Wow, I am really, really glad that that drive is over. Nerves are indeed like knots - both can get frayed. We were indeed frayed yesterday.
Best part of the drive was when the entire family (minus me, driver) fell asleep in the late afternoon. For like almost two hours. Delightful.
So, we are staying in Camden Ballantyne, pictured from space, above. This is where the adjustment may get interesting. This is a pretty different place. Ashoka and I went on a jog this morning. It's a nice morning, very beautiful. We were pretty much the only people on foot. This segment off the city is dedicated to somewhat higher-end shopping centers, a country club/resort/spa and office parks. It is very Charlotte - which is to say landscaped, orderly, clean.
I am writing you from Ballantyne Village. I am enjoying a harvest muffin and a steaming cup o' joe at Dilworth Coffee. Nice morning.... and I am anonymous here.
The place where we are staying is an apartment on the third floor of one of the buildings. It rained last night and Tara and I sat out on our porch and watched it rain. She turned to me at one point and laughed, saying - "We're right back to where we started." We lived in an apartment here in town 15 years ago. It was not as nice as the one where we are now staying, but it was fine and it also had a deck.
I laughed when she said this.
It may look like a big circle, but I am still interested to see what the true shape of this journey will be.....
The place where we are staying is the first time in a month that we can say we have our own place. In fact, we discussed this last night - we have been living in a place where other people come in and out for the last two years. Maids, hotel workers, family members with whom we were staying...... We have not been truly alone like this for a long time.
We don't want to sound ungrateful for all that we have had - but it definitely feels right now that we are enjoying a little privacy and quietness. Tara wiped down a table this morning, removing crumbs from it in the knowledge that no one else was going to do it. It looked different.....
Not to say the rest of us won't be doing our fair share!
It feels nice to be back in some ways.
It's just like it was..... yet, not.....
