The End in Sight

It’s done. I have officially informed the families of the kids in my classroom that I’ll be leaving on June 4th. It was so hard to actually do it, just to put a piece of paper in the cubbies. And of course, I did it on a Tuesday, one of my late days where I’m guaranteed to see all of the parents at pick-up time. I did that on purpose because I wanted them to talk to me about it and not Gina, but it didn’t make it any easier. I pretty much wanted to cry for the rest of the day.

It has been interesting to hear the reactions from the parents. Julia’s mom was kind and expressed what I would have expected, but I’m not sure how much it was really meant. I know she means it, but there’s still a distance there. Connor’s mom thought it was funny that we would be leaving right around the same time and joked about moving to boring places like Kansas or Arkansas. Abby’s mom talked to me about it for a little while, because she was actually an Army brat. Her father was Infantry, so she knows the life. I think Brynn’s mom really meant it when she said how much she and Brynn would miss me. Elizabeth’s mom told me I couldn’t leave, that Elizabeth wouldn’t let me, which made me laugh. And I think she really will miss me. She’s even told her mom, who picks up occasionally. Mia’s parents haven’t said anything, but that’s pretty understandable. Her mom had the baby on Wednesday, a boy named Alex. (I knew it would be a boy! And I am so calling him Pookie! LOL)

So now the end is in sight. June 4th. And all of a sudden that seems like no time at all. We still don’t know where we’re going. One of the instructors threatened that most of this group of graduates would be going to Ft. Riley, Kansas, but that doesn’t make much sense. Why concentrate your intel people in one place when they’re needed in pretty much every type of unit? Mostly, I just really don’t want to go to Kansas, and I know Alan doesn’t either. He says he’d like to see a tornado, but that once would be enough. He doesn’t want to live anywhere the weather could actually kill you. We really are lucky to live in the area we do. Even our hurricanes and blizzards are tempered by the Appalachian Mountains, the Catskills, and Long Island and the Sound. Nothing here really gets the chance to build up. So let’s cross our fingers that we’re not bound for Ft. Riley.

At the moment I am sitting at a table at Barnes and Noble because trying to go to the library was a giant failure. The miniature softball, t-ball, baseball season is kicking off today with a big thing at the field behind there so there’s no parking in town at all. At times like this I really miss Norwalk. Inept as they are at times, at least the city planners had the good sense not to put all the public areas in the same tiny space. If Norwalk were going to have something like this, it would be at the big field behind City Hall that has enough parking for all the city employees PLUS anyone who has business there. And it’s nowhere near the library. The only people it would inconvenience are people who want to use the track, but there are at least 4 others in town. It wouldn’t shut down the town 8 blocks in any direction.

Sorry. Milford just annoys me on a pretty regular basis. I never thought so then, but I really grew up in a very urban setting. Things didn’t close at useless hours and there was more than one center of commerce. Not everything came in strip mall format.  And there were delis. I haven’t been to a real deli in Milford. None of them even come close to the ones in Norwalk for true deli-ness. If you don’t know what that means, you wouldn’t understand. LOL

Anyway, must dash. My battery is down to about half now, and unlike the library, there’s nowhere to plug in here. So off I go into the wild blue yonder. I’m going to dye parts of my hair "luscious raspberries."

~Liz

P.S. Unhomogenized whole milk is extremely tasty. Never drinking the other stuff again.