I wrote the following post before we left California but
didn’t get around to publishing until after we’d gotten to Texas, so please disregard
present tense verbage! We have arrived safely in Houston with both the baby and
the dog and successfully closed on our house yesterday morning. More details on
those adventures coming soon-ish!
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I haven’t been blogging much lately. Aside from the fact
that my free time has mostly been spent doing moving tasks, I also find it to
be a hard time to write about, emotionally speaking. I really stink at this
part. I either become an emotional weeping mess, or in order to prevent losing
my composure I shut down and act somewhat indifferent. I can’t seem to find a
balance and it makes saying goodbye tricky.
I seem to strive on a solid dose of
denial, thinking and saying ‘I’ll see you again soon’. But I’ve played this
game before and I know that just isn’t true. All of our other assignments have
been oil-centric so there actually has been an honest bit of ‘we’ll cross paths
eventually’ sentiment when we say goodbye to our favorite friends. But the Bay
Area is different. No one here will be visiting family in Houston and casually want
to get together for lunch. Unless we make the trek back to California for
business or vacation, I’m not sure when the next time is I will see some of my
dearest friends. It really really stinks.
And if I let that fact sink in as I’m
spending my last precious moments with them, it ends up ruining my makeup
pretty quickly. But if I instead talk robotically about packing and emotionally
act like it’s any old get-together, steering clear of any sentimental
conversation, then I can come off as cold and indifferent. And I certainly
don’t want that either. So yea, it just is an icky, emotionally exhausting
timeframe as we all do our farewell tour in San Ramon.
Last weekend, my friend
Natalie arranged a night away in nearby Walnut Creek. She used her Marriot
points and found a deal for a massage and breakfast at the Renaissance Club
Sport Hotel and we left the kiddos with their dads and took off for the
day/night. It was absolutely what the doctor ordered. I think with a toddler
running around, it can be so hard just to think things through and process
everything that’s happening. I’m a textbook introvert and need time to let my
mind wander uninterrupted to really feel sharp and present. Getting a massage
followed by 2 hours lounging by the pool was exactly the recharging that I
needed to get my mind ready and focused on the tasks ahead this week.
We had a
lovely dinner arranged by my friend Angela (who couldn’t make
it….waaaaaahhhhhh) and a night of uninterrupted sleep and a slow morning
(although we still both woke up around 7 AM. These kids have ruined us!). After
coffee and breakfast we checked out and headed back to reality.
That afternoon
we were having our friends Dave, Pinthip and their little one over for food and
goodbyes. Pinthip and I became instant friends when we met in a playgroup
around the time our boys were 1. Compared to the other babies, our boys were
super active so it was natural that we sort of gravitated to each other. Her
hubby and my hubby hit it off as well so it was a great fit for the whole
family.
It’s so rare to find that! Pinthip went back to work full time when the
boys were about to turn 2 which made our time together much more scarce. I was
really glad that they were able to spend the afternoon with us and Forest had
so much fun with his first ever best friend.
Tuesday was Forest’s good-bye play
date from our playgroup. I was really touched by how many people came to play
and say goodbye. My friend Angela went all out and provided Starbucks for the
mommas and juice boxes for the littles with plenty of fresh fruit and donuts
for all.
I joined this play group when Forest was 4 months old and it was my
first group of friends in San Ramon. I honestly don’t know what I (or Forest)
would have done without them. The mommas in the group not only provided awesome
info for resources in the Bay Area but also were a source of comradery and
encouragement as I was in the trenches of new motherhood.
It’s been awesome to
see these kids grow from newborns into preschoolers, and I really hope I can
find a similar group of ladies and kiddos in The Woodlands. It’s the first
thing on my to-do list.
Thursday was my last real day with friends. Jon gave me
permission to leave the premises while the movers were packing up the house so
I decided to take Forest to San Jose to Happy Hollow Zoo. This is probably my
favorite big outing to take him on but it’s a far drive so I tend to take him
to Oakland Zoo much more frequently. Anyhoos, I mentioned my plans to a few
friends and a couple decided to join us for one last play date. The boys had a
blast riding all the rides (except for the cars which were closed for maintenance
which was slightly dramatic amongst 2 year olds who wanted to drive the cars
more than anything else in the world.)
Though the park is technically a zoo,
there are tons of rides and playgrounds for toddlers so we spent a big chunk of
time doing that before Forest finally said, ‘Let’s go see the animals!’.
After
hitting up the petting zoo all the kiddos were pretty exhausted so we all went
our separate ways for naptime.
Saying goodbye here was when I really broke down
emotionally. I feel like in motherhood, the bond you have with your mommy
friends is super strong. I rely on their company for encouragement,
normalization and comic relief. I am scared witless that I might have a gap of
time where I don’t have a group of buddies (for me and Forest) to take a
midweek trip to the zoo.
Thank heavens my friend Jillian will live so close to
me in The Woodlands. Her twins can’t quite keep up with Forest yet but it won’t
be long and she is one of my favorite people on the planet. The thought of
being close to her again is really helping me to hold it together. Not to
mention tons of amazing friends I have scattered throughout the Houston area
and yay for being within driving distance to my family in Louisiana! I know their support will sustain me until I
find my little tribe in The Woodlands.
Anyhoos, after the zoo trip, I managed to find one more
excuse to see my buddy Natalie and her sweet baby boy and my friend Angela
invited Forest and I to play while the packers finished up on Friday.
More
tears were shed at these final goodbyes and even reliving them in my head is
pretty tough. So I’ll just say that our California chapter was beautiful. I
loved the people I met and the landscapes I got to see. I hope and dream that
our lives lead us back there one day.
But I’m also excited to be in Texas and
have been amazed at how much it has felt like a homecoming. That’s the wonderfully
strange thing about the lifestyle- 'home' is an ever shifting idea and we've learned to open ourselves fully to new places and people. That's really the only way this constant relocation stuff can work.
