Home?

Can someone please FedEx my heart to Jacksonville? I think I left it in DC.

Home is a funny concept. Supposedly it is where your heart is. Right now, I still feel like I'm just visiting Jacksonville, and any day now, I'll be flying back to Washington. Yes, Jacksonville is where my family is, it's where my friends are, it's where my home church is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be in Jacksonville. Back to familiar roads, familiar people and familiar activities. I get to drive my car and the beach is just a 20-minute drive from my front door.



But as I write this blog in my room, I am reminded of how much I miss being among the hustle and bustle of the journalist's life. I find myself checking National Journal's Daybook and checking the press conferences and committee hearings for tomorrow.

Home is standing in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office for a pen-and-pad session. It's running to the third floor of the Capitol Building to the Senate Studio for Sen. Mitch McConnell's news conference. It's running to the second floor of the Dirksen Senate Office building to be at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as the Attorney General's office is put to trial. It's bypassing the tourist lines with my press badge. It's going back to the studio at 229 1/2 Pennsylvania Avenue and cutting sound bytes and writing up talking points.

Then it's also being back in my Arlington apartment, with an awesome roommate, friends just down the hall or just two floors down, the Chinese takeout place just across the street, the mall just two blocks away, and the rest of the city a $2 train ride from the Ballston metro station.

Perhaps the only thing I don't miss is riding the metro.



So back to the concept of home, I feel that Jacksonville is a temporary stop. I've always felt that I was meant to do something outside this city, something bigger. I don't know where that is yet, but I'll get there.

Jacksonville maybe my hometown, but it's not where I have to stay.