Livin in the USA

We got back in town for a couple weeks. I actually was there from Jan. 20th until Feb. 8th, spending a few days in Chicago and the rest in Minneapolis.

I was able to see some of the perspective, that this French adventure was expected to give us and more.

First would be the difference between 'having family to hold' vs. 'not even having people around us from the same continent as we're from'. It was so nice to be able to hug and see 3 of our 4 children (Josh is in Colorado making snowboarding videos at college) and my brothers and their families in Chicago. One highlight was being able to see Alli's new apartment in Chicago, meeting her new boyfriend and then taking the long drive between Chicago and Minneapolis with her. Getting her undivided attention for 7 hours, seeing her smile and sharing a few laughs, was priceless.

Next would be 'having friends' vs. 'being strangers in a foreign land'. The two times we've returned to the US during this past year we've kind of over scheduled ourselves, just trying to see everybody. It's great to rekindle the friendships and feel as though we were lost but found again. Really great. Our friends are a very unique group of outstanding individuals. You could plan your entire existence around each and every one of them...and they almost all have partners who they've done just that with. But I realized on Saturday, Feb 6th, that I had been in town for 12 days and that was the first time I really felt like I was relaxing at home. When we are here in Toulouse, we are at the apartment almost everyday, unless we are traveling. We probably have less than 20 days of the past year where we were in Toulouse and had plans with work friends here.

Then I had a small epiphany (if I could use that word) half way through our trip at home, involving 'apartment life' vs. 'owning a house'. It happened the night we went to visit Kirsten and Jackson at their new apartment in the Loring Park area of Minneapolis. Before going over there I decided I had enough time to shovel my icy driveway. I walked out of the house and saw my side screen door has suffered damage, the service door on the garage wasn't shutting because of ice buildup, the garage door wasn't going all the way down automatically because of the cold weather, there was a large ice dam on my roof, there was way too much weight of frozen snow on my deck and it was a bitch trying to shovel my icy, neglected driveway. I finished that with just enough time to change my sweaty shirt and hop into JohnE's car. Then seeing how nice, new and orderly their apartment was, all the amenities there and their ease in living there, I started to think about how easy our place in France is. Although I usually attribute the French life being easy because of the location being 5000 miles away from everything else in our life. But that night I realized that it's a lot more than that. I really think I would like to move now someday into something a lot smaller...something with an easier life attached to it. Randi has been saying that to me for a while now and I would always say that I like having my space, my garage, my yard and all my shit. But now I'm starting to feel like maybe I could share all my shit with a group of people.

And finally I noticed the difference of 'backing a sports team with all your heart and soul' vs. 'not having any team to follow on a regular basis'. The anguish of getting so close to a championship, only to have it suddenly taken away because one too many players became interested in huddling and your 40 year old, most valuable player, decides to pull a high school type move. This team, who will remain nameless, may never win the whole thing. I find it ridiculous now that this whole season I thought the road to the Super Bowl may have went through Spain of all places...and that I had my brother-in-law skyping the entire game to me over the Atlantic...and that I planned our return flight around them possibly winning the Super Bowl. I think my mild interest in seeing a rugby game on, in a bar here and being able to indifferently say "gee, that looked like it may have been a good play", is a lot less stressful. But since I'm all about collage pictures right now, here is a homage to the joy throughout the year, that ultimately led to total depression...but I'm not bitter.