From the before, a thank you

There is a lot you end up leaving when you move, especially like this, trading a whole life for a whole different life. You have to make room. You have to close. The night before we set off, before the full truck and empty house, Husband and I had dinner with favorite friends M. and J. M. and I shared an office when we first started out at school, which I have always thought was quite lucky for me, given his generosity, spirit, and overall awesomeness. He makes everyone around him feel valuable and full of verve. Also, jolly. I have so appreciated his friendship and stories, and I watch on in awe of his work ethic and utter genius. J., his wife, manages to be lovely, determined, sincere, and kind all at once. Beautiful! She is the kind of person you want with you in a fight, who would scold you thoroughly afterward and then take you out for coffee or something stronger, and save you all over again. I have no idea how she does this with such grace, but I'm terribly grateful that we spent our last evening with her and her husband. We passed around plates of deliciousness and caught up and laughed and said goodbye. I have no idea what we talked about. It was just dinner with friends, only not quite. For me, it was warm and final and fitting. Something like closure, if closure was a scarf you wrapped around your shoulders and took with you, that you could hang on any hook, anywhere, and feel peace.

The Brake

A few days ago, I thought, I want to go home.

I did not think this with wet eyes or the kind of ache I expected.

I was standing in the kitchen on the new rug by the sink, the rug that is green like our favorite cabinet and covered in the almost-arty cartoons of onions and carrots and the self-consciousness of its own whimsy. I had poured my tea before I remembered. I am home.

The cicadas here are nearly the same.

Here.

Greetings from the new place--

It has been a journey of nearly a week, but Husband and I are home now, safe and sound and almost unpacked. We finally have internet again and we both find ourselves getting ready to work.

I'll be retroactively posting the events/adventures/turmoil/elation of the last week and get you properly updated.

Until then, I actually have to finished this unpacking.

PS. Saw only one earwig since moving in. A holdover, I think, who wanted to stay with us. Who could blame him?