Kinda strange

So, my parents just drove away to their hotel; tomorrow I go to my first full day of work (eek) and they get on a plane back to Austin. I was sort of worried the whole time, since my parents and I don't always get along -- but at the same time, me being an only child and them not being the most terribly social of people, we're this weird little family and it's always us vs them. (Whoever "them" is can be questioned, but it was still us vs them.)

I feel kind of weird and kind of wistful; I'm really not "going home" any more. For better or for worse, I've pretty much officially moved out of my parents' house and struck it out on my own. They're going to keep our Austin house at least until I'm better settled -- hopefully once I get a permanent job and have a long-range plan; then Mom is talking about moving out to wherever I am, so we can be closer together. (Part of me goes "er" at that, but part of me also thinks it'd be awfully nice if my parents were, say, forty-five minutes away instead of seven hours + layovers.) We talked a lot about setting up things for my future, the kinds of things I should start expecting, and in spite of my misgivings, the weekend went really well.

I mean, there was a disaster per day -- their flight got delayed, our car got a flat RIGHT before my graudation ceremony, our digital camera (with the pictures of my graduation) went missing, and today we found that some absent-minded chick had left her ATM card in the machine (...........) so we turned it into the security desk and hopefully she'll get it back.

Just ... it feels really kind of weird, knowing I won't be going back to their home as "home," when I lived there for a good fifteen years of my life, and really, for all the years of my life growing up that I really remember. I sort of wish I could hang out with them a little longer, but my dad was insistent that I take a break and relax and get a good night's sleep before grown-up work tomorrow. He's probably right, just -- it's still WEIRD. I may not have always gotten along spectacularly with my parents (especially my dad), but this visit was really good, despite neither of them listening to my street directions ("I trust that you know where you are," my mom says, "I just don't trust your ability to direct US") it was really nice.

... I'm kind of annoyed by the camera missing, though. I mean, the graduation ceremony didn't mean particularly much to me right NOW, but I think in a few years I'll regret that loss. >_> At least I've bullied my parents into promising that they'll take pictures of themselves to send to me, because I think the most recent pictures I have of my family are pre-high school graduation, and that's just not cool. :p

And NOW I am going to take a shower and maybe eat (oh god, my parents fed me so damn much when they came up XD;) and woo. ♥