Oh, Won't You Stay?

October 4, 2011, Washington, DC: We could stay there in Chicago, I think. We could help the grandparents unpack. Attend the Chicago Architecture Foundation's Open House Chicago the weekend after next. We could stay to witness the growth of the city's bike sharing program, to spend time with our cousin as her schedule lightens up. We could stay for the countless restaurants still on our list, stay to walk neighborhoods from Printer's Row to Bucktown, Logan Square to the Gold Coast. We could catch the exhibit we've now twice failed to see at the Museum of Science and Industry. We could cheer on next weekend's marathoners. We could get out on the Lake. We could see the sights. We could sink back in. There's always reason to stay in Chicago.

But there's reason to come home to Washington, too.

We come back here for our careers, our friends, our neighborhood on Capitol Hill. We return to enjoy a few more weeks left paddling on the river, for running the Capitol grounds  at sunset before it's too dark. Here, it is the season for dinner to be enjoyed outside, a time we can turn off the air conditioning and have no need for heat. There's homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer here, and a few fresh items to pick up at Eastern Market.

We return to D.C. for the little reasons, to walk our friends' dogs, to reconnect with their children, to watch a Sunday game at home on the couch. And so we don't stay, not this time, because life here is calling. It's calling for us to sink back in.

There are so many places we could live if only we didn't have to pick just one.