There's no place like home

I'm in-between jobs right now (start the new job on Wednesday--yay!) so I took a few days to visit Megs and her kids in DC.  I had a great time catching up and Megs was a super host.  Our paths don't cross as often as I'd like since our families are in different cities and our circle of friends is pretty much done with weddings, so it was great to catch up with Megs and some other friends in the DC area. 

On my flight home, my body was doing its best to expel a lung (of all the weeks in the year, this had to be the week I caught a cold!) so I spent a lot of time looking out the window in an attempt to not breathe on my fellow passengers.  Taking off from Reagan National, I could see all the DC landmarks and I felt a little twinge of jealousy, wishing that my career path had taken me to DC--it has always been one of those cities that the mister and I have on a short list of places that we'll move to in a heartbeat if the opportunity presents itself.

Despite my status as one of the Infected, the passenger in the seat next to me struck up a conversation--he had noticed my class ring and asked if it was an ND ring.  Funny how that can start conversations!  He was a Georgetown grad, in DC for a meeting. As we talked and I learned more about my fellow passenger, I began to suspect that he was an acquaintance of an acquaintance who I had heard many good things over the years.  As we left the plane and finally provided our names, my suspicions proved correct, and I told my seatmate of our connection.  What a small world--what are the odds that on a completely full flight I'd be seated next to this person?  The mutual acquaintances were my first non-work friend here in Kansas City and my professional mentor here in town.  It felt like all my local connections were coming together at once and really made me realize that Kansas City is where I'm supposed to be at this point in my life. I may not be here forever, and that's OK--having moved a lot as a child, I'm open to new places.  But right now, this is where I belong.  Kansas City is home right now.

If only I had a pair of ruby slippers to go along with this new realization.