Ten Days and Counting

I'm heating up a long-ago-purchased Lean Cuisine Thai chicken entree and watching the kids play/fight/laugh/squeal on the swingset. They have just polished off the last of the frozen fish sticks. We are down to the final crumbs of everything. I'm trying to make the Liquid Tide stretch for another week and a half, but I just might have to cave and buy a new bottle. Dang. I hate when things don't come out evenly.

A couple of days ago Danelle and I took our kids into Manhattan and it was a perfect day. The whole New Jersey Transit train ride there we discussed The Last Days Before Moving in an analytical fashion. We decided that right now we are like a couple of pregnant women in our eighth month. Dying to get it over with. Knowing that there will be a lot of pain. Unsure what life will be like on the other side.

I'm totally busy but also kind of bored. There are a lot of tasks to do. Today was our last ortho appointment. Tomorrow's the end-of-kindergarten picnic. I'm putting final touches on my talk for Sunday. Making some going-away surprises for a few special people. Cleaning out closets, drawers and cubbies. But all these are finishing jobs and I've decided I don't like finishing that much. I'm a much better starter.

I am very excited, for example, to start our cross-country vacation. We are going to make a leisurely two-week-long-sightseeing-road-trip out of our move and I cannot wait. Gonna see all kinds of friends and family and places along the way. I love road trips and I'm hoping this one will be the pause that refreshes. We all need a little breather between the deconstruction of one life and constructing a new one.

Last night was my last appointment with my cherished stylist. She has been doing my hair for a decade, which is very long in hair years. I feel maternal towards Ms. D. The first time I sat in her chair, she had a blue mullet and a nose ring. Now she is a gorgeous redhead with a wedding ring. Yep. She's fresh off her honeymoon and her new husband's name is Brad. She even calls him B-rad. So, of course, the two of them are bound to be blissfully happy. B-rads make really great husbands.

I guess I'm waxing a little melancholy and feeling a wee bit nostalgic. It's hard not to get too wistful and overly sappy. But tonight, as I was feeding the kids on the back patio, I remembered something our realtor, Maxine, said a few months ago.

She was bringing us some paperwork before we listed the house. That night we were also sitting on the back patio, eating dinner as a family. She teetered back there on her mile high heels and said, "This is perfect! I wish some potential buyers could see this scene. It's beautiful! It would totally sell your house."

And I remember thinking, "Yeah. But this isn't for sale."

I need to remind myself that even though I'm leaving so many great things behind, I'm taking the most important ones with me.

Note To Self: Moving makes you even more sappy than usual.

P.S. On Note To Self: Never again buy Lean Cuisine Thai chicken. Ick.