Transitions

I’ve seen a TV commercial for a pair of prescription glasses that automatically change from light to dark when you go out into the sun. They’re called Transitions. The makers of these glasses want you to know that changing from one location to another, from the shady indoors to the sun-filled outdoors, doesn’t mean you have to change anything at all. You’re sunglasses will take care of that for you. All you have to do is just go about your day as if nothing ever changed. I need a pair of those but not for my eyes – for my life. Making the transition from the mid-west, where I’ve lived all my life, to California has been tougher than I expected. Many things have made it tough including the constant feeling that I just am not familiar with anything. I don’t know many people. I don’t know where things are located, and, when I drive, I always feel a little bit lost. My GPS has been a life-saver but I still have to really think about which exits to take and where to turn.

Certainly, the number one reason it has been a tough two weeks is that I’m here alone. Becky and Stephen are still back in St Louis doing things that they needed to do before moving. Stephen had a week of camp at the St Louis Zoo and Becky has had a long string of appointments for various things including visiting with many friends and family members. It seems that they have been keeping very, very busy. My calendar, on the other hand, has been filled with work, apartment hunting, grocery shopping, and laundry. Even though I have talked to Becky and Stephen almost every night, I find myself somewhat lonely, and really feeling very unsettled and lacking any sense of order in life.

I think that the transition to California still feels a bit surreal and will continue to feel that way until we are able to buy a house and move our stuff in. I haven’t lived in an apartment for 13 years and it really feels like a step backward in time to go back to renting and living in a very small space owned by someone else. At this point, we really don’t know how long it will take to sell our house in St Louis. It could be 7 months or more. Or, God could bring a sale next week. We just don’t know. So, since we need the equity from our house to be able to put a down payment on a house in San Diego, we are looking to lease an apartment to live in while we wait. I’ve spent hours driving around Escondido, Rancho Bernardo, and San Marcos looking at apartments and trying to judge how long my daily commute will be. We’ve found a place and put down a deposit. Now, I can only wait for our stuff to be shipped and then moved in to our new ‘home’.

In the following blog entries, I’ll try to keep you informed of some of the different aspects of the transition. I hope you find some of it at least interesting. If not, well… at least it was helpful to me to write all this stuff down. I may ramble a bit, but, hey, isn’t that an ok thing with a blog? I hope so. Anyway, I hope this blog page will help to keep us connected with our family and friends back in the Midwest. Feel free to give comments, feedback, or questions. Let’s make this blog a two-way street. OK? Great!

Allen