TIME TO GO

TODAY’S WORRY

We are moving out of our apartment in Menlo Park this week.  I have mixed emotions about it.  In a lot of a ways, it is a relief.  Having multiple places to live was confusing and expensive.  Paying rent or property taxes and homeowner’s association fees, utilities bills etc. on three places that you only lived in a third the time seemed excessive.  Knowing where the extra paper towels or celery seed was stored was impossible.  Sometimes just trying to figure out which way the bathroom was in the middle of the night was a quandry.  It’s time to simplify. 

But there are things I’ll miss.  Being close to the kids will be one.  That didn’t work out quite the way that I thought it would.  It my mind I was thinking it would be like when I was a kid and my grandparents were near by and the family would get together frequently.  I think that’s a model that has seen its day.  And I mean this from both sides.  John and I have our life, the kids have theirs.  We cannot expect them to fill the void that our own endeavors and friends should.  They have very busy lives filled with their own friends and work. 

Now that we’ll be an hour away, we’ll all have to work a little harder at seeing each other.  John and I plan on staying over near them in a hotel the days that John works.  It’s much cheaper and someone else makes the bed!  We hope that they’ll come out and play some tennis, swim in the pool and have a family dinner.  We’d like Nathan to be comfortable in his Beeba and Zayde’s house.

It’s all good.  It was an experiment that didn’t quite turn out as expected.  Many thanks to John who indulged me by letting me have this past year.