Gonna be visiting for PAX East but most of my time is gonna be spent touristing around. It's a weird feeling—I was born and raised in Newburyport, the last town on the train line going north out of North Station. We visited the city dozens of times in my childhood. I had major leg surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston. I distinctly remember my dad bringing my brother and I to eat lunch at Fanuiel Hall. We visited the New England Aquarium several times.
But we moved to Florida when I was 10, and I never moved back. I've only visited the city once since then, and only spent a day there. I'm no-contact with my family, and the low possibility of maintaining that while living so close made moving a non-starter.
I love lobster. Atlantic salmon. Haddock. I grew up on a town on a river emptying into the Atlantic half a mile down and love the smell of the ocean. I still remember the distinct smell of the T (the rubbery smell, not the garbagey one), although the London Underground smell was similar enough that it's probably just the smell of all subways. I loved the change of the seasons. I love hills and rocky landscape—the opposite of what Florida gave me.
I love Oregon, too. Even as a partial shut-in I think Portland is one of the best places I've lived in. But I adopted it. I don't hold any illusions of there being a true meaning to that, but I also must acknowledge that there's some instinctive feeling that, were I living in The City From My Childhood, I'd be closer to Home.
It is what it is.
