Season 1: Episode 05// Part 5: Homesick (featuring Vanessa Pamela Friedman)

Most people have experienced some sort of homesickness. In this episode we talk about both short and long forms of homesickness as I arrive in NYC and settle into a full blown state of missing the west coast. We bear witness to a love story as Vanessa Pamela Friedman moves to the east coast and writes a million love letters to Portland, OR. My sister Shelly looks into her past and articulates different ways homesickness has appeared in her life.

Some tears are shed, Cheryl Strayed is mentioned, and questions are asked: Is homesickness more about missing people or a place?

Vanessa + Portland in the spring.

Vanessa + PNW

Vanessa + PNW

Vanessa + PNW

Vanessa in NYC

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter @vanessapamela and on Instagram @vanessatakesphotos, sign up for her newsletter "I Miss You" and view the newsletter archive to read all the "Home" newsletters (the letter quoted in this episode was "Home, VII").

Read Vanessa's full piece "I Don't Know How to Say Goodbye, So I Wrote You This Instead." And check out the latest issue of Autostraddle 'Outsiders'.

Shelly and her HOMEgrown tomato.

You can find Shelly on Instagram @shellyblacketer, where you'll often find photos of cute Kai.