Sometimes it’s good to remember where you are from.

This lesson has taken me a while to learn.

When I left Kansas City I felt like I couldn't get far enough away.  That’s not a bad slant on Kansas City… K.C. is an awesome place to be from & a great city.  I had to grow up somewhere and I would have wanted to flee wherever I was from; that’s my nature to explore the exotic… So I went as far away as I could think to go.  London, England.  And here I am; lately I’m feeling a sense of nostalgia.  Maybe it’s the long winter nights giving me too much time to think… this heightened nostalgia could be a result of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.  There are always reminders of old school friends; it’s so simple to be a part of someone’s daily life by scrolling through their Instagram profile, or to get a little banter going on Twitter that you would otherwise have had to plan a long distance phone call, write a letter or compose a thought-out e-mail to achieve.  Technology has connected me to my roots, and now that I’ve been far away for a while… I miss it!  Dorothy Gale had it right when she said, “There’s no place like home.” 

Dorothy Gale & Toto

I’m just not sure where home really is.  The only constant place in my memory is my grandparents' farm in Wisconsin… surrounded by forest, sometimes we’d spot a wintry wolf on the trail of a fat wild turkey; in the summer if the wind was right, we could hear the Dixieland jazz coming from the river boat cruises on the Mississippi River.  But Kansas City’s different from that, it’s more cosmopolitan yet still with a friendly Midwest sensibility: there are kitsch cafes, vintage shops, velvet lounges, red-neck bars, cool little art galleries, the jazz district at 18^th and Vine, and diners!  24-hour diners where you could get a grilled cheese after a night out and all the freaky people would be there downing pancakes and fried fancies at 4:00 AM debriefing the evening's events with friends, waitresses never stop pouring coffee top-ups and driving home when the sun came up.  I miss that!

That being said, I love London; it’s a vibrant city full of culture, bursting with creativity, and plenty of quirk and glamour.  These things are what drew me here.  I’m also a big fan of vintage detective mysteries like Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, but that could be a topic for another blog.  Having been in London for over a decade now, I have a lot of good friends; like a second family.  I have career opportunities, creative outlets, constant cultural stimulus… I can’t complain.  I came here and I ‘made-it’ for lack of a better word.  But it’s funny how the grass can start to seem greener on the other side of the pond.

This photo was taken in Kansas City by Nate K.

It makes you ask yourself what ‘home’ means.  Is it where you are from?  Is it where you are now?  Is it where you are going?  Or is it simply where the heart is? 

One thing is for sure… I’m not in Kansas anymore.

xx P

p.s. Yes I have the sparkly red shoes
and no, they do not work…