I’m traveling for pretty much all of the month. Last weekend the entire company I work for took a trip down to Visby, Sweden. Then Tuesday I left for Martha’s Vineyard and the Viable Paradise reunion. Today I’m at Jersey City and I’m heading to Columbus, Ohio at the end of the month. My partner and my dog are at home and I already miss them both terribly. While I have grand ambitions to travel the world, I am still basically a homebody at heart so anything I can do alleviate the inevitable homesickness is always a good thing. So here’s five things I do:
- Snuggle octopus
Yes, I sleep with a stuffed cuddly octopus. It makes me happy. It’s something I always keep with to make sure I can sleep. I tried it during this past Worldcon with Moominpappa but he just wasn’t as good. - Photos from home
Lately, whenever I’m traveling, my husband has started sending me pictures of himself, and especially the dog. At first glance, this sounds like something that would make me even more homesick but for some strange reason, it really helps. Things are going fine even though I’m not there to do them or remind them to be done or anything like that. - Finnish music
I don’t listen to a lot of Finnish music. There’s no actual reason for this, it’s just not something I do often. But in Viable Paradise I started listening to bands singing in Finnish simply out of the need to hear Finnish words. - Comfort food
Yeah, it’s not healthy but sometimes, when you’re traveling, you just have to take some time out to spoil yourself and make the time away from home be a little bit nicer. Whether this takes the form of watching Mad Max: Fury Road, Alien or T2 for the thousandth time, listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on continuous repeat or just plain old chocolate is anybody’s guess. - Phone home
Sometimes, it’s the simple solutions. And simply speaking, sometimes you have to make like ET. Although, given that my partner and I are both Finns, these calls tend to get boring very quickly after we’ve covered recent events.
What are your strategies for dealing with homesickness?
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