I'm working on a project that has me diving into my old blog "The Leef Blower". Circa: 2008-2011. Don't try to find it. You'll get ads for "leaf blowers". They just don't know how to spell it right.
The Leef Blower was a blog I did during our Georgia to Illinois move 13 years ago. I believe I mentioned it in an earlier blog here. But, in my diving into this particular project I'm going back thru all the posts and even though I should just be doing a copy and paste right now for this project, I find myself stopping and being caught up reading some of the posts. I think I also mentioned before how raw my emotions were sometimes during those days. In all this, I'm finding little stories and events that I forgot about.
The beginnings of the blog were about a month before we put our house on the market. The stories traveled on thru the process of dropping the price, selling, closing, moving out and all the emotions and memories of a house where we raised a little boy from the age of 3 to just beyond his 20th birthday. There was a memory that I'd forgotten when in my final hours in the old house I called AJ and told him I thought he should have one final call from his "home". His brilliant response was, "won't I have another home someday?" Of course I've always remembered another conversation I had with him in the middle of all the move chaos when I asked him how he felt about us selling his childhood home. His response that time was "Wherever you are is my home." Have I ever mentioned how amazingly intelligent our son is?
Tucked in this old blog were memories of final farewells to friends and acquaintances. There were a few events and things that I'd forgotten about. Names I'd forgotten about. The process of AJ trying to decide to transfer to SIU-E or stay in Georgia to continue college. Thankfully, he chose the former. But that's where there were a lot of emotions between the lines.
Then, Illinois. And with that came the building process, our adventures at the rental house, AJ's entry into the small town life with family all around, another moving day, unpacking, settling in, my job hunting and the first few years of life in Carlinville. As I settled in and started to wander about the town, there were encounters with people I hadn't seen in many, many years and people that I didn't recognize. Eventually I stopped blogging around 2011. I tried again for a while in 2013, but stopped again. But it's those post-Illinois blogs that caught my attention today.
AJ was at SIU-E. So many blogs mentioned him and his friends popping up here for a visit. Sometimes just as they passed thru. Sometimes, Jack and I going to Edwardsville, or me and AJ meeting up for shopping. It seems anytime I was in that area shopping, AJ came along. Sometimes one or two of his friends would join us.
I also forgot that he worked a day or two at American Eagle at St. Clair Square before he got his job valet parking in St. Louis. I'd forgotten that he was working at SIU-E on Landon's first birthday party in 2010 that we had here at our house due to the numbers of invitees and Michelle and Doug's tiny first house. AJ called after work to see if anyone would still be here if he drove up from Edwardsville. Okay, particularly would LANDON still be there. He would. AJ and a friend drove up. So that translated to a happy AJ and happy Landon. They really were the best of buddies. I have a lot of photos and videos to back that up!
There was another time when he and a friend were passing thru and called to see if I had a chocolate cake mix. I did. But, I also had a brownie mix. Which saved me the icing process. That would do! So I baked, they stopped. Another happy time. At the end of almost all those posts I commented on how precious those times were as I knew they would become fewer and farther between as he moved on. I thanked God for those days. I still do.
There were a few blogs that made commentary on the world events at that time. But, since I won't open that political can of worms here, that's all on that.
2010 - Was a very interesting year for me. I left a job in May that I'd only been doing for 3 months, but it was one that took everything from me. Until I re-read some of the blogs from that year, I didn't realize how long the emotional trauma had lingered into the year. The Reader's Digest version can be found in a response I made to Kelley that year during one of our conversations about all this... "Bullies will do that to you." I hope my loved ones never have any work experiences like that. Thankfully about a year later that was all followed up with the best job ever at the high school.
One lesson learned in the years surrounding our move and resettling in the Midwest was that I focused on where we were going, not what we were leaving behind. After all, the rear view mirror is smaller than the windshield for a reason. I also learned that life is truly like a roller coaster. When you are on the ride, remember 3 things: 1. Hold on tight to the person next to you. 2. Try not to vomit. and 3. Every once in a while - SCREAM!
Do you know what the postal abbreviations for Georgia and Illinois are? GA IL
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