The cat's outta the bag

This news will hardly affect my blog friends if at all. Did I just write that? Well, you know who you are. Blog friends are from all over the world and the internet has brought us together from Canada (Hey Silent One) to Texas (Hey Greek Chickie) to New York (What’s up, Take Care Michael?) down to the DC area (I see you, Laura), over to Colorado (Hey Girlfriend Pam) back over to LA (Shephard, how are you?) and up to Montana (Leesa my Love) and all over. So where I live doesn’t really matter although I have had to teach you all a few things about Missouri… and you know who you are. St. Louis on the right. Kansas City on the left and Columbia (Home of the University of Missouri) and Jefferson City (the capital you nitwits) is smack dab in the middle. Yes, this state has a boot heel on the right hand corner (southeast) and yes, Sheryl Crow is from this state. But other than that, most of you probably think it’s a little stop between Chicago and Denver or New York and Los Angeles. And we have that funny arch. So, like I said, my news won’t even affect those bloggers who read and comment.

What blogging does, however, is set in stone my plan. The cat’s outta the bag. For all sorts of reasons (listed below), we are moving to Columbia, the college town in the middle of the state, as soon as my husband and I find jobs. Once our youngest (Dorothy) graduated for high school, nothing was really holding us to St. Louis since I’m not from here. (My husband is, but he has no family left here.) We stayed where we did the past 20 years so our kids could get a good education and now it’s time to move on. Yep, that means we are moving to the same town where my girls live. One is teaching there and the other started school there last week. And for all you who are thinking, “The girls aren’t always going to live there. What are you going to do when they move away? Follow them again.” And my answer is, “You don’t think I’ve already thought of that?” We love that college town. Both my husband and I went to school there. I’m actually from the mid-Missouri area and know it’s a slower way of life without the same “opportunities” as the big city. But I no longer have to “run away from home” the way I did when I was young. Dorothy is majoring in technical theatre and has plans to live in New York or LA (Hey, Uncle Shephard) so I have no plans to follow her when she graduates. And Mabel is teaching in Columbia but has dreams of teaching in urban settings (ghetto) and or teaching teachers how to teach in college settings. So no, I don’t plan to follow her to Harlem or Chicago or South LA. But right now, it just feels right to be close to them. I want to be nearby when Dorothy is working on a show at the college. I want to go shopping with Mabel. They are growing up to be fantastic young women who I want to be around all the time. So there.

But mostly, I want my husband to be able to get a job that he loves, that he deserves, that makes him jump out of bed in the morning. The man is the hardest worker in the world with the worst job history. It’s tragic. I have never wanted to move from St. Louis because (a) we were raising children in an excellent school district and (b) I would never move for his job given his job history. (I’d be stuck in – where’s the worst place you can think of - Buttfuck, Idaho.) So now we have opened up the field to Columbia so he can find a job. He’s had a few interviews with no luck so far, but we are hopeful. I started putting out feelers 2 weeks ago and had the most fantastic interview of a lifetime this past Tuesday. It’s my dream job, but I don’t want to think about it too much or I will worry myself silly. That’s all I’m going to say so I don’t jinx it, but there's the possibility that I'll find a job before he does. Luckily, my husband is not above anything and will work anywhere so he is quite willing to “follow.” In the meantime, I also have some applications in with the university. Keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, send positive thoughts, light a novena, burn a witch at the stake, dance around the May pole, sing Hava Nagila. I don’t care what course of action you like to take to appease the gods. Just do it. Because after we find jobs, we have to sell and buy a house, and I think I feel the urge to vomit. (This is the first and only house we’ve lived in. Thank God, I’m not sentimental about the place. Just anxious about the housing market. (Send good vibes, Silent One!) Where we live, they just may knock the house down to build another which would be fine with me. Just buy my house.

I can hardly wait to have a smaller mortgage. Be able to afford to go to Broadway musicals (Rent and Aida are coming to Mizzou!). Live in a slower pace, a more diverse area. Get more involved in politics (near the capital and the campus). Be able to see at the drop of a hat the plays/musicals my daughter works on and giggle while shopping with my other daughter. I’m ready for this change. Everything is pointing towards it. I will miss my sisters who live here, but they understand why I’m doing this.

And back on the farm, I told my boss. As you know, I’ve hated my job because of “creepy man,” but I love my boss. I wanted to give him more than a 2-week’s notice because they were starting to give me a lot of responsibility on grant writing, and I just didn’t want to leave him high and dry. He couldn’t be more pleased for me. He’s a psychologist who loves mid-life revelations (doesn’t call them crises) and thinks this will really shake things up. If he only knew! My last day here will be September 29th so I had better hear back from one of these places soon or I’m going to have an anxiety attack that no drug can conquer! Then there is time for a little trip. A little vacation that I can’t talk about just yet.

Now all that said, moving away from the place I’ve lived in for 27 years will be the hardest thing I have ever done. Well, not actually. Leaving my friends will be. I have the most amazing friends (and you know who you are), and it will pain me to the bottom of my soul to leave. But Columbia is just 2 hours away, and that’s what highways and cars and overpriced gas are for. We will be back for church social events and Thanksgiving (Turkey Day game) and Christmas (Yah, ornament fights) so never fear. We will be back. Now we’ll just be staying with friends when we do.

Wow, I don’t blog often, but when I do, I write a lot. Maybe too much. Hope I haven’t put you to sleep. I’m in for an exciting adventure. Wanna come along, bloggily speaking?

An “empty nest” update. Dorothy is having the time of her life at college. Happier than I have ever seen her. She was made for college. Mabel is trying to catch up from hitting the ground running and lamented the other day, “Dorothy is having so much fun. She will never need me.” Get over it Big Sis. She also added, “Damn, she’s having a ball, and she hasn’t even been drunk yet.” Ahhh, that’s a sorority girl for you.