Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
The goodbyes have begun and it's only my dream of the upcoming life that keeps me going.
Market day in Pezenas, France
We gathered at my house on Friday night with members of the writing group bringing dishes to share. Tomato bisque soup, macaroni and cheese, chicken salad croissants, taco salad, cabbage salad, buffalo chicken dip. Wine and some more wine. And at the end of the evening, hugs and goodbyes.
Writer's Group -- one last hurrah.
I'll see them again, most of them in the coming weeks.
Then yesterday, a gathering at my sister-in-law's house with the nieces and nephews. I hugged Ben goodbye. He lives in Dayton finishing his PhD.
"I won't see you again," I said. "Not until you come to France."
The great nieces and nephews treat Tucker like a climbing apparatus.
Benjamin is 2. He won't remember me, except as the aunt who lives in France.
My boys spending some time outside with their Aunt Shelley --
she may be a bad influence, but they enjoy spending time with her.
It's all becoming very real.
Then Sunday, after working this weekend to move Spencer out of the house and into his new place, we took a break from packing to go to a gathering of homeschool friends. It seems silly to say homeschool friends since none of us teach our kids at home any more. Most of our children are in college or graduated from college or working on graduate degrees. Maybe we did something right after all.
Laughs and love with long-time friends.
And for a few hours, we caught up on each other's lives and laughed at memories. I won't see many of these friends again until we revisit the U.S. or they journey to France.
The hugs goodbye were long and accompanied by a few tears.
It's only going to get worse, building toward a crescendo where I must say goodbye to my children and my parents in order to make my dream of living in France come true.
View of Mont Sainte Victoire from Aix en Provence.
I hope I've chosen wisely.
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Skype!!!! It will be easier with your parents than with friends and relatives--the time difference means they will be in bed and then at work until you're in bed. I used to stay up until 2 a.m. to talk to my brothers (OK, I worked until midnight, so it wasn't that hard). Don't be surprised if a steady stream of friends and relatives visits you in France. Plenty of people would like to but are scared about going to a place where they don't speak the language. Having a tour guide and a place to stay changes everything.
My sister lives just 45 minutes away - she doesn't stop by when she is in the area - she did finally invite us for Thanksgiving where we all had a great time but I'm just too close to bother. BUT if I moved to the other side of the planet she would be scheduling a trip right away! Go figure! I second Skype!
I know the goodbyes to the kids will be the hardest. But what I want to know is why their Aunt Shelly is a bad influence! Bad influence sounds like fun to me. Exactly the kind of person I'd want my kids to have access to while I was away.
So sorry Paulita but I didn't get a chance to prepare a Dreaming of France post of my own this week.
Francetaste, Yes, the saying goodbye is probably hard, but the actually living apart has so many options these days. Jeanie, Thanks for your support. I keep looking at the end result. Sillygirl, Good point. We live so close to Earl's siblings yet rarely see them. Sim, No problem about your post this week. Aunt Shelley smokes, so they all go outside together to smoke. She also drinks a lot of beer, while I don't drink beer. She kind of thinks whatever trouble they get into is a hoot. Meanwhile, she never went to college and her own son is getting his PhD. Our kids got switched somehow.
I used to smoke. Wish I hadn't because I'm much more wrinkly now than people my age who never smoked! My husband after smoking his entire life (started in high school and he's 60) quit with the help of hypnosis. He tried everything else over the years: the patch, the gum, cold turkey, etc. The hypnosis is the only thing that worked! He feels so much better now and he doesn't carry that smoker's trail everywhere he goes. It's been 2 years and as his mantra goes "He's a non smoker now and he will be for the rest of his life." I don't like beer solo either but when I make a shandy, British style, I quite like it. Bad for the waistline though, wine is a much better choice if Shelly cares about her figure. Getting into trouble is a hoot? Sounds like she was a wild child—like my sister who did a lot more than drink beer. I guess it's easy to think kids getting into trouble is a hoot if they're not your own!
Thanks for understanding about time constraints, we got our Christmas tree up!
7 comments:
Skype!!!!
It will be easier with your parents than with friends and relatives--the time difference means they will be in bed and then at work until you're in bed. I used to stay up until 2 a.m. to talk to my brothers (OK, I worked until midnight, so it wasn't that hard).
Don't be surprised if a steady stream of friends and relatives visits you in France. Plenty of people would like to but are scared about going to a place where they don't speak the language. Having a tour guide and a place to stay changes everything.
This has to be very hard. But I have a feeling you will have more company than you ever expected once you settle!
My sister lives just 45 minutes away - she doesn't stop by when she is in the area - she did finally invite us for Thanksgiving where we all had a great time but I'm just too close to bother. BUT if I moved to the other side of the planet she would be scheduling a trip right away! Go figure! I second Skype!
I know the goodbyes to the kids will be the hardest. But what I want to know is why their Aunt Shelly is a bad influence! Bad influence sounds like fun to me. Exactly the kind of person I'd want my kids to have access to while I was away.
So sorry Paulita but I didn't get a chance to prepare a Dreaming of France post of my own this week.
Francetaste, Yes, the saying goodbye is probably hard, but the actually living apart has so many options these days.
Jeanie, Thanks for your support. I keep looking at the end result.
Sillygirl, Good point. We live so close to Earl's siblings yet rarely see them.
Sim, No problem about your post this week. Aunt Shelley smokes, so they all go outside together to smoke. She also drinks a lot of beer, while I don't drink beer. She kind of thinks whatever trouble they get into is a hoot. Meanwhile, she never went to college and her own son is getting his PhD. Our kids got switched somehow.
I used to smoke. Wish I hadn't because I'm much more wrinkly now than people my age who never smoked!
My husband after smoking his entire life (started in high school and he's 60) quit with the help of hypnosis. He tried everything else over the years: the patch, the gum, cold turkey, etc. The hypnosis is the only thing that worked! He feels so much better now and he doesn't carry that smoker's trail everywhere he goes. It's been 2 years and as his mantra goes "He's a non smoker now and he will be for the rest of his life."
I don't like beer solo either but when I make a shandy, British style, I quite like it. Bad for the waistline though, wine is a much better choice if Shelly cares about her figure.
Getting into trouble is a hoot? Sounds like she was a wild child—like my sister who did a lot more than drink beer. I guess it's easy to think kids getting into trouble is a hoot if they're not your own!
Thanks for understanding about time constraints, we got our Christmas tree up!
Enjoy the goodbyes fully because one of your next posts will be "Hellos"!
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