Feeling closer to {Home}

For the past month I have been anxiously awaiting the Grand Opening of the new… ONLY Dunkin Donuts in Ames, Iowa. Back in December they opened one in Des Moines, Iowa which is an hour from me and I hoped that they would expand… and they did.

Seriously I think it was fate. I was driving into work on day and as I was about to turn the corner to the parking lot I saw a small sign on the building on the corner that said “Soon to Come…

DUNKIN DONUTS”!

Ames, Iowa is not the smallest of towns and here it was… a Dunkin Donuts to be placed on the corner of where I turn almost every day to park and walk into work. Imagine that.

My boss thinks I’m hysterical because my eyes get huge and you can see my excitement at just the mentioning of a Dunkin coming here to Ames.

So I started thinking about it and realized it’s more to me than just another Fast food place opening, it’s the memories associated with it.

We lived a quarter mile from a Dunkin growing up and Dad use to bring them home after Church almost every Sunday. It was where my friend Sarah got me hooked on my first coffee as a Junior in high school… mmmm “Dunkacino”. It’s where I stopped most everyday on my way into school to teach to grab an iced coffee.  Then I moved to South Dakota and bam I was left with notta.

I don’t think people who have lived in their own little world for their entire life realize that every little thing that you are familiar with vanishes. I have had to let go of so many things that when the smallest hint of “familiar” comes back into my life I just want to squeeze the life out of it and say… thank you god for giving me one more piece of my old life back.

So today I’m celebrating all my memories of living back east by walking into the Newly opened Dunkin Donuts here in Ames and grabbing my regular… Vanilla Iced Coffee with Cream and Sugar & an Everything Bagel Toasted with Cream Cheese.

{Note to self: This will not be an every day meal…. just a treat during the harder weeks}