We’re moving! We just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. where Eric had some job interviews. He’s got a job at an environmental policy think tank there. It doesn’t pay a lot, but they have a program to pay for law school tuition once he gets accepted. With my parents in town to take care of the kids, it may even be economical for me to get a job to help the family income. It’s almost too good to be true.
Northern Virginia just feels like home, and it’s going to be the perfect place for us to make a new start. We found the apartment that we’re going to be living in. The funny thing is that we’ll have a neighbor named Dale. He stopped by to welcome us. He’s just the nicest man. He overheard us talking about running some errands, and he actually offered to let us borrow his car. No lie! (One more thing we have in common, Septimus, but there’s no way I’m wearing his clothes to church.) Eric politely declined, but thanked him profusely. On the way back to my parents’, I told him about Septimus’s Dale stories, and we laughed like newlyweds.
We sat in the car talking until well after the sun set. Once he’d heard the stories about Septimus and his neighbor, Eric wanted to know every detail about Banner of Heaven–his sister Mari’s package, Jenn’s awkward moments with roaming hands, Greg’s finding of companionship among Mormons, Aaron’s doctrinal contentions, Septimus and his adoring Sister missionaries (Septimus deserves to be adored, doesn’t he?). We joked about my angry outburst and my dumb movie reviews. He bristled just a bit when I told him some of the things I’d said–enough to sympathize more than a little with DKL.
We went inside, and I finally showed him Banner of Heaven. His first reaction was that he loved the way it looks. He woke up early the next morning and started reading every post and every comment. When I awoke and found him sitting in front of the computer, he was laughing out loud at some rude comment by DKL. I flashed him a mean look and asked him how dare he make light of that. He turned to the computer and brought up my Xbox post–and my heart nearly stopped. Eric turned back to me and asked why I hadn’t mentioned anything about that one, and I was speechless. I just started to cry for how terrible I’d been. He pointed to it, laughed, and said that maybe DKL was the kind of guy he’d like to take out to dinner. Then he hugged me and somehow came up with all kinds of nice things to say. If you’re reading this, Eric, you’re the most wonderful man alive. I love you, and I’m so sorry.
Everything is coming together beautifully, but I still feel confused by how fast it’s happening. I’ve already started to feel like I’m going to miss Lewiston. Oh, well. Life is complicated.
We’ve got to prepare the house to be sold now. This is my first time doing this, and I don’t even know where to start. Any tips?
