Home Sweet Home

Being back at home is somewhat bittersweet. But there are somethings I have really missed, such as:

1) SARATOGA! I love the darkness of this little city and how the moon and stars light up the night instead of street lights. SD is too yellow and bright all the time.

2) My freezing house. I am almost always cold. My house is also about 5 degrees colder than it is outside, so I'm always dressed like I'm going to hibernate. Strangely, I've missed the cool-ness of my house; the crisp air is somewhat refreshing.

• My piano. I've been teaching myself to play piano for some time now, but I never really have that much time to learn. I still enjoy occasionally jumping on the piano to play the one or two songs I know though.
  
• 2-ply toilet paper. I know people mention this a lot, but I never realized how superior 2-ply is to 1-ply. When I use 1-ply at SD, I always have to use a bunch and it feels like sandpaper. Unpleasant. :[
• Conserving h2o. Did you know that it takes about 1.6 gallons of water to flush the toilet once? Everytime I shower, I collect the cold water in a large tub while I'm waiting for it to heat up, and use that to flush the toilet. It feels so wasteful to just flush all the time at SD.
  

3) My room. Words cannot even describe how attached I am to my room. For all my life, I have done everything in my room; it's my little sanctuary, somewhere I can escape to at any time. When I came back, I found out that my mom turned my room into her closet, and there was even a mah jong table set up in there. I was unusually upset that my room no longer obtained my personality, and ended up sleeping in the living room the night I came back.

• My rifle! My arms have gotten exponentially flabbier since I stopped colorguard, but I like to sometimes just pick up my rifle in the corner of the room and spin it for a bit. Something about smacking my hands with a piece of wood until they're red and the sound of a strap snapping against wood is appealing to me.
• My weighted hula hoop. Every night, I would use a weighted hula hoop for half an hour as I watch TV. It's supposed to trim your waist, and having not used it for 3 months, I've definitely noticed the difference as I now look like a tree.
• Disney channel. I freaking love Disney channel. It is probably my most watched channel but stupid SD doesn't have it! gahhh

4) 24 hour fitness. My gymmm! <3

• Kickboxing! I started kickboxing when Janet and Eunice first introduced it to me. It's so freaking fun! We developed a tradition of going to kickboxing on Saturday mornings and then The Movable Feast afterward. Although our tradition died out when both my old gym and The Movable Feast have closed down, I still enjoy going to the one in Sunnyvale.

5) The Prolific Oven. This is my favorite bakery. Everyday after I work out, I buy an iced tea from here. I've been going there for years so everyone who works there knows me. I was so happy when the owner saw me the other day and instantly said, "Iced tea?" Yay! It feels good to be remembered.

6) Old friends + my seestar. There's not that many people I'm close with, and half of them are from back home. It's the best feeling in the world to be reunited with close friends and family. Yaaay I love all those I have in my life :D

/edit

7) DRIVING. I don't know how I forgot to mention this. I'm not a very good driver, but I love driving around. It gives me time to think or sing in the car, etc.