Going home again

You know the old saying, you can't go home again.  And in fact, for most of my life I've actively avoided doing just that: When a chapter closes, I move on.  No looking back, no regrets.  I'm not saying it was easy, but I knew trying to recapture something I had lost would only blind me to new experiences.

I violated that rule this week...twice.  And I'm looking to do it again.

First, I bought a fish tank.  As you may know, I got my first tank when I was 21, and three years later I had eleven tanks going, which was ridiculous in a 1-bed apartment!  (In fact, my first blog was about my fish, which pre-dated the World Wide Web by about 3 years!)  15 years later, when I moved to Pennsylvania, I broke down all my tanks and sold everything, and decided as much as I enjoyed it, I would not keep fish again.

But when I moved into my flat in Reading, I immediately knew I wanted another tank. I couldn't say why; perhaps I was lonely, perhaps it was too quiet, or perhaps it was because I had just come back from LA, where fish had been a big part of my life.  Whatever the reason, I looked at the online classifieds, found someone who was moving and couldn't take the fish with her, and ended up with a 40 gallon tank with five angelfish, a red-tailed shark, a couple of plecos, and an improbably large catfish.  (The catfish has to go and I plan to introduce some schooling fish, probably neon tetras.)

Also in 2005, I had to give up playing contract bridge.  Similiar to keeping fish, I couldn't explain why I found it so satisfying, but I really enjoyed it.  However, I couldn't find anyone who even knew how to play bridge -- nevermind three -- and so I eventually gave up.  However, in looking around at things to do, I found the Reading bridge club, and signed up.  Yesterday I went to my first class, and it all came back to me.  (Which was actually a bit of a problem, because English conventions are slightly different than American ones, so my partner was quite confused!)  However, I loved it, and plan to go regularly.

For my next trick, I'm going to take up tennis again, although that isn't something I ever gave up, I just haven't been able to find the time or a partner.  i also want to start going to yoga classes again--also not something I gave up on, just haven't been able to do for the past two years.

In addition to putting some structure around my life, these things will also keep me sane, help me integrate into my new community, and hopefully lead to some good friendships.  So really I'm not trying to go home again, but making this my new home.