It’s been a crazy two months. I do not recommend trying to renovate a house, sell it, and move across the country to a new house in a two-month time span. And a month at the new house is definitely not enough time to get settled in, particularly when the movers are a week late delivering your stuff, your still trying to sell your old house, Verizon goes on strike and you’re left without home internet, a landline, and television for four weeks, your cell phones get terrible reception in the new town, and your town is struck by an earthquake and a hurricane four days apart. Then’s there all the other little glitches (what do you mean I can’t get a Delaware drivers license because of an unpaid parking ticket from Maryland over ten years ago that I know nothing about?), an unexpected trip to the vet, getting the kid set-up at his new school and physical therapy sessions, etc. So I’ve been frazzled a lot this month, and a bit cranky.
But things are starting to fall into place. We’re settling on our Milwaukee house later this week, we love our new house, we love the neighborhood, we love our close proximity to Main Street and campus (we can walk to both), Main Street is great, the campus is beautiful, ZZ’s in a great class at a great school, and we’re happy with his new physical therapist, and the new jobs are good so far. There are things about Milwaukee I miss (besides my friends)–Alterra, Rishi Tea, Boswell, the Lake, my sangha, my yoga center/gym and the close proximity to Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Beans and Barley. But we’re figuring things out. I found a yoga class that I like (although there aren’t many to chose from), I can use the free faculty gym on campus, I started to attend a small meditation group in town on Sundays, I can order Rish Tea online in bulk, Newark has a decent natural food co-op, and we can make monthly trips to Trader Joes and stock up on stuff. Also, Newark has a few things that Milwaukee does not–a decent Malaysian restaurant, a fun and bustling college town vibe, lots of restaurants only a five minute walk from our office (including a very good Indian restaurant), a gorgeous university campus, awesome state parks just a few miles from our house, close proximity to Atlantic coast beaches (we made our first trip to Rehoboth Beach two weeks ago), warmer weather, and hills.
And although there are things I miss about UWM, UD has some advantages–including better access to online academic journals (this might not sound like a big deal, but UWM’s online subscription collection was so small that I could only access numerous articles that I wrote via interlibrary loan); cheaper faculty parking; a 10 percent tuition faculty/staff discount at ZZ’s UD-run early learning center, a free faculty/staff-only gym, and annual “wellness dollars” that faculty can use for personal trainers and fitness classes.
We still have lots to do to get settled in September, but it should be less discombobulating than August was. I am looking forward to when we’re done with our settling and can just enjoy living here and focus on everyday life and work stuff.
