Saturday September 17, 2011
While running my weekly Saturday errands I had to make a trip back to our old neighborhood to pick up an Rx refill I hadn’t yet transferred to a closer location. Since all my other errand running spots (bank, grocery store, Taco Bell) were also in that area, I was able to spend a few hours in my old life visiting all the spots I used to visit regularly. It was kind of a weird feeling where everything is the same, but it’s not. Because if it were you’d go back to your old house when you were finished and wander around the familiar rooms as you did your daily business. I chose to take a drive by the old house as long as I was out there to see how much had changed. Creeping down the culdesac (and feeling a little bit like a stalker) I could see that besides a few small differences it still looked like my house, with the exception of someone else’s car in my garage. It felt strange not to be pulling in the driveway and unloading my groceries , on my way up to the bedroom to pack an overnight bag for the boat.
Pulling away I was flooded with memories of Matt and I in that house. Watching movies on the projector while cuddled up on the couch. Doing loads of laundry and then running them up to the bedroom where all the walls were flooded in sunlight. And the part I missed most of all was knowing that Mazzii would always be there when I got home to follow me through the house and take up the bed while I was trying to fold laundry on it, often rolling herself on top of the socks. And here I am in this moment with no house and no dog. As I was beginning to become emotional and sentimental (and quite sad) I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that there was a purpouse for this. I may be sacrificing now, but the end goal will be worth it. We knew we were going to get rid of the house, we knew Mazzii would have been left behind. We still sacrificed everything we knew we would, but just with quite a long waiting period for the fun stuff to begin. I think if we had been able to jump right into the trip these changes would have been easier, but with spending a year inbetween our old life and our new one it’s hard to feel the payoff for any of these changes.
At least the boat is still a constant in my life and I always feel better when I’m there. Since we had a late start to the afternoon we were both ravenous by the time we got there and I started dinner right away. Although in my attempt to make spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread, I had only brought the meat and garlic bread with me. After a quick trip to Save-A-Lot on the way (I guess you save a lot by only having one brand choice of each item and not having your items placed in any kind of bag when you leave) we were enjoying a nice meal which left me a ton of dishes to do in the end. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful where I worked on blogs for an hour while Matt played around on the internet. Before popping in a movie to carry us through the rest of the night I pulled out a bottle of Witches Brew I had picked up at the store earlier that day. It’s a red wine spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and then heated up to just under a boil and served. It’s perfect for fall days when the air starts to get a little crisp. Plus it’s made by one of my favorite wineries, Leelanau Cellars. If you ever get a chance to visit this winery, please do. It’s located on beautiful Lake Leeland, has delicious wines, and some of the friendliest staff in the world. And if you’re up that way, also make a stop at Black Star Farms.
Snuggling up on the settee with my steaming glass of Witches Brew and a new blockbuster in the DVD player I thought ‘As long as I have this in my life, the next nine months might not be so bad’.
