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labor day wisconsin Most of the day felt unreal to me. Instead of the familiar being comforting, everything seemed distant and in some ways new to me. What I mean to say is that I didn't fall back into my old routine as soon as I got home, which I see as a positive, but not falling into old patterns strengthened that odd effect of having to reacquaint myself with what I should have known. For example, something as ordinary as driving my own car was strange to me. Compared to the rental car that carried me two thousand six hundred kilometers back and forth across the province of Alberta, my car seemed smaller and lower to the ground. Both of them were made by Toyota, but there is a definite difference between a four door and a two door. Another side effect of being behind the wheel of a car as much as I was on my trip was the shortening of distance. The twenty two mile trip to my parents place felt like nothing to me after having driven an average of four hours a day in Canada. Getting to my parents place went by quicker than I had remembered because my tolerance for distance had changed. Plus the hour and a half ride home from Chicago was nothing in comparison to a three hour flight from Calgary. Within a week of being away, I had grown accustomed to long distance travel and anything under two hours felt quick to me. Once I got to my parents place, I quickly saw that things had changed for them as well while I was away. One of the first things that I noticed when I got to my parents place was the absence of their piano. For over twenty years that had been a fixture in their living room and now it was gone. I was told that they had given it away to a girl in college. Now I haven't touched the piano in years, but not seeing it there was sad. It was something that always seemed to be there and now it was gone. After I had showed the digital pictures and told some stories about my trip, I was asked by my mom to go in the basement and sift through some of my old belongings. It seems that my parents don't want to move things that they have stored my siblings and myself and I can understand. Since I own my place, I have plenty of room to store childhood memories and with my parents moving into a much smaller house it is time that I took over that duty of housing all of my stuff. Old art projects from fifteen years ago were throw away to keep my sanity, while old board games such as Axis and Allies, Risk and Stratego were loaded into the trunk of my car. Next to the board games, a few years worth of National Geographic magazines made my car sink a little lower. Thankfully that load was enough to make my mom happy and I was free to go. She said that I could sort through the remaining shelf of my stuff the next time that I was there. |