Home, Homie.

I love New Orleans.  I also love Durham.  My family moved when I was 4 and my parents have been here ever since.  I'm visiting for the week and thoroughly enjoyed my first day back.  Anyone who returns home after a good while understands, but here are my top ten favorite things about visiting:

10.  The little creature comforts of your parents house that you just can't afford/ don't invest in.  Multiple types of creamer.  Crazy soft towels.  Fancy chocolate.  Comfort food.  In my house, this comes in the form of turon and pancit, mmmmm.

9.  The playground across the street from my house -- that's ours above!  My parents claim this is a large reason why they bought the house in the first place back in 1989.  I owned that place through elementary school.  Henry's claiming it now.

8.  Breugger's Bagels.  Overall the food itself doesn't compare to actual city bagels, but but I've never been able to find a comparable cinnamon sugar bagel anywhere.  I'm devoted to the one on 9th Street, because there's history there.  I missed/ was tardy to many 1st periods because of this place.
7.  Space.  Sure our house is 2400 square feet.  We also rent out half of it.  My parent's house is not huge, but it's plenty big for me to stretch out, and certainly for Henry to explore.
6.  No dogs live here.  I love my Gussy but damn if there aren't some mornings where I don't wanna walk him.  Or listen to him.

5.  New Orleans is good for boutiques, and I live close to some of the best of them.  But for some good old mall shopping, the triangle area don't play.  Yeah yeah yeah, malls suck, blah blah blah.  But I dare you to hate on Nordstrom in front of me.  Go ahead.
4.  The Museum of Life and Science aka the place every public school kid took a field trip to until they were in the 9th grade.  Taking Henry there tomorrow!
3.  The American Tobacco Campus aka the place we got married.  And really, downtown in general has a ton of eating and drinking options - Pinhook, Dame's Chicken and Waffles, Rue Cler, and Toast. Lots of others too, I'm sure.  Don't rely on me though, I'm no longer a local.

2. Bo's.  Bojo's.  Bojangles (with the soft j).  Whatever your pet name for it, you know it's the shit.
1.  The ability to miss New Orleans.  Okay, okay, this one's a cop-out because this is supposed to be about Durham.  But seriously.  Whenever I'm here in NC, I feel like I'm able to breathe deeper, relax, and feel  connected to my family.  Since I do some pretty intense work in New Orleans, the city can feel a little stifling sometimes.  But when I leave, I reminded of how my city is so vibrant, unique, connected, cultured.  And beautiful.

Enjoying my time here thoroughly.  But I won't be sad to go back to New Orleans, either.