Compost Studios

In July I head to Virginia with my family, my first trip back to the U.S. since I left in March 2005. We’ll be in America for a little more than a month.

I’m excited and overwhelmed with thoughts of all I want to do, people I’d like to see, and how being “home” might feel. My niece Rock Grrrl is a high school teacher and will be coming to Belgium to house sit, take care of Petey, and explore a bit of Europe with her girlfriend and her main squeeze.

Meanwhile, E and I and the kids will be staying in her condo in Virginia, which is about an hour’s drive from our old stomping grounds. We’re still trying to figure out how we’ll get around. We can use Rock Grrrl’s geriatric car for local travel but it may make more sense to just rent a car for a month. Still figuring that one out.

A month sounds like a long time for a visit, but there’s a lot on our agendas. Naturally, we want to get together with friends and neighbors in Virginia and see if we can hook up with some of my far-flung siblings. We’re also planning to go to the beach, get in a visit to E’s mom in Florida, do back-to-school shopping, get glasses, check in with the orthodontist, eat bagels, hit Michael’s craft store, and maybe do some tourist stuff.

We have to check on our house, arrange for repairs if needed, and set E, the master gardener, loose in the yard to handle landscaping issues. We’ll be cruising the home improvement stores shopping for new flooring because the last vestiges of the original carpet need to be torn out and replaced when our tenant moves out.

This leads us to the Enormous Decision hanging over the whole trip. Will we or won’t we move back into our old house when we return to Virginia in 2008? Do we sell it or hang onto it? We love this house and it’s paid for (woo hoo!) but the location is so impractical. We’ve talked about moving closer to E’s office so we can reduce his commute. This a big decision and one we hope to gain some clarity on when we’re back in the States.

When we lived in our old neighborhood, E got up at 4:30 a.m. every day to catch the first train heading to Washington. The combination of driving to the station, finding parking, riding the train, and walking to the office meant he had a two-hour commute ONE way. And that getting up at 4:30 not only meant he was always tired, but that the kids never saw him in the morning and that he crashed shortly after they went to bed every night.

Y’all, we’re getting way too old for this life style!

While I had the advantage of working from an office in my home, our kids attended a private school that was 20 traffic-clogged miles away, so I had a nasty commute of my own to deal with. Dropping them off every morning and picking them up each afternoon meant I spent almost 2.5 hours a day in the car. My back did not appreciate all the driving, though I admit it was a great time for us to listen to books on tape and the kids could do homework in the car.

We know we’ll need to make some changes when we return which may include some combination of the following: Move to another house? Select a new school? See if E can telecommute two days a week?

Something has got to give. For the last two years, E has lived 15-20 minutes from his office and the kids are 10 minutes from school. We've had a wonderful quality of life here—reduced our stress levels and enjoyed time together as a family. When we’re in the U.S., we intend to check out the schools and real estate market close to D.C. and see what we think.

So July will be a month of reunions, decisions, shopping, planning, driving, relaxing, and culture shock. Stay tuned. There will be plenty to blog about—if I can find time for it!

March 23, 2007