Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fifteen Years (Fish Nor Fowl)

Fifteen years ago, I packed too much stuff into a tiny clown car and my dad drove me up to Ohio.

Eleven years ago, I drove a moving van up to a really cold, miserable year in the Northeast.  (It did improve thereafter.)

Five years ago, I drove a bitter orange tree a thousand miles to come live in the land of lakes, cheese, and sausage.  Bug was just a tiny little lima bean

Tomorrow, the children and I are getting on a plane and we are going back to the South.  We may never leave again.  Oh, God, we may never leave again.

I had to call around and was reminded of a few key facts: 1) Everyone in them thar hills has the same educated-Southerner-who-never-left-the South accent; 2) they all think I am some damn Yankee because I have the Southerner-who-went-to-school-in-the-North accent; 3) there is no such thing as a short conversation in the South.

My family is there, but I'm not.  I don't sound like them, but I'm from there.  Neither here nor there... this is going to be hard.

So: I'm happy!  I'm sad!  I'm going to a hellacious wedding full of lawyers!  I'm travelling alone for ten hours with two little kids!  We get to see my family!  I'm living in the mountains!  Oh, $%!+, I'm living in the mountains!  Et cetera.

There's going to be some of this:


And some of this, except not Texas, of course:


And some bourbon:


And some deeply conflicted feelings:


And I'm pretty sure it will be all right in the end.


3 comments:

  1. Belle2:22 PM

    I like your playlist!

    May everything go so smoothly tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after.

    May your children surprise you with their capacity to accept change and may your spouse handle everything with good humour and patience (yikes, a Canadian "u" just slipped in!).

    Enjoy being back with your family!

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  2. in Quebec, when someone is about to go through something intense, we say "tiens ta tuque" which translate to hold on to your winter hat. Even though you are moving south, I am telling this to you: hold on to your winter hat.

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  3. Anonymous2:58 PM

    Hilarious! I am HAPPY for you, while also very sympathetic about the intense tribulations you're about to endure... To Belle's wishes, I add: May you discover that a lot of heaviness that you didn't think was about your current circumstances turn out to actually have been about your current circumstances.

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