V to ?- You are so stupid.

Me- Do not say that.

V- Sorry. You are not so smart. 

F this am- What does respect mean?

A few minutes later- What does mature mean?

Ha ha

 J told F he could not watch tv, F said: Not my dad, sorry bud!

Coming to a Screeching Halt

 So fun to write an ENTIRE post and lose it. Super duper.

Anyway... I was writing about the END of our sojourn in MA. It has been a very strange parenthesis. I came here with a toddler, two second-graders, a sixth-grader, and an eighth-grader. I am leaving with kids who have been locked up for what will be 15 months. The toddler is now 5 and has a mohawk. He loves math and will be entering kindergarten. The duo will be in fifth grade. He has an earring and glasses. She has braces and glasses. They are both avid readers and incredible at backtalk. J will be in high school, broken fibula hopefully healed. M will have her swan song at camp and then dye her fire-red hair back to a natural color to enter her junior year. Things 1 and 2 will have to learn to navigate the subway, school work, and the city at large; the noise, the grime, the speed, the PEOPLE. I will drag the kids to old haunts and new; exposing them to all the city has to offer.  We will leave MA. I will not miss the expansive square footage we live in as most think. I will not miss the dearth of warmth, figurative and literal that envelops us on Drumlin Rd. I will miss our dear friends K and J terribly; they have been the very best of friends to us. I will miss my partner in crime at BC, C. I will miss the Newton public library. That is it. But I am forever grateful for this chapter. Enveloped in guilt, we survived the pandemic outside the city. I got to be a student in my 40s. I get an ACT II. I am grateful to F, the best partner I could ask for who has supported me logistically. emotionally, intellectually, and financially every step of the way. I am very nervous about starting a new career in health care during a pandemic with limited skills to boot. I am so excited to have the kids back in robust schools. Emotions are everywhere. But it is already May so we are approaching the three-year mark of our exodus from NY. We will be back before our 3 year anniversary. All I have to do now is pass my final exam, graduate, pass the boards, get rid of most of our belongings, find an apartment.. and move!