Allergic to Louisiana

I love my hometown in many ways. In other ways...
When I visit home there are a number of things I need to do. For instance, I have to visit as many family and friends as I can to catch up with everyone. I also need to hit up certain places for food: specifically, I usually need to visit Price's Supermarket for their po-boys and New China for whatever Chinese food I feel like at the time since Tucson's Chinese offerings are kinda lacking.

No matter how long I spend here, it never feels like there's enough time to do everything I'd like to do. That's partially because I sometimes think I can spend forever here in this living room with my parents, watching TV with them. I don't have forever, though--I have about three days. That's also not enough time to prepare and run an epic D&D campaign with my friends, get my grandparents' life stories, or any other of the myriad things that would be awesome to do some day.

I know these streets so well, and though the faces of some of the building have changed, the general layout and the anchors of this town have remained constant. Familiarity and nostalgia aren't the most important things to me, but this place is oozing with it.

Unfortunately, as much as I love the people and the food here, I don't think I'll ever return here permanently. Houma is a black hole where the only career options are in the oil field or in the dead-end retail/service industries. Some people manage to squeeze a living out of their creative talents, but for most people here it seems their creativity is drained out of them by the reality of finding financial stability in order to raise a family or something. Few people get the opportunity to escape and chase their dreams, and I'm not going to squander my chance here.

There's something depressing here, always creeping just below the surface. I'm not sure if that's something specific to this place or if it's a quality all hometowns gain to the people who return to visit them. This mire threatens to hold me in place when I'd rather be flying away.

Also, I'm just plain allergic to something here. Literally. Since last night my nose has been itching and dripping like crazy, and I currently have tissues stuffed up my nose to prevent leakage. It's really annoying. I get allergic symptoms sometimes in Tucson, but it usually stops after a while. This, though, is constant. I can definitely stand to live without this.