Abnormal Becomes Normal
An odd thing has begun to happen -- we are just plain getting used to life as it is. There really isn't any baseline for normal anymore. The first days of school seem so very long ago, it's like they happened to someone else.
Our house is now an abstract concept. The stuff there, our possesions, our yard, our plants -- pretty much out of sight, out of mind except during occasional bouts of focused fretting. We have never been away from nola for this long, and certainly not under these circumstances. I know that when we actually go back to New Orleans, perhaps this week if all goes well, that the reality of our city, our house, everything once considered normal and familiar, will all come back. And today I am hopeful that things are much as we left them.
In the meantime, we are pretty comfortable with our existence here in Birmingham. The cats are definitely used to the place, and so are we. Our day to day existence is still pretty limbo-like -- we aren't investing time and energy inserting ourselves into this community because we still plan on leaving as soon as possible. But in terms of our relationship with our host family, we are definitely part of the routine. And we've talked about how weird it will be when we aren't here anymore.
I'm pretty much home at homework time every day, I empty and refill the dishwasher a lot, we keep the place well-oiled with beer and wine purchases -- groceries, too! Shaw has cleared a ton of brush from the back wooded area, and the dogs definitely know and love me. Last night the boys danced all crazy to a Spike Jones CD that Shaw had made for them -- the same songs he and his brother danced crazy to when they were little. We are an extra set of hands to read a story, practice multiplication, take a kid to football practice, etc. I even grade papers with Amy. That's a little weird -- it makes me miss my own kids, my own assignments. The four adults commiserate together about managing sports practice with large amounts of rather ridiculous homework assignments -- very interesting from the "parent" perspective! It's fun to be the secondary parental figures -- the buck does not stop here -- and it gives me an even greater level of respect for parenting than I had before. How did they keep everything going when we weren't here? All households with kids should have four adults to help out!
After a great volunteer recruiting trip to my alma mater for TFA -- and the timing could not have been more perfect, as Rita shut everything down anyway -- I came home to hugs from the younger boy, an announcement from the older boy that the flash cards I'd made for us to practice multiplication together had worked -- yay! -- and just a general, "back home" feeling, even though we aren't home at all.
Not to make it sound like we are not thinking about nola . . . Once I was "home", I got right back into the routine of poring over the Times Picayune pages and the uptown message boards. Currently there is a lot of posting about electricity being on or off, or about to be turned on. Still no answering machine picking up when we call the house. We are still waiting for the go ahead from the mayor to drive back and check things out.
When we get there, the Walgreen's several blocks from our house should be open -- it was apparently open prior to Rita. That's the kind of news that keeps us hopeful. According to Chris Rose, the Times Picayune columnist, there's a lot of Halloween candy in that Walgreen's. And that's something to look forward to. That would be kinda cool and normal.
Our house is now an abstract concept. The stuff there, our possesions, our yard, our plants -- pretty much out of sight, out of mind except during occasional bouts of focused fretting. We have never been away from nola for this long, and certainly not under these circumstances. I know that when we actually go back to New Orleans, perhaps this week if all goes well, that the reality of our city, our house, everything once considered normal and familiar, will all come back. And today I am hopeful that things are much as we left them.
In the meantime, we are pretty comfortable with our existence here in Birmingham. The cats are definitely used to the place, and so are we. Our day to day existence is still pretty limbo-like -- we aren't investing time and energy inserting ourselves into this community because we still plan on leaving as soon as possible. But in terms of our relationship with our host family, we are definitely part of the routine. And we've talked about how weird it will be when we aren't here anymore.
I'm pretty much home at homework time every day, I empty and refill the dishwasher a lot, we keep the place well-oiled with beer and wine purchases -- groceries, too! Shaw has cleared a ton of brush from the back wooded area, and the dogs definitely know and love me. Last night the boys danced all crazy to a Spike Jones CD that Shaw had made for them -- the same songs he and his brother danced crazy to when they were little. We are an extra set of hands to read a story, practice multiplication, take a kid to football practice, etc. I even grade papers with Amy. That's a little weird -- it makes me miss my own kids, my own assignments. The four adults commiserate together about managing sports practice with large amounts of rather ridiculous homework assignments -- very interesting from the "parent" perspective! It's fun to be the secondary parental figures -- the buck does not stop here -- and it gives me an even greater level of respect for parenting than I had before. How did they keep everything going when we weren't here? All households with kids should have four adults to help out!
After a great volunteer recruiting trip to my alma mater for TFA -- and the timing could not have been more perfect, as Rita shut everything down anyway -- I came home to hugs from the younger boy, an announcement from the older boy that the flash cards I'd made for us to practice multiplication together had worked -- yay! -- and just a general, "back home" feeling, even though we aren't home at all.
Not to make it sound like we are not thinking about nola . . . Once I was "home", I got right back into the routine of poring over the Times Picayune pages and the uptown message boards. Currently there is a lot of posting about electricity being on or off, or about to be turned on. Still no answering machine picking up when we call the house. We are still waiting for the go ahead from the mayor to drive back and check things out.
When we get there, the Walgreen's several blocks from our house should be open -- it was apparently open prior to Rita. That's the kind of news that keeps us hopeful. According to Chris Rose, the Times Picayune columnist, there's a lot of Halloween candy in that Walgreen's. And that's something to look forward to. That would be kinda cool and normal.
posted by carla at 12:12 AM
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