Home

My friends and I have been discussing something in a Facebook thread, and I thought part of it would make a good blog post. With pictures! The conversation started with an article about how writing is a really healthy activity, fights depression, etc., and as it continued, one of my fellow MKs asked,

Is there a theme running through here? Why are/were so many of us raised overseas fighting depression? Is there something missing that we long for?

I answered that we all longed for "home."

And my response made me remember something that happened a few years back.

I went back to Hong Kong in 2005 for a long-planned visit. I had originally planned to go in 2003, but SARS hit, so I decided to wait a bit (that death thing)... Anyway, when I finally got there, I sent an email back to the family with the subject line:

I'm HOME! ;-)

and described how wonderful the Peninsula Hotel was -- yes, I stayed there two nights (BEST DECISION EVER!). I moved to the Kowloon Hotel for about five nights and then spent the last two nights at the Silvermine Beach hotel. When I finally got back to DC, I sent my family another email to let them know I was back in the US, safe and sound.

A few weeks later, I was looking through all of the emails I wrote back and forth with my family and I suddenly realized that the entirety of that LAST email, the one from my apartment in Bethesda, MD (DC area), was:

Subject: Hi honey...

I'm hooooome!  Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

(Pics are uploading to the computer as I type, so I'll write more tomorrow, with exhibits! Yay!)

And it hit me. "I'm hoooooome!" I *had* finally found a place to call home! My HK home was really not there anymore, but I had found a place that reminded me of it, but was different... in good ways and bad, but mostly good. That realization had a profound impact on me and my happiness!

And I'm still in DC!

And now for the pics... (Go here for all of the pictures from my Hong Kong trip. These are just the hotels...)

Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong. About 1/4 of the room.

Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong. Goodies!

Kowloon Hotel. Next door to the Peninsula, but a little more cramped.

Silvermine Beach Hotel. Really old, but it's on a beach on Lantau Island.

DC

Positive Picketing

So the other day I'm walking to the Juice Joint to pick up lunch and I noticed a protest going on down the street from my office.

It wasn't so much the shouts of the people walking in a well-organized picket line that caught my attention as much as the giant inflated RAT in the back of the pick-up truck!   I had never seen anything like it, so I had to take a picture and post it on Facebook.  (One of my FB friends illuminated me: apparently this is a "union rat" ... ohhhhhh)

ANyway - I started thinking.  (OUCH!)

Why is it that people only seem to make a big noise about negative things, like unfair pay?  Or protesting against something they don't believe is good and right, like the anti-gay protesters.  Why is it always so negative and ugly?

And then I remembered a video a friend of mine had sent me a few days back, about people in Germany or somewhere giving away free hugs.  (On further reasearch, there's apparently a whole movement about free hugs... Go check out the Free Hugs Campaign.)  I loved the concept - it's positive and reminds people that there is good will and kindness out there in the world, and most importantly, we're not all alone.

As I walked back from JJ, I decided to walk on the same side of the street as the protest and check it out a little more.  I was interested in how much fun the participants were having.  Yes, it was a protest, and they were angry about how they were being treated, but ... they were having fun!  They were chanting and singing and dancing and it was a joint effort.  They had water and shade for people to sit and rest if they got hot and tired (98* in the sun), they had a leader shouting out the chants, and they switched off that role so no one got tired out.

And I wondered...

What if we had positive picket lines?  What would happen if a bunch of people got together and set up a picket line to publicize something they LIKED?  Can you imagine a big line of happy, dancing, chanting people walking around in a circle ... say in Lafayette Park across from the White House, saying "We like Obama!"   Or maybe in front of the Verizon Center saying "Let's go CAPS!"  Or maybe something more lowkey like giving away free hugs in front of the Vietnam Memorial.   Wouldn't it be great?

I don't know.  There is just too much negativity out there, so I just wish we had more "acceptable" ways of celebrating the positives in life.   Or maybe I've just got stars in my eyes.

I'm gonna figure this out...

The milk of human kindness... or is that coffee?

This morning was turning out to be crap. My allergies are in full-blown "It's SPRING dangit!" mode and my bus misadventures just seem to continue to haunt me on Monday mornings. BUT, as it turned out my bus came shortly after the (running very late) other bus route and got me down to work pretty much on time. I stopped by Corner Bakery as I do just about every day, ordered my coffee and a panini because I was hungry and then looked into my ginormous bag for my wallet... and looked... and looked... and... Crap! I left my wallet on my couch after I used it to add money to my laundry card yesterday!

I looked up to the cashier and said, "Uh, I have a problem! I think I left my wallet at home!" I was about to cancel everything and walk away, but she put the coffee cup up on the counter and said, "Oh no problem, you get your coffee and food today, and pay us tomorrow." At first I thought she was just going to give me a free coffee, but no, she trusted me to come back tomorrow and pay for the whole thing! "You're a regular customer, no problem!"

So, yes, I got my bacon and cheddar panini (I'm sure it's extremely healthy for you), and the best coffee in town, and walked to work smiling. And then I saw the guy walking his corgi... and I smiled even bigger!

What a nice start to the week! And it could have been so much worse! ;-)