New Land

We have landed in the new place.

Sweaty, bedraggled, and slightly crazed, we arrived over a week ago to set up camp inside the echoes of this new house.

The kids went nuts. (Hold your ears if you click link.) 

They have calmed down a bit since then but only because they are both sick.  We all came down with the yuck, except Andy.  Hmm, he was driving in a separate car.  Alone, with music and NPR and beef jerkey.  Smart man. 

My dear brother, Donnie helped us with the worst part of the move.  He was driving the moving van that wouldn't go above 43 mph up a hill.  And we took the scenic route through Virginia.  The Blue Ridge Mountain route with nothing but hills.  Donnie was speaking in tongues and practically chewing his e-cigarette by the time we stopped for gas.  I would not have blamed him if he ducked out the Sunoco window, hailed a cab back to NYC, and gave us the finger in the back seat for the next hundred miles.  But he stayed the course. And I adore him for that.  For many other things too but that is icing on an already divine chocolate brownie-cookie-dough cake.

I was driving the minivan so rightfully got the kids, the dogs, and everything that wouldn't fit in two moving trucks.  Before you feel sorry for me I have to confess, it really was not bad.  I had company to keep me awake, dog saliva to keep me watered, and the option to learn every lyric to Rio by Rihanna.  It could and should have been so much worse.  They have all earned the moniker:  Road Warrior.  Especially Sadie who shrugged her shoulders in Virginia and didn't wake up until Tennessee.

So, we are here at the end of one road and the beginning of another and I don't really know what to tell you guys about first.  There is just so much to say.  I've written and rewritten this post several times, posted then uposted, ruminated and mindfully deleted and still cannot come up with anything close to how I feel about all of this.

Leaving was harder than I knew it would be and all of us were sad as hell to leave.  Even Donnie.  He gets very attached.

I could go on and on about all the sad and how I couldn't belieeeee-eeee-eeeve I had to leave my mom, my brother, his family, Mary, her kids, after Jimmy blew this taco stand.  Then, leaving Mr. Jack, his Eddie-Lou, Mr. Ives, Jenna Jam, my JCC lovelies, Trader Joe's, sweet Sara, our cozy routine, our entire way of life.

But you know what?  Somehow we lived through all the leaving miles and I refuse to breathe in the sad that does not belong in this new place.  Wallowing will happen later, for sure, when I can't find a friend to stomp puddles with me but for now, for now... 

...it's really beautiful here.  There are critters as far as the eye can see in our front yard and our back yard. The kids grab their fishing poles while still in their pjs and walk down the driveway to fish for sunnies.  Frogs race the tadpoles in our stream.  This house has very tall ceilings.  There is pretty white bark flaking off of two trees near our sunroom.  Something clicks and barks right outside our door causing Sparrow to froth at the mouth and Sadie to perk her ears up like a purebred lab.  Our neighborhood looks like every scene in The Prince of Tides.  Somehow I scored a gorgeous lantern for a housewarming gift.  Small friendly lizards come to visit us every morning while we have a sit and a listen.  My children have room to wander in this house and talk to themselves for a change.  The dogs think we parked on the sun and lost the keys.  The kids might think that too.  I love FaceTime with my mom.  My husband and I feel like newlyweds in this strange land with only each other to lean on. There is a CVS and a TCBY within a mile of our house.  You should see my closet.

We have landed in the new place and so far, it's an adventure.