Pack It In

Last minute details abound - and compete for attention. Today is my last day in the office. It's the boys last day at Kids' Corner. And David is at home crating his final painting for shipment to a gallery in New York City. The sense of finality is silly, as we'll be back in just over 10 weeks, but I'm feeling the sentimentality and wistfulness that comes from big transitions. And the song that just came up in the shuffle adds to the mood; I'm listening to a mix that Heather just made for me and because she is a witchy dj, she worked Patty Griffin's "Useless Desire" in at just the right moment. A song about the urge to say good-bye and move past the familiar, freedom and sadness mixed in equal amounts.
Dan and Misha are picking up the boys tomorrow morning so that David and I can focus on packing and do some housecleaning. I am betting they will return around lunchtime exhausted and ready for a nap (and yes, that prediction covers Finn, Corin, Dan and Misha). Tomorrow afternoon Jay, Ursula and Max are coming over and we're getting takeout from The Mexican Restaurant (seriously, that's what it's called). The weather is supposed to be splendid tomorrow so we'll get a long walk in at some point. Sunday we'll spend the morning at home and then after lunch we'll drive to Boston. We'll stay with Tim and Carolyn and the kids. On Monday we'll putter away the morning in Boston, then head to Graham and Rainey's for lunch. Graham has kindly agreed to drive us to the airport and keep our car in their driveway for the duration of our trip. They are generous souls, those two. I have a feeling that Sunday and Monday will be a lot of "hurry up and wait" and the limbo will make us a little nuts, but it gives us the space to run last minute errands and keeps the kids from having to go straight from 5 hour car trip to 6 hour plane trip, so it's what we've chosen to do. Our flight leaves at 7 p.m. on Monday. Please direct your "sleep sleep sleep" wishes 35,000 feet skyward on Monday evening, targeting the mantra at a rosy cheeked 5 year old and an impish 2 year old.

Still in Maine

I'm setting up the blog for Ireland today, grafting this onto the blog that I started a few years ago but upon which I never posted. My energy is spread across keeping the kiddos happy, keeping the household afloat, application reading, and prepping for the departure to Ireland. In other words I have little time to be prepping this blog; we'll make this the reason I took the easy way out and chose the greenest template for my blog. Cliche. Maybe Ireland has pulled off the most cunning marketing ploy of the past 4 centuries and when I get there I'll see the green brand is a ruse. The whole place is desert, sheep grazing the xeriscaped hillsides. If so, I will promptly change my template to a tan one in protest.