Time. I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately. A couple posts back I was sitting on our couch in California typing away and rambling on about how fast time was moving. Granted, I was drinking cheap wine and I was feeling reflective, but time definitely seemed to be moving fast. I’m now sitting on our couch in Utah, feeling similarly reflective, and time seems to have slowed down. Maybe that’s the wrong phrase. Time seems to have stretched out.
Over the last couple weeks I have been trying to get this blog post up about my moms visit. You’ll notice that I’m just getting to it now. It’s not that I haven’t had ample opportunity. I had time in Vegas during the transition drive to Salt Lake City. I also had time while I was in the apartment waiting for Chrysa to get here. I’ve even found a job already so I can’t even blame my never ending search for employment. So what’s the problem? Let me explain…it’s time.
Prior to settling down in SLC life was a constant rush. We would move in, Chrysa would start work, I would explore the area while job hunting, and after finding something we would cram in all the activities we could. After all, we would only be living in an area for 3 to 6 months. For 4 years that was the pattern. Now, the rush is over. There are a million things to do here in Salt Lake and normally we would have done half of them by now. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point. There’s no hurry to hike every mountain. No hurry to find every hidden lake. Apparently there’s no hurry to post a blog either. We have time…there’s no countdown. It’s weird!
Maybe slowing things down and reflecting on events is a good. Maybe I’ve just forgotten what it’s like to just live somewhere and go about the daily activities of life. Maybe I’m giving this all to much thought. I’m going to find a way to cope with this. In the meantime…let’s talk about mom’s visit.
It happens WAY back in January and it was action packed. There’s a phrase in my family, “sit and visit.” What do you do when family comes to town? You sit and you visit. The SAV as I’m going to call it is a staple of a trip to my grandmother’s house. While SAV is fine for the elderly set it doesn’t really work for a couple who lives life 3 months at a time. That being said we did not SAV that much when mom came to town.
We started mom’s visit to SoCal with a trip to the wine bar in Huntington Beach, followed by a walk on the pier and a little tour of the area, and ended the day with a sunset dinner.
That first half of a day really set the tone for the rest of the visit. Over the next couple days we checked out Top of the World Park, visited a winery, had a fancy lunch, went to the Queen Mary, toured the Princess Diana exhibit, toured a college and the City of Orange, ate Mexican food, walked the nature preserve, walked Laguna Beach, and got $10 lobster. I’m pretty sure mom was whipped by the end of the trip. Who wouldn’t be?
We had an absolutely wonderful time with my mom and I really hope we didn’t exhaust her and scare her off future trips. Maybe the new stretched way of life will lead to more relaxed visits. Maybe mom will leave feeling refreshed, instead of feeling death marched while taking in quick highlights. Maybe this slowing down thing will be good for me/us/mom. I hope so. I hope I adjust well. I hope mom visits Utah. I just know this…I’m still going to resist the SAV.
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