things that remind you of home.

It is so odd the things that remind you of home.

I will just be minding my own usual business of living in Mae Sot, and suddenly my heart is heavy with homesickness. You might not even know what hit you.

Two weeks ago, it was sitting outside of Labor & Delivery, waiting for a new little addition to the neighborhood. It was here that I realized that I may visit this department many times this year, but I wouldn’t be sitting outside of Labor & Delivery for any of the four babes our sisters will be having this year. I will miss the waiting rooms, the first looks, the tiny little newborn outfits; instead I will drive home this new little swaddled baby in our Suzuki. I will speak to her mother in a foreign language, not sure how to tell her congratulations, and I will be reminded of the weird life we live.

Last week, it was ranch dressing. A local restaurant was closing for the week of Songkran | Thingyan and were selling jars of their really wonderful homemade ranch dressing. We bought some, and ate way too much of it. There was something about dipping carrot sticks into ranch dressing that just made me want to be in America or sitting at my mom’s kitchen table.

This Saturday, the kids were outside of our door (by 7am, where else would they be?!) and playing with a new-to-them cell phone | toy | noisemaker-of-some-kind that plays a song. The song starts with a few measures of the Price Is Right intro music. Not only is this far better than The Little Mermaid soundtrack that the last noisemaker played, but it makes me want to curl up on an American couch to watch Price is Right, guess at prices I don’t know anymore and shout when they play Plinko!