Cue Chardonnay

Every now and then, when I'm homesick, I make a list of things I miss. It started a few years ago with a melancholic, love-affair-esque description of my car. Tinted windows. Five star rated Sony stereo plate thing. (Terminology escapes me. I've been here too long.) Satellite radio subscription. GPS. First class radar detector on the dashboard. iPod hookup in the glovebox. Hidden connections and other exciting things in the arm rest between the two front seats. Not to mention just having a car in the first place.

But today… today is something a bit different. Not only does this list include things I miss, it also includes things that I never knew I would want again.

Things like…

Wide open spaces. I'm not a city girl. I don't like concrete jungles. I need green in the forms of pastures, ponds, hiking trails that don't include mountains, pristine springs and aquifers, deep green-blue oceans, and beaches that stretch on for miles and miles - so far that either end is out of sight.

I miss driving down country roads at rush hour with no traffic.

I miss thinking that main roads in my hometown at rush hour are actually packed.

I miss going outside at dusk and being able to look across the sky and see the sun meet the earth and the beautiful colors that light up the sky when that happens.

I miss the sky after it rains at home when everything is that odd yellow-green color, and the smell of jasmine and gardenias seeps so far into your nose and skin that it becomes a part of you.

I miss being in the pool after sunset and watching the bats come out.

I miss turning off and unplugging and actually being able to hear animals. Like birds. And frogs. Cows. (Yes, I miss the cows.) And being able to pinpoint a car you know coming down the road towards you from half a mile away.

I miss seeing horse farms.

I miss space in all forms: whether it's inside a home, outside, or even the not-so-universal concept of having 'personal space'.

I miss niceties. Things like 'excuse me', 'please', and 'thank you'.

I miss being around people who get me. People who know exactly what I mean when I mumble something, and I've either been around them so long or they speak 'Florida' that they don't even think twice before answering. People that, when I make a joke, laugh because they want to.

I miss Publix. Subs, fried chicken, and syrupy sweet tea. Enough said. Oh - and buying salmon steaks by the pound and paying reasonably for them.

I miss authentic Spanish food, from all ethnicities: Puerto Rican especially, but also Cuban, Dominican, and yes, even Mexican.

I miss my family like crazy. Words don't elude me here, I'm just keeping them to myself.

Sometimes, I think we have to leave what we've always known to give ourselves a chance to realize it's not so bad after all.

Cue the chardonnay.