Homecoming Anthropology

One of my favorite things about coming home after a few months away is the new discoveries I find around the house. It seems that this time, there are a multitude of things that have changed or been added in my absence.

First up, the fridge. Now for as long as I can remember, there's always been at least one picture of me up on the fridge. Over the years, the solo shots were consolidated to group shots of all 3 siblings, in order to make room for new family members. But, it seems that all 3 of us have been booted for good. Our fridge is now dominated by my nephew, Tyler and my cousins, Jake, Lexie and Max. And, of course, for good measure, there's plenty of religious hodge-podge on the other side (not pictured). Jesus would be proud.

Now, the next thing I noticed was our pantry. I was hungry after a long flight and drive down to the house, so I thought I might hold myself over until dinner with a bowl of cereal. Well, to my surprise, as soon as I opened the pantry door, I was bombarded with an absurd amount of soup cans filling up multiple levels of shelves. I tried to logically reason this. Maybe there's a holiday canned food drive coming. Maybe my mom is one of the millions buying into the 2012 phenomenon and is just preparing for the second coming of Y2K. Maybe we're just going to eat a lot of soup for Thanksgiving. Well, I asked her. She's just stocking up. She finds coupons and I suppose it's better to buy them in bulk at a cheap price then to buy them when you need them. There's also an entire drawer in the bathroom filled with tubes of toothpaste.

The third thing that caught my eye was my old Holy Communion picture. Now, this isn't new and it hasn't changed, but I haven't noticed it in a while and it really caught my eye this time. For some reason, I just find this picture incredibly funny. I look like I'm being groomed to be the next Fox News political pundit. I can see myself stomping the White House lawn demanding tax cuts for the rich and insisting on sending immigrants back to "where they came from." That smile is pretty unctuous and I have my suspicions about my younger, religious self (mind you, I'm not sure he ever existed, but if he did, you're looking at him in this picture). I'm weary of this shifty character displayed in this obnoxiously posed portrait. I'm sure immediately after the shoot, I may have spouted off some comments praising the Reagan administration and accusing my liberal peers around me of engaging in lefty propaganda. Those are some pretty spiffy bangs too.

Some other highlights include my old bedroom with an elliptical where the bed used to be and New Moon in my mom's inbox.

Good times. Good times indeed.