Home sweet Carol

In 2018, my best friend, Carol, applied for and received a job posting in Stuttgart, Germany. 

I was not very happy about this, at least not until the very end of 2019, when I flew to Germany and spent a month with her in Europe.

Funny how that works.

In 2021, it was time for her to come back to the States. A lot of locations were possible, but she ended up in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

"Ugh," I said when she told me. "I don't really like Mississippi."

"I don't either," she agreed, but that didn't stop her from buying a house there.

For the last four years, I have been talking about visiting her there.

Instead, she keeps visiting me here.

Funny how that works.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year. Olive had just died and the whole year was already, obviously cursed. If I had, however, it would have been to finally go to Mississippi and spend time with Carol in her house. 

I didn't actually think it happen, but then it did.

I'd seen plenty of pictures, so the outside of her house felt familiar.

But when I stepped in the door, I knew I'd come home.

Everywhere I looked there were pieces of Carol's life.

And also, so many pieces of mine.

Remember that time we drove Cara's dogs to Iowa in the dead of winter? I certainly do!

On this pleasantly cluttered shelf, I spied not one but two horse shaped objects.

The first was Why Not Madeline, the model I gifted to Carol shortly after she moved into her first post-divorce house.

The second was Carol's 2020 NaMoPaiMo piece, painted during quarantine in Germany.

I'd never seen this one in person, but I recognized him immediately. 

Just like the house.

Funny how that works.