You CAN Go Home Again

“Home is where the heart is”, “there’s no place like home”, and “home sweet home” are some common phrases you hear about home.

Another is “You can never go home again”. In today’s culture, that’s more about nostalgia and idealizing the past.

On May 4, 2017, I posted this blog, which has been viewed more than 1,100 times.

I was ending an eight-year relationship and getting a divorce and “I made the irrational decision to move away from the Quad Cities”. (That’s how I summed it up in past posts.)

I moved to Panama City, Florida, for a year and I hated it. I then took a chief meteorologist position in Duluth, Minnesota, for two years, and from there, it was on to Central Illinois for 5.5 years.

Like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, I realize I would’ve missed on certain things in life — despite the heartbreak — if I hadn’t made that wrong decision of leaving the Quad Cities.

By being in Panama City, I met Cathy and Jerry, who became my closest friends there and they always invited me to their holiday dinners and parties.

And, I drove 180 miles through the backwoods of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia in the dark of night to be the last person invited into Marantha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, to hear my idol President Jimmy Carter give a Sunday sermon.

I then got to meet him and Rosalynn.

In Duluth, I met my dear friends, Katie, my newscast director at the station, and her mother, Mary Kaye, and my sweet neighbor, Kass.

Also, Dan Hanger made the two years at work fun.

I moved to Central Illinois right at the beginning of lockdown with the COVID pandemic (April 2020) and my sister Tammy relocated here that fall.

Over the past few years, I’ve talked with many wonderful people on my walks around Lake Decatur and I met three wonderful couples.

That’s Dee and Jay, who had a wonderful shar-pei, Max, that I loved.

There’s Doug and Lisa: They’ve shared several tasty bourbon old fashioneds and many bottles of fine wine with me over the years (and, on that cold New Year’s Eve in the outdoor hot tub with Lake Decatur as a backdrop).

And, this spring, I befriended Jan (to my left) and Sandra (on the far right).

However, the one thing missing for me in Decatur over the past 5.5 years is a personal life. I went on one date in that time period!

To my friend, Bob, thank you for the champagne, the pizza and great food, your friendship, and that fun cat, Doug!

While in Duluth, I decided I needed a dog in my life. That goal became #Pug2020.

However, with changing jobs and the pandemic, it got pushed back to #Pug2021 and #Pug2022.

Finally, in February 2023, Pug Xanadu became a reality and it was the most important and life-changing development in my Decatur, Illinois, years.

What a wonderful ride it’s been with that silly, mischevious, naughty pug. (Back to Dee and Jay, I asked them to be Xanadu’s caregiver if something happens to me!)

Yes, for last Christmas’ cards, we had matching onesies! Thanks Aldi!

Last fall, I prematurely extended my work contract despite the departures of the news director that hired me and her successor (the assistant news director, at the time).

When someone new comes in that didn’t hire you, it can be like an “arranged marriage”.

You don’t know each other, but you’re thrown together to make it work. Some of those arrangements succeed and some don’t.

Differences in opinions escalated over time leading to a few tactless conversations (I talk, you listen).

To be professional, the last one ended with an “irreparable” relationship and “irreconcilable differences”. I walked out of that meeting knowing I didn’t want to make this my home any longer and I quickly started rethinking my life.

That night I prayed hard for a peaceful solution.

When the alarm went off at 2 a.m., my prayers led me to peace that morning. I knew I needed to leave for professional and personal reasons.

While I left a toxic, chaotic environment, I sincerely appreciate my general manager, that was instrumental in hiring me, and that news director for not standing in my way of ending my contract early and amicably leaving!

YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN!

I was born and raised in Kentucky and spent most of my first 29.5 years there.

Abraham Lincoln was also born in Kentucky, but he made Illinois home.

With family, you can have the biological one and the “chosen” one. So, why can’t you have the same with what you call “home”?

While I’m a Kentuckian, after four years in Chicago, 5.5 years in Decatur, and 11.5 years in Moline, Illinois back in the day, I consider the Quad Cities “home”.

I never saw this happening and it wasn’t on my 2025 Bingo card, but baby, I’m back!

Wait, I said, “baby, I’m back”, not “Baby Got Back”!

Miss Xanadu and I are Quad Citians (for me, again)!!!

She’ll now enjoy the Mississippi River instead of Lake Decatur!

I’m taking over the morning meteorologist and morning co-host position at my old station that I worked at from March 2013 to May 2017.

It’s great to be home!

While I won’t have my dear friend and former “work wife” Emily Scarlett with me, I look forward to getting to know Brittany and Danielle and to work with chief meteorologist Andy McCray again!

Thank you for traveling along with me on this journey called “life”!

Anthony