most peaceful places on earth. It overlooks a field and there is always a breeze blowing.

Dad's BBQ pit:


We took a trip back to Louisiana in February, just over a month ago. Ever since then, Kirk and I have been "homesick" to go back there. He's even looking for job openings back in the New Orleans area. We didn't realize how much we missed it and our old life there. Seeing Vivian interact with grandparents and cousins was such a joy. Eating all that wonderful seafood was definitely a high point of the trip. I guess we had to leave our roots to fully appreciate them.


When we left Louisiana for Ohio in late 2005, we wanted to leave. We were very bitter about the hurricane, Kirk being laid off, etc. We felt that Louisiana had betrayed us. But that is just life and bad things happen. We have no regrets moving to Ohio. We had a great life there too. We miss that life as well.


Home is wherever Kirk and Vivian are but I sure wish it could also be closer to where our families live - in the New Orleans/Houma, Louisiana area. I think we'd both be happier if we could make it back there someday.


Until then, rainy days and Sundays will continue to get me down. (Gosh, don't you just love the Carpenters?)