Transitions

People keep asking me what it's like to be back.  The short answer is....well, there really is no short answer at the moment.  On the one hand, it is nice to be back in a place that feels so comfortable and familiar, where the sun shines and there's lots of green grass, trees, and flowers, and good friends eager to share news about the neighborhood, kids, and local politics.  On the other hand, we're still staying in a hotel while we await the arrival of our household goods and while there are workers in the house painting and fixing things.  We're kind of betwixt and between:  definitely back in the USA but not yet truly at home.

Still there are the little things that keep reminding me that we have shifted gears.  It's repressing the reflex to say "Bonjour" to someone in the elevator, reaching for the bags in the supermarket when there is actually a paid employee to take care of that for me,  fumbling in the middle of the night to find the doodad to flush the toilet (it's on the side, silly, not on the top), remembering that there's a garbage disposal only after throwing all my vegetable peelings in the trash, and seeing the many ads on TV for anti-depressants.  Within days, I'm sure these will have left my consciousness.    But for the moment, they are little reminders of the different life we lived, one that is already fading in the rearview mirror.