I have a love/hate relationship with the constant reminders that grownup life is…well…grownup (though who doesn’t I suppose. but if you are one of those people who has a love/love relationship with being grownup, I don’t want to hear about it). I love that I have new experiences, build new relationship–that evolution happens. I have that such evolution involves the maddening details of the two following significant events in the Fierce household:
- moving. We’ve decided to relocate to a bigger house with a bigger yard that actually retains heat. I love what it will be. I do NOT love packing up our lives while both of us work full-time and care for dear S-G. Once upon a time, I could move by throwing all of my belongings into a duffle bag and a couple of boxes. This move involves many many many more boxes. We also have to do things like change of address for a billion different accounts (life insurance, car insurance, health insurance, renters’ insurance, student loans–though I’m tempted to not tell them), empty about a billion pounds of compost out of our bin, break down our raised beds and re-landscape the yard, and still grade papers, teach students, play gigs and change diapers.
- job hunting. I have officially declared that this is my last year teaching at St. Mary’s Academy. So after 4 years (I feel like I’m graduating from high school again, with a similar sense of “what the heck am I going to do next” as I had almost FIFTEEN years ago when I did actually graduate), I’m ready for the next adventure. I love that I will (hopefully) have my own language arts classroom filled with wild and wacky middle schoolers. I do NOT love that this involves job applications, interviews and the ever-uncertain realm of funding for public schools.
So as a very non-detail oriented person, here is how I am attempting to stay sane while negotiating this labyrinth of annoyingly grownup details:
- Nutella. Of course.
- reading Neruda to Sophia (“and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent/a great fragment of of thunder set in motion/the rumble of the planet and the foam,/the raucous rivers of the ocean flood,/the star vibrates swiftly in its corona,/and the sea is beating, dying and continuing.” from “Poet’s Obligation”)
- awesome Lebanese take out food. Lots of it.
- babysitting provided by the extended Pierce clan so we can pack without worrying about what Sophia’s trying to climb on or eat.
- the hilarity of Parks and Recs. Thank god for Amy Poehler.
- listening to The Moth radio. Powerful stories that help me keep my life in perspective.
- And cherishing moments like the one captured in the photos below. I rediscovered my old tape collection and took the opportunity to wax poetic to Sophia about the wonders of a lovingly created mix tape which far and away beats out the pleasure of making a playlist on iTunes. She took the opportunity to ignore said poetic waxings and to create her own visceral experience with these remnants of an analog age.
Baby Fierce 