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November 8, 2009
4.8: Revisiting
This morning, we had breakfast at Panera at the mall, and then wandered around, checking out what had changed since the last time we visited, and letting Owen run in the footsteps of his sisters.
It's always odd to wander around that mall, the place where I spent hours letting Jamie become a confident walker, following slowly behind her as she explored. The padded play area that we christened the "Germ Tree" is still there, exactly the same except for 5 years of wear. Katie, too, spent some time soaking in the A/C of our indoor park, following her by then running sister into the Children's Museum that took over one of the department stores. The pet store, upstairs in the back corner, still has kittens in the front window. Owen loved peeking in at them just like the girls did.
On our way back to Grandma's, we drove through our old neighborhood. The first one, with the house Rex and I moved into the week after our wedding. The house brought our first child home to. The house that I could barely see as I cried on our way to the airport when we moved to Maryland. I had pushed for that move, wanted it badly, dreamed about it, but it was crushing to leave all those first memories behind.
And now? That house looks familiar, but it long ago lost any feeling of being mine. I planted those Iris, we replaced a dead tree with that now-giant Bradford Pear, and I drilled into that pristine brink wall to screw in that hose hanger, but it feels like it was a million years ago, a different lifetime. If Rex hadn't gotten that job in Maryland, we could very well still be living there, but I can't picture the life I have now as an extension of the life we had then.
Posted by me at November 8, 2009 8:12 PM