Achoo!

Coming home is totally different now than when I was still in college. Now when I come home it's not so much an event, and it usually takes place in the middle of the week. And as a result, I get to sit around my mom's house and watch lots of TV and fumble about the internet.

I am also allergic to California, so I sneeze a lot. I sneeze in the middle of my sleep, which I never do in Portland. And my sneezes are real big, so big I almost threw myself off the couch earlier.

My grandparents are pretty funny. They are packing up their lives into boxes and crates at the moment because in about a month they are moving out of the home they've had for 50+ years and moving into an assisted living facility type apartment complex. Yesterday my mom and I went over to help bring over some things and sort through others. The two are not related; the funny factor and the moving factor. My grandparents are a couple that have been together since the 1950s and I like to watch them interact. I cannot describe it better than they are pretty funny.

I didn't realize the my family collects Christmas creches (nativity scenes) until we went over to help my granma sort through some cupboards in the rumpus room of their house. I wonder if that means that I will carry on the tradition of finding creches and collecting them.

The only bummer about coming home is when no one is around, like most of the work week. My mom is at work and my brother is at work/school. I don't really have access to go visit people if I want to since there are only two cars in residence. I guess I don't really need to go anywhere. I feel a bit useless since I'm so allergic to dust and the State of California that all I can honestly do is sit around and try not to stir the allergens.

Seriously, I cannot stay in the Bay Area for more than a few days or I might lose my voice completely, sneeze myself into a wall, or blow my nose so much I end up without a nose. I find it sad that I can never really come home because of a silly little thing like allergies. Is it pathetic to not be able to do so? And why did I not find this out until I moved to Portland? There is clearly something really gross in the air in California for my eyes to itch so much I rub them like mad during my sleep.

I'm going to miss the old house my grandparents are moving out of. Things look so different without furniture in there. The dining room looks a lot smaller without the whole family around the table for a holiday feast, though it has been quite a few years since a holiday feast has been hosted in that room. And the house looks so different now that they are landscaping the perimeter to sell. I will miss that house, and the memories associated with it.

Did you know sneezing makes you sleepy?