This is the 3rd blog post I've attempted to make in the past week or so. I've wanted it to be more than just a bulleted update list, and I haven't really felt like digging into deep, meaningful feelings. I also have no funny stories to share, not that the majority would find funny at least. So, in order to scratch the "blogging itch" I will give an update-I just won't bullet it. Maybe once I begin, thought will flow. ;)
I accepted a job in Columbus last Thursday. It seems strange to be moving home so soon, and we are sad to be leaving Birmingham. We really enjoy it here. Close enough to home to shoot down for a visit, but far enough away to feel like we're on our own.
It's been a tough almost-year together, I mean, we lived in a camper for 4 months, but still enjoyable. Our fist year of marriage is almost gone. We made it (though, admittedly, there were times that it didn't seem like we would make it through the night). It's so true what they say about how being married to someone puts them in a different light. I mean, who in a million years would predict that one day, there would be an argument about dryer lint? No one. That's who. But it happens. You fuss about the dyer lint. And where somebody does or doesn't put their shoes. Trivial things. And it's funnier still, how some days, those trivial things are so endearing. It's almost cute how he always leaves toothpaste in the sink. And other days, it's enough to make you want to rip your (or his) hair out. It's always so much cleared in retrospect that it really wasn't the shoes, or the dryer lint, or the toothpaste. It was something deeper. Something else was wrong, but sometimes, feelings are so hard to name, so hard to pin down, and it's easier to be mad about the trivial thing. The thing that is sometimes cute.
I feel like, come May 22, while we eat our year old cake, we can be happy with all we've done and been through together. Our first year of marriage was not always easy, certainly nothing I'd ever imagine. Did I mention the camper? For 4 months? And how we lived on $100 for a month? And how we couldn't run the microwave and the AC at the same time? (It seems so funny now). And, God bless David, we made it through my last semester of classes, and comps. I assure you, I wasn't so easy to deal with for the months of October-December.
I don't mean to make it sound all bad. Because, by all means, it hasn't been. Those have been our hiccups. Our little glitches in the programming. We've come out of them stronger. Stronger together, and that's what counts. We've learned so much about each other. What we need as individuals and as a single unit in order to thrive. We've learned so much about giving. About giving fully of yourself, and how when you don't do that, when you each give 50%, thinking it will make 100%, you really only feel 50% filled.
And now it seems, we're returning home. I don't mind it. I could have accepted a job in Tallahassee just as easily. We picked Columbus because it's still home. We want to be a part of our niece and nephew's lives, our family's lives. And it will be nice one day to have grandparents close enough to babysit. It's just hard packing up again. And I mean that literally. I've moved at least once, every 9 months, for the past 4 years. Last summer alone I moved 3 times. I also mean that figuratively. The majority of my friends are in this area. I've lived here for 4 years, and I've had the closest friendships of my life here. And I'm so afraid to loose that. I've always been able to make friends quickly. I'm outgoing, giggle easily, and am a bit of a joiner. I won't turn down too many invitations. Keeping friends is where it comes more difficulty for me. I tend to become so absorbed in what's going on where I am, that I don't reach out to those far away. One of my dearest friends lives only 45 minutes from me, and we hardly see each other. This does not bode well for me moving 3 hours from her. So I guess I will just have to keep that in mind. Make a million times extra effort to talk to, and to see, my friends, while making new ones.
