Look Ma, No Roots!

Last week Tuesday, Danny and I watched as, for over 12 consecutive hours, 4 men took most of our personal belongings, piano and all, wrapped them in paper, and shipped them off to some storage facility somewhere in Maryland. I am afraid a small forest was felled in the name of preserving a sprinkler from my Tallahassee garden, the margarita glasses we've used once in 6 years, our AWANAs pine derby race cars. Reduced to just our clothes and select toys and books, we set off on this new life of adventure. We stayed with my mom until we left on Friday morning. Danny was up at 7 a.m. loading the van. To Danny's dismay, we wouldn't hit the road for another 3 hours. We said goodbye to abuelos and Tia Loida, and didn't stop till we hit St. Augustine. We had lunch with Danny's college friend Judy, then coffee with Karn in Jacksonville. We were in Savannah by 9 p.m. at which point the kids started with their "pio, pio!" complaining of being hungry. Good thing we packed abuela's leftovers! We spent the next morning relaxing at Forsyth Park, having races across the park and eating homemade popsicles. Saturday afternoon, we made it to Raleigh and stayed with Meredith, my best friend in middle school. Sunday morning we attended her church, which, as Providence would have it, is pastored by an old college friend. We got out later than expected on Sunday afternoon and didn't make it into D.C. until after night had fallen. We got lost and had to call my dear Rebecca to guide us to our hotel. Us old-school navigators don't bother with GPSes and smartphones. But a map would have been helpful. Or maybe not.

We arrived with nothing but a remaining tub of yogurt and granola. I found myself on Monday morning with an otherwise empty fridge and pantry, Danny off on his first day of work (talk about calling it close, I know!), just me and the four kiddos figuring things out on our own. Which in D.C. is no easy task. Good thing they speak English here! We did have a map with us now, but it turned out to be useless anyway. I tried to find the corner grocery store and ended up in another city. The streets in D.C. change names every few blocks. And none of them go in straight lines. This place is a labyrinth. I had to stop at a bank to get directions. Once I was properly oriented, it was nearly smooth sailing. Two hours later, I made it back "home." With much less than $120 in groceries, even though that's what I had to pay for them. Unfortunately, I got lost again in the parking lot of our complex. I couldn't remember which building was ours. I haven't braved driving since. But there's lots to do at the complex. Everyone staying here works for the same agency as Danny. People walk around on their cellphones saying things like, "We got Malawi!" or speaking in Croatian. When they speak in English, they speak in acronyms.. HHE, EFM, BSAC. You hear it at the pool, on the playground, on the tennis courts. Perhaps when we come back in March, the kids can take tennis classes.

There was an icecream social tonight but my kids were rotten today so I was the only one who deserved it. I had planned to go, but at the last minute Danny decided to give me a demonstration of how to walk to the Metro. It's a ten minute brisk walk. Which is how I found myself sitting on a bus bench with four kids, in D.C. at night, wondering, "How on earth did I get here?" And the thought occurs to me periodically. Because really, I just put a bullet in normalcy. I don't think I'm going to know normal for a long time. On the plus side, Danny went from shooing vagrants and arresting distraught, corpulent Bulgarian women, to crossing paths with four-star generals in the halls and wearing suits and ties. As Noemie says, he looks "fantastic." As Toby says, "fantastic carwash poops." Giannina says stuff too, but I don't understand most of it.