Tonight

Why, on a hot muggy night in which it is raining so hard I can only have one window opened unless I want it to rain in the house so now it’s even hotter and muggier in here, do I eat Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese? I’m so used to eating the Lean Cuisine version (which is kinda like Diet Coke in that it sucks the first few times you have it, but then you get used to the blandness and life continues on its merry way) that I’ve forgotten how rich, how too rich, Stouffer’s is. I swear, I’m sweating even more now and my stomach bloat is impressive. In a bad way. I’m sweating cheese and chemicals. Stupid addictive processed foods. I know better.

My stomach hurts.

Eight years ago today, after many tearful goodbyes to family and friends and beloved places (Seattle’s Mystery Bookshop and Olympia Pizza and Spaghetti House and Pike Place Market and Seahurst Beach and Azteca’s and the list goes on), Brian and I packed my worldly possessions in a crapped-out Ryder truck and headed east. Leaving Seattle for Boston (or rather, Somerville) was the scariest thing I’d ever done in my life up to that point. Still is, actually. We might not have known each other’s middle names when we hit I90, but we knew we were madly in love and on the right path. I know people thought we were crazy, even if most of them didn’t say it to my face. I understood the trepidation and the puzzlement, but I also understood that I needed to trust my instincts. And now, eight years, three moves and one wedding later, here we are. Sometimes it still feels like it was yesterday, that first night on the road…tired and giddy and scared and oh so excited.  I miss Seattle and my friends and family and beloved places. More than I can say, I miss them. I am glad, though, that we took that huge leap of faith in ourselves and each other. I would have been forever regretful had we not.