coming to you live from a(nother) new state

Hello! 

It's been a while.

Last time we spoke I was in Massachusetts, feeling very much like a gypsy without a home. My New York home had been packed up by strangers and I wasn't sure where any of my belongings were. I so badly wanted to sleep in my own bed but had no idea which state it was in. I couldn't remember much about the new home I saw for all of 15 minutes almost a month ago. It was a tumultuous time for me. 

We left for Georgia last Monday with a car packed like a can of sardines. I almost had to leave my child behind to fit everything. Annabelle fell asleep, woke up an hour later and instantly asked for a muffin. Half an hour later she moaned, "My tummy hurts." I whipped out a bag and stuck it under her chin faster than you can say ''car sick.'' This is not my first rodeo. I have been down this road too many times before. That's how I ended up cleaning vomit out of the car seat in a McDonald's parking lot. I went into the bathroom to wipe down her shirt and as I opened the room I hear a man singing, "Sarah! Saaaarah!" I stopped in my tracks and looked around. When I opened the stall door he sang my name again. It took me a minute to realize the man singing my name was on the radio. After I got over the surprise it made me laugh so hard.

We drove for ten hours the first day and longer the second day. We stumbled into our new home at nearly 11pm. Annabelle had fallen asleep in the car and upon waking she was so excited to be here she ran around like the Energizer bunny until 11:30. I was anxious to get here but immediately got overwhelmed by the number of boxes to unpack and things to put away. I almost turned around and went back to Massachusetts.

We raised the population of our new town to 3,009. Clearly, this is a budding metropolis. Despite its small size, much has happened since last Tuesday. Within the first week of being here the water has stopped working twice, the washing machine leaked, we've heard multiple racist comments, the neighbor across the street lost control of the brush he was burning and nearly caused a forest fire (it's still smoking four days later), we visited urgent care and AB was diagnosed with an ear infection. Her allergies started acting up the day after we arrived. When I asked the urgent care doctor when allergy season starts he said, "Every season is allergy season here. It's more like allergy year. There's even pollen in the ice." So that's great. I'll need to buy a Sam's Club bulk pack of Claritin. 

We met some of our neighbors. In one house are the parents, five daughters, an uncle, a chihuahua, a beagle and two American pit bulls. We haven't met them all yet but we share a driveway and their house is behind ours so it's only a matter of time. The uncle came by to introduce himself and it was a very awkward encounter.  He said his name is Mike but everyone calls him Pedro (he pronounced it Peed-row). Mike Peedrow stood around for an uncomfortable length of time and I kept trying to wrap the conversation up without being rude. He slooowly talked about the weather, the size of the salamanders in the wall-less shed that is the centerpiece of our backyard, the demographics of the town and the land across the street. He said it used to be an evergreen grove but it was attacked by beetles so they cut the trees down. Now it's known as Rattlesnake Ridge and his brother in law killed a snake that made its way across the street. Obviously, we have to move now because I can't be living near snakes large or small. He might have been pulling our legs by why risk it?  

Subpar photo of our driveway with Rattlesnake Ridge in the background.