So I've been at home (with my parents) for about a week and a half, and I've been slowly progressing through the stages of child-parents' relations. These are the stages, as I've progressed through them:

-Excitement! My mom will wash my clothes and fold them! I can write food on her grocery list and it will be in the refrigerator on Tuesday! And I get to live right in the middle of the city in their townhouse!

-Mild Annoyance. My dad still tells the same jokes. My mom is cooking a menu that only includes foods that she knows I hate: sausage, bizarre fish, jumbalaya, etc. It is always below freezing in the living room.

-Completely hysteria! (This step took a surprisingly short amount of time to reach). This includes me laughing insanely for five minutes during dinner for no reason (which might have scared my parents). I can no longer stand my parents reading headlines aloud from the newspaper and then asking me to comment on the topic. And my mom's OCD cleanliness is crazy...anytime anything is moved out of place, she will move it back, even if you are still using it. For example, never leave a cabinet open and cross the kitchen because it will be closed when you return! I related all of this to my brother on the phone and he decided not to come home for the summer (honestly). But my parents weren't very upset. My mom probably had visions of him wearing his shoes in the house.

-Unconditional love (that sounds like a Celine Dion song!) Anyway, I've realized that in the past, I've missed my parents for reasons that had nothing to do with them. I still love them so much, but I'm marking checks on their nutty-list and starting to accept them as the empty-nesters that they are. I mean, they go out to bars on worknights! It's kind of like they're living the yuppie lifestyle that they missed in the 80s because they were both in graduate school while raising two kids. I've loved being at home, but I've come to the conclusion that I could never sanely live with them again! It all works out, since my mom told me last year that I couldn't. To sum up the stages, I'll miss my parents when I leave, but a desire to be home will no longer impact my choices or emotions.

Anyway, I finally met my parents' famous neighbor last night. I went to his book signing, where I was surrounded in line by girls prepping to say things like "Will you have my baby?" and others who were hyperventilating. I was determined to remain calm. I did tell him that I was his neighbor and I said "welcome to the neighborhood," but I told him the wrong address by mistake ( I've only actually stayed at this house for 10 days so far, that's acceptable, right?). Wouldn't it be just my luck that he would suddenly decide to come over and visit me, only to find that there is no #120? Umm, hmm, since that will never happen, I've decided to live with my mistake :)