Unravel Me

Seasons Change: Rooting and Uprooting

2014-06-29
2014, the year of change, so far, and it looks like more to come.

The biggest news is that my parents moved from Virginia to Colorado. It was a huge transition on so many different levels. They live five minutes away from my sister, and are settling in and orienting themselves to a new normal. As is my sister, now that she's realizing what it means to have elderly parents. My parents are still pretty feisty and all but there's no escaping that age is age, and a lot comes with the territory of living near and looking after older parents. Now she's seeing it first-hand, the way I did when I had the continuity and geographic proximate to them.

I'm still recovering from the past year or so of helping them prepare for this move, and from actually doing the move in March. My parents told me not to wear myself out coming home every weekend but I dutifully did for the past year, not only to help them pack and organize, but also to dismantle my room and any remaining belongings from my childhood home. I told them that nothing would ever buy back that time with them, in that special space, and the opportunity would never present itself again. So even thought it wore me out physically and emotionally, I have no regrets about the time and energy I spent.

My childhood home sold much quicker than I ever imagined it would. It went on the market at the end of March, and in this economy, the real estate market has been slow. But much to our surprise, someone made an offer on my parents house right after the sale listing went live, and within a month and a half, the deal was done. In fact, the official closing and transfer of property happened the day after my 40th birthday. Symbolic, I guess.

It was so hard to go back the first time of two that I went back after my parents moved. The house was empty and I went to get my last belonging out. And it hurt to see the "for sale" sign there. But I'm glad I went back and lingered a while because I needed to do it. I cried and cried and cried as soon as I drove up to the house and saw it. But it was also comforting because as walked through each room, I felt like my parents and sister were right there with me. I was there in the late afternoon when the sun came in at a brilliant angle into the South/West facing bedrooms in the house, and and I just laid on the wooden floor of my empty bedroom soaking it in for a little while, before leaving.

I didn't leave without clipping some forsythia branches and azaleas. My mom bought the azalea the year I was born, and planted it in our back yard. Every May, right around Mother's Day and my birthday, it blooms a dazzling pink. I miss it. My last trip there was right before they bloomed, so I carefully clipped a few branches and took them with me to keep in a vase.

The forsythia reminds me of my early childhood because the two my dad planted have been there ever since I can remember. During spring (my favorite season) they were always the first to bloom, showering our yard with a brilliant, sunny, yellow display and there's something so elegant about how their branches splay out in a graceful arc.

I clipped some forsythia and am trying to propagate those cuttings. It is now almost July and I'm not sure whether or not the cuttings will take root. Only time will tell, I guess, but it's a tangible piece of my childhood home I'd like to take with me. If this doesn't work, I hope the new owners will be open to the idea of me taking a cutting if I should ever need/decide to go get one from there.

In other news....I have a tentative job offer for a tenure-track faculty position, from a place in the greater Washington, DC metro area, that I interviewed at first in summer 2012, and then was invited back for a second interview in early 2013. This particular place was under a hiring freeze due to the economy/government, for a very long time, which is why things are only starting to move forward now. It's not official until I've signed everything, but I will say that I'm super excited about it.

I've been wanting to get out of my current workplace for a while now b/c unfortunately it's an environment with no room for growth/advancement, but a lot of micromanagement. The writing is on the wall. Remember my mentor left in 2012, leaving me very unhappy? Well since then, we've lost at least 13 faculty & staff (14 if you count my impending resignation/departure). We are literally bleeding out talent, and workplace is unfortunately too cheap to plug those holes by refilling positions or creating new ones. Instead, they pile more and more onto existing people, but without any more pay.

Lots has to be done as I start to tie up loose ends here. But before I can completely tie them up, I need to have hand/wrist surgery later this month.

It's getting late and there's probably more. But for now, these are my latest "big" news pieces. So I will go.

10:43 p.m. ::
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