So Much Closer

Oh, my gosh! Look who's back in town!

Well, not exactly back in town, but back in the Midwest, which is pretty much the same as in town when the alternative has been located planes, trains, and automobiles away. We are now only automobiles away from Boy#1 and Lovely Girl!

Ahem. I apologize for the overuse of exclamation points (and also for the lousy photography, but the restaurant was dimly lit) but our first-born and our first girl-other-than-me in the family are now living in an adjacent state. Over the weekend Husband and I took them their car, which had been stored at our house during their too-complicated-to-park days in our nation's capital, so that they could quit making their Wal-Mart runs in a 12-foot Penske truck.

We arrived Friday night when they'd been in their new hometown for only a day. This was enough time that they had moved everything from the truck into their new apartment, but clearly there was still work to be done. By the time we started back for Small Town 36 hours later, it was as if magical elves and bluebirds had transformed the place. The packing boxes were gone, art was on the walls, and except for one cable television wire that still needed to be tacked down, you wouldn't know they hadn't lived there for years.

I cannot take credit for a single bit of this transformation. That's because I'm still traumatized by my own reaction to my mother-in-law's lovely gesture of trying to clean the drip pans of my stove. That happened 30 years ago, and the way I carried on then pretty much proved that I was a total jerk.

Boy#1 and Lovely Girl, if you were wondering why I sat on the couch doing a crossword puzzle while you were putting away linens and trying to find the screws for the headboard, it's because I am a total jerk but also because I'm aware that it's easier to put away your own linens and find the screws for the headboard in the boxes you packed yourself, rather than trying to involve someone else in the process. Next time I'll bake cookies or something. (I won't clean drip pans unless you ask me to do so.)

And welcome back to next door to God's country! I may not have done any work, but my exclamation points are the barometer of my excitement!