Virginia Begins

Whew- we made it!

It was a grueling week. Starting last Monday, the 29th, we did the following: celebrated the 6 year old's birthday, picked up the 26 foot U-Haul truck, packed it tight but not quite full (many thanks to our friends), cleaned the house until I was so impressed with it that I wanted to move back in, said tearful goodbyes to our dear neighbors, drove 500 miles (me in the van, staring at the back of the U-Haul for 12 hours), moved in (many, many thanks to my family members, plus Carlos and Miguel), celebrated the 4th of July with a pancake breakfast at the church, a neighborhood parade, dinner with family, and DC fireworks, and have begun the process of settling in to our new neighborhood in Arlington. It has been a huge help to have my sister living on the other side of the park!

My evenings have been spent with a utility knife in hand, undoing all the effort I spent so many nights on in June. I'm down to the last few boxes of things that have no obvious place and they will remain thus packaged until further notice. The kids have been experiencing new things on a daily basis, but some kind of normal routine has been vaguely settling on us this week. The girls have about 28 days left of summer vacation before their "modified calendar" (aka year-round) school starts on August 5th.

Today we went out to my parents' house to play. The route between us fills a void in my previous mental map of the area. Growing up, my driving radius rarely went inside the Beltway, so most of the places I now go sound somewhat familiar, but are pretty much new to me.

I am slowly recovering from Availability Shock; I live near several major shopping centers and have more options than I know what to do with. There are at least 7 grocery stores nearby... and one of them is a Trader Joe's. Those who know me know how much that means to me. And the Target- we went there the other day with a specific list in hand and found almost all of it, including good running shoes for the 5th grader. Amazing. I am trying to show self-restraint if only to prove to myself that living in Vermont has changed me for the better. For example: at Target, I found the cutest brown patterned square melamine plates- for only $2.50 per plate!- and I pulled 8 of them out, then put them back, saying "but we already have a set of melamine plates and they will probably last us until we die."

I have discovered one very unfortunate thing: you can take the girl out of NoVa, but when you put her back in she becomes the same kind of driver she was before. Maybe it's because everything is so spread out. Maybe it's just the pattern around here. Or maybe it's me... but I drive a little too fast, care a little too little about the other drivers' feelings, and find myself analyzing which lane will go faster rather than enjoying the ride. So there's room for improvement.

Overall, it's been an overwhelming week and a half. I'm very glad to be over the bulk of the unpacking, to have internet (thank you, Q!) and other administrative things out of the way, and to begin The Experiences. Before we left, my husband asked me what I was most worried about and most excited about concerning the move. My reply to the latter was that I was excited to watch my family members have new experiences and to see this place through their eyes. So far, it looks good.