“Again,” again

Well, that didn’t take long.

It was moving day again yesterday. My kid packed up and left town to go to his big boy job. He even left me with the parting words of, “time to put on my big boy pants.” Mostly because he has absolutely no furniture, save a kitchen table and three miss-matched chairs, and a blow up mattress on the floor. I think this is the first time he’s moved not in with someone or having swapped furniture with friends, or the like. Completely on his own, in an apartment bigger than my first house, with a porch as big as what I have now – and I’m a fully grown adult who waited decades for a big ole porch. He’s in a fabulous planned community, with shopping and restaurants literally fifty feet from his front door.

Oh, the life.

But all that’s not what truly matters.

It has definitely be “a ride,” as we like to say. We’ve had to hold on tight with this kid. And, quite honestly, I doubt it’s over. I doubt it will ever be over. His life will always be like this – it’s what he’s called to do. But the clarity with which it is now coming makes it a little less stressful, a little more easy on the heart, a little more fun to watch, a little less gut-wrenching.

He’s always marched to the beat of his own drum, always given me heartburn – and I mean that in the best way possible.

But, still.

For a few days we didn’t think this move was going to happen. And it really, really needed to happen. His new job starts Monday and we’d no time to waste. The leasing company was eye-crossing at best. (I may need to borrow somebody’s holy water to take a deep dive in) In all my years, and as many times as I’ve done business and rented places, not once has a company ever told me that a Schedule C was unacceptable as a proof of income. Um, ma’am, I’m self-employed, I don’t have a W-2 or 1099. I thought this was basic understanding of how the world worked. Apparently not.

But I digress.

Long and terribly painful story short, I blood-let all of my financial information on them to be able to be the guarantor on the lease, because while the rent is completely affordable for him, earning 5 times the monthly lease amount to qualify is ridiculous and unattainable for most of the population. I get it, they’re trying to weed out folks who would leave in the night owing rent, but come on, five times the rent is nuts.

But again, digression on my part. So sorry.

So anyway, we got the paperwork done just in the nick of time, and could stick to the moving date of Saturday. So, once again, we loaded his little pickup to the gills and loaded The Lawyer’s bus to the gills and headed off to his new place.

Now, I know I said he has no belongings of which to speak, but the kitchen table and three miss-matched chairs wouldn’t fit in his truck, and the kid has more athletic wear than you can shake a stick at, so it took both the vehicles to get it there, but only about half an hour to unload, and it only took that long because we had to wait on the elevator. Quite possibly the easiest move ever. And my shoulders and knees are most grateful.

An inventory of Walmart (what The Lawyer calls it when we go up and down every aisle) and a selfie in the parking lot, and we parted ways because I had a three hour drive home and he had an air mattress to blow up.

And I actually didn’t cry.

Not in the Walmart parking lot, not in the car on the highway. Nope. This one felt different. Maybe because we’ve done it so much it’s just commonplace, or maybe because to me a three hour drive down country highways is just like driving across town.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because this is where he’s supposed to be.

All of the other moves, jobs, experiences, we’re leading him to this. And while this may not be the end-all-be-all final stop, it may be the foundational launching pad for what truly is the calling in his life.

This next phase will be great fun to watch, hopefully with no more moving……at least for a little while.

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Hey, so you can check out what he’s up to here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1cJvEAmKSA/