"Well I'm going home, Back to the place where I belong, And where your love has always been enough for me."

"May be surrounded by a million people.

I still feel all alone.
I just wanna go home.
Oh, I miss you, you know.

I'm just too far from where you are."

On Thursday at 12:30 my Aunt Carol drove to Alta Apartments in Provo, Utah. She was on a mission. This mission was very specific. It was time I take a voyage, a voyage home. It has been a year since I have been home, and I didn't think I missed it very much, but I sure did. I miss my bed, and my room. I miss my friends, and my car. I miss the parks, and the theaters. I miss my family and my house. I will admit something, I even miss the humidity.

2:00 pm We arrive at the airport and Carol insists on helping me. I should have accepted her assistance, but I thought I could do it on my own. It was difficult with how much stuff I had to wheel around all my suitcases, and then because I had so much stuff, I didn't quite pass the security check in the SLC airport.

Soon enough I boarded my plane for Phoenix, which I only got to 7 minutes before it boarded. And we were off. So... I got on after over half the people were on the plane, but lucky me there was an empty seat in the middle 2 rows from the front. Now, usually I would do anything for an aisle seat, but I figured this. A) Sit in the aisle seat and be a tiny less claustrophobic for the flight, and then wait forever for the whole plane to get off with their bags. OR B) Sit in the middle seat and sleep the flight, and be a little more claustrophobic during the flight but get right off the plane. yeah, I'd pick B), which is exactly what I did. Unfortunately I chose to sit right next to a lady who just finished fighting cancer for a year. She decided to tell me gruesome stories and told me every little detail down to the fact that one year ago she only weighed 97 pounds. I am about 97% sure she thought I had cancer, and was trying to sympathize with me and make me feel better. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't have cancer..

I had a layover in Phoenix, and randomly saw this guy that used to be in the ward back in Springfield that I attended in addition to my own. Turns out we were originally on the same flight too. So we chatted a little bit, but let me tell you this: He is an awkward guy, the situation was awkward as well, so imagine our conversation.. Awkward beyond all belief. It was great. Not really. So then we boarded the plane for Baltimore and I found a 5th row middle seat (I think 5th row). I sat between the absolute best people ever to sit next to on a 5 hour flight. The guy to my right didn't make a peep for the longest time, but after being extra nice to him, he warmed up a little bit. The guy to my left was so great at getting up anytime I wanted to use the restroom or get something out of my overhead bag. They were also good casual conversation buddies. Occasionally we would exchange a few words, and it always ended in laughs. Near the middle/end of the flight, I was just bored out of my mind. The shy guy to the right asked if I liked Seinfeld (he had been watching the 9th season for hours by now) and said that he had an extra headphones jack. So I plugged on in, and it was all giggles and laughter from there. The episodes we watched were just hilarious, and I had to quiet myself down because I would be laughing so hard.

We landed and got off the plane in Baltimore around 12:15 am. The first thing I said when I got off the plane is how much I had missed this humidity. It felt so wonderful to step into the east coast goop. Let me tell you. You may hate it now, but leave it for a while, and the love grows.

Since being home I have:

- Surprised Molly that I was home by popping out of no where

- Surprised the whole Ray family

- Karen: Didn't recognize me, had a double-take, got excited, gave me a huge hug.

- Joey: Didn't recognize who I was, said hello, said wait, got really excited, started screaming: "Its Jenny Baker, Its Jenny!" And ran upstairs getting Noah and Brandon.

- Noah: Happy, suprised, gave me a gentle hug, had a huge smile :)

- Brandon: He's a teenage boy, so I take pride in this response. He got a little happy, and slightly excited, and gave me a hug.

- KRISTINA: I knocked on her door, she opened (she was on the phone) screamed high pitch/loud, shut her door, screamed again, shut her door, and opened it up really excited and we gave each other huge hugs, and talked a bit doing as much catching up as we could. I mean, She's like my best friend and its been a year since I've seen her!

- Went to Katie and Connor's new apartment and had dinner and watched Monk

- Played with Trent and Lyndi and their kids

- Babysat Trent and Lyndi's kids as Lyndi's sister got married

- Saw Leslie Sides, and Ann Bush, when I picked up Molly from the stake activity

- Made a fancy dinner for my family including rotisserie chicken, buttered peas, garlic/golden brown diced potatoes, caesar salad, and ice cold water.

Now- my week before heading home wasn't that exciting... I worked every day, and the day before flying out, I had to represent BYU and my project/program (Project SEEL) at the Utah County Fair. It was hard at first to get people to come to our booth, but it ended up very successful. Now in line with work, little do you all know, I still have to work 6 hours every day while I am on this "vacation". It could be worse, right? It could be 8 hours a day, or no vacation at all. Thats for sure.

Anyways, thats all from this teenage drama queen. More confessions to come.

- J