Wonderingwoman

Over the years I have come to realize that everyone has their own personal quirks that probably no one else understands. In the TV series, Sex and the City, there is one episode that discusses this--Charlotte likes to look out the pores on her face, Carrie likes to eat jelly on crackers while standing in her kitchen. One of my quirks is shelf paper. Even though I have a garage full of boxes to unpack right now, I can't do it. I have to go through the house, remove the old shelf paper (in this case it's old-style contact paper that I have to scrape off with a razor), and reapply new fresh shelf paper that I've carefully cut and measured to fit. This last weekend I could have unpacked the kitchens and bathrooms if I had put stuff on the old shelf paper and changed it out later but I just couldn't do it; I had to have the new paper installed first. The quirky part is that I find myself being dismayed when I visit a home with either no shelf paper in cupboards or obviousl...

Since 2002 I have lived in six different locations not including month-long stints in a hotel and a college residence hall. Considering that I spent the first 19 (almost 20) years of my life living in one house with very little mobility or travel, this odd turn of events surprises and amazes me. I find myself "wondering" about life's odd turn of events, how each location has taught me something, and how I have lost and gained something from each location. My first move away from "home" in 2005 I felt like a teenager leaving home and going away to college and quite incidentally I was going to work at a university. It was exciting, exhilarating, scary and painful. I felt a tremendous loss leaving my children, parents and friends behind; I missed them so much. What I gained was a wonderful sense of confidence (most of the time) and the realization that I could survive. I guess I knew in my heart that I would survive but the physical evidence of it was very affirm...