Home is Where Your Rump Rests

It may seem like my musings and ponderings have petered out, but I assure you, anonymous reader, that that is not the case. I just haven't had as much time to write lately with all of the work/good weather/couch naps I've been having.

But here I am today, and I would like to discuss the subject of the flighty living in New York. I just got back from a really rigorous round of negotiations (my roommate did most of the talking. I just nodded along) I had with my leasing office mad early in the morning (10:30 AM). Coming back, I realize just how little I've felt at home in New York in the past 6 years.

It's not that I don't call my various places of living "home". I like that I have a place to sleep at night, that I have a really expensive storage area for all of my stuff. But most of my important pieces of mail still go to the house where I grew up. I still have trouble saying "my parents' house" because I still consider that my house. I can still sit on the floor of my empty old bedroom (most things, including my bed, have been moved into the city) and feel like I belong there.

I wonder if this feeling is one that I alone experience or if it's a product of living in a place where you're ready to pick up and leave in one or two years. Perhaps this feeling is less pronounced when you buy an apartment or if you're settled down in a long term relationship, but for those who have neither of those, it's so easy to get swept up into the temporariness of all life in the city. Stores change hands all of the time. Your favorite bar could be there one day and gone the next. And if your rent gets jacked up, you're out the door looking for a new apartment. I have yet to live in an apartment for more than a year.

The ability to pick up and move at any second is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I don't even know where I'll end up in the next couple of years, so having temporary housing is preferable. Yet it still definitely adds to the feeling that I'm just another urban nomad until I can find a place to really call home.