March 17, 2008 | You Take the Good, You Take the Bad
I am simultaneously feeling the hate and just the tiniest bit of love for Monday. The hate? Well, duh. It's Monday. I had to wake up to an alarm clock, pull myself together, and go to work. The love? It means the weekend is over. The weekend that was full of good, but couldn't pass without throwing a little bit of bad in there too. I'm glad the bad is sort of behind me now.
Saturday afternoon, I headed to K2's house for her annual St. Patrick's day party. She's one of my oldest friends, and I hadn't seen her in almost 6 months. I didn't want to miss the party. I had fun. Lots of fun. There was cheese, wine, tons of Irish beer, homemade limoncello, corned beef, cabbage, an amazing artichoke quiche, and tons of cupcakes. I was enjoying myself so much, that I ended up totally flaking on the Flickr Turns 4 birthday party, which I had every intention of going to. This was part of the bad.
I received the rest of the bad (in the form of news I was sort of expecting but still not mentally prepared for) when I arrived at my final destination: Mum's house. Sunday was spent doing my taxes, having a fabulously late lunch, and a bit of shopping. When we finally got back to her house, we ordered some Chinese food and watched an episode of What Not to Wear. At least the bad was sort of sandwiched between the good, right?
As I drove home, my belly full of vegetable chow mien, and my head pounding (probably due to dehydration or possibly the chow mien), I started crying. My Mum is moving away. And it's all happening way sooner than I thought, and there's nothing I can do about it. So I cried.
Eventually, I'll be fine. I know it's not the end of the world. At least she's moving somewhere cool, and it'll give me an excuse to do something with all that vacation time I accrue and never use. Lot's of people live more than an hour away from their parents, and they're fine. Given time, everything will be okay.
I'll probably elaborate more once my brain adjusts to the idea, but for now, I'm just going to cry a little, because that's pretty much all I can do.
Oh man, I totally feel you. I cried my eyes out when my parents told me they were moving to Louisiana (where my mother is originally from). I loved living so close to them; and on a purely selfish note, I feel like I have nothing to do with my 3-day weekends anymore. I loved spending them at their house in the mountains, going to Yosemite and antiquing in the little towns and walking with the dogs--who I also never get to see any more! Gah!!
I haven't lived at home for any real time since I was 17 and I forget that people do actually sometimes still live near their parents and see them regularly without airline involvement. How sad for you. In my case, absence has definitely made the heart grow fonder - perhaps it'll be that way for you, too. Maybe you'll get even closer.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I appreciate it.
Wenders, she's already thinking about us taking trips together. I think it's sort of my "consolation prize", which I'm okay with.
Megan, I'm totally using their move as motivation to come visit you. I know Bellingham isn't that close to Seattle, but I think we can figure something out!
I would cry a lot if my mom moved away. I already think she lives too far and she's only 90 miles away. I feel for you.
Change is always hard. . . just remember that you don't have to visit your mom - this can be a great excuse to travel with her, which is AWESOME.
Oh! You've posted so many tales of hanging out with your mom, I can see how that's going to take some adjusting. But I'm sure you'll have some good vacations in your future.
Oh man, that's totally worthy of a cry, no doubt! But as you and the rest of your friends have said, it'll all be okay eventually. For now there is some crying, but in the future there will be many joyous visits!
Is she moving to that place you mentioned before? Wowzers, I can't believe she's moving this soon, either.
My mom moved away once. I was devastated. I felt like a little kid.
Give yourself time to be sad and then plan the trips...
I'll be thinking about you.
aw, whitney - the bad parts of your weekend make me so sad. :( i'm sorry to hear your mom is moving. but yes, think positively - you'll get to go visit, and you'll learn to not take the time you have together for granted. :)
aww, I didn't realize you were that upset. I cried when my mom first moved away from me. Heh, it's funny how dependent we are on our moms when they've trained us our whole lives to be independent. ironic how that works.
Oh no! What a big, and abrupt, change. At least they aren't moving to Maine, or Florida, or, uh, Brussels. Everything will be ok but you're absolutely allowed to be upset. I wish I could offer you a shoulder to cry on.