Finally!

Well as anyone who knows me or who has been following this blog (or my previous Hong Kong blog) knows, Lee and I have been wondering where our final destination would be for almost a year. Probably about this time last summer, we started to get indications that our time in Hong Kong was coming to an end. At first it seemed likely that we would be sent to Singapore, but that idea didn’t hold up for long. By December we knew we were coming back to the US, but to where? Lee’s job in Austin was over, but the economy was in dire straits and nobody within the company was changing jobs. No retirees, no new departments, 3,000 additional layoffs…things did not look good. Jokingly we said that if we had to we could eat the scrawny deer in our neighborhood, or move in with Lee’s sister in Fayette!
When we came back to Austin in March we knew it was probably temporary, but for how long? In any other economy Lee would have known his next assignment before we ever left Hong Kong. But in this economy…would it take one month? Two months? Six months? Who knew.
The days, and weeks and months passed. We’d hear rumors; a plant here, a management job there. In June things started to move a little. He began to get resume requests and even a couple of phone interviews. It was hard to remain positive and even harder (for me at least) to not blather all my angst about this process to friends and family and the internet in general!
Finally in July Lee flew to Boston for an interview at a plant in Methuen, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston near the New Hampshire border. He went directly from that interview to New York and our east coast vacation. The HR director told him it could be a couple of weeks before he would find out the results. Torture!
The day we drove from New York City to the Berkshires Lee was scheduled to have a phone call with the director at 3 pm. Adrian was with us (Chris was meeting us at the house) when Lee’s phone rang. He immediately pulled off the highway, muttering that he had to take this “business call”. He left the car, wandering off by the side of the road, with me trying to play it cool and not make it too obvious that I was watching him anxiously in the rear view mirror. Imagine my relief to see Lee smiling and nodding while he talked on the phone! Finally!
So that’s it. We’re moving to Boston. We’re already in the process of working to get this house on the market. Lee’s new job starts September 1st so he’ll be commuting back and forth between Austin and Boston for awhile, until this house sells and we find a place to live up there.
I’m pretty excited. Excited for a new area of the country. Excited for Lee. Excited for living in a very interesting and historic city. I’m also freaking out at the amount of things I need to get done in a short amount of time, but that’s normal for me (to panic I mean). So as usual I’m trying to stay calm and just complete one task after another and not get annoyed at myself for the things that aren’t done yet.
We’ve certainly gotten a lot of moving experience lately! We’ll be very happy to be settled somewhere for awhile. We’re both pretty optimistic that the east coast will appeal to us.
Now, what am I going to do about the title of this blog? I think I’ll leave it as it is and it can become a metaphor for the repatriation process! Maybe.

Bittersweet

This week I’ve actually had a fun thing to do almost every day. It’s good because I’ve started getting bored and when I get bored I get into bad habits – eating, TV, shopping…

On Monday I went to a meeting of a group called Women for Good Government. They are a liberal political group. They’re not a PAC and they’re not part of the Obama umbrella groups that have formed to get various legislation passed. I went to lunch with the ladies and then to their meeting afterwards. I liked them a lot; quite a few of them had lived overseas and they were intelligent and fun to talk to. But….they are quite passionate about Democratic politics and very active, maybe more active than I really want to be. I don’t want to be a precinct captain! The thought of block-walking and knocking on stranger’s doors fill me with dismay. So, I don’t know….I’ll certainly try a few more of their meetings and see if I think I fit in or not. I went to a meeting of the kick-off for Obama’s Healthcare initiative, and although I support some sort of healthcare reform, being that politically active is just not for me…

I’ve contacted the League of Women Voters here in Austin and now that may work out well, if we stay. They are large enough to have study groups and I think I would really enjoy participating in one of those. I like the League because they are non-partisan and because they use consensus to take a position on issues but don’t support individual candidates. I may help out with an Austin Energy conservation study group.

Then yesterday I went to a coffee for new members of the Newcomers Club. This is where the bittersweet title on this blog entry comes in. It reminded me SO much of AWA in Hong Kong. And, while it made me very happy to think that I’ve found a group that will give me an opportunity to participate in all sorts of fun activities – mahjong, hiking, needlearts, lunchbunch (sound familiar?), canasta (CANASTA????), it also made me incredibly sad. I miss my friends in Hong Kong. I miss the AWA. Rats, rats, rats.

I guess this is what they are talking about when they talk about the ups and downs of repatriation. This was definitely an up/down all mixed up together. I need things to do that get me out of the house and keep me from spending all my time obsessing over deer or laughing at the blue jays because they weigh too much to be able to eat out of our bird feeder (It has a weighted bar that closes the feeder if something lands on it that weighs more than a certain amount. Keeps out the grackles, blue jays and mourning doves and lets the cardinals, nuthatches and chickadees eat their fill. It drives the blue jays crazy though. The other big birds give up but the blue jays keep landing and flying off in frustration, sitting in the trees complaining with the squirrels.) See why I need to get out of the house!

Today I’m going to do a couple of fun things. I’m going to bake bread for one thing. We bought a Kitchen Aid mixer; a beautiful machine. It has a dough hook so you can use it to knead bread. My first effort wasn’t very successful but I’m going to try again. I have a great recipe that includes polenta and millet (high fiber). The second thing I’m doing is at 1 pm I’m meeting the sweet young lady that does my brows (her name is Mandy Wright) at Nordstrom’s for an eye makeup lesson. I’m just about out of eye-shadow and I’m ready to have somebody help me buy the right colors and teach me some new techniques. As we age our makeup needs change so it’s good to take a lesson like this every couple of years.

I have other things to blog about…paintings, hormones…but they’re going to have to wait until another day. If I don’t get out there for my walk soon I’m going to be sorry. Its 8 am and its already 78 degrees!

Getty Center in LA

Well. I think I’m finally maybe about to start to begin to get my life back in order. Funny that I should decide that while I’m in LA for the weekend and about to launch into a week that sees me flying back to Texas Monday, having guests Tuesday and Wednesday, and leaving for Minneapolis on Thursday! But the worst of the work on the house is over and it’s starting to feel more home-like. There are still things to be accomplished there, but they no longer feel as pressing and urgent. So, when we get back to Texas after Minneapolis I’m going to start to figure out what I want to do with my life. I can’t sit around waiting to see if we stay in Austin or move somewhere else.

Since the last time I posted we’ve moved into the house, I’ve gone to Missouri for Passover for a week, come back to Texas and worked. I’ve unpacked, put things away, cleaned and cleaned again, sorted, tossed, planted, put birdseed in the bird-feeder and generally worn myself out. That’s been part of the problem. I’ve spent so much time everyday working around the house that I just don’t have the energy to do much of anything else.

But yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am, drove to the airport, and flew to LA for the weekend. Lee is here all week working on a project so I decided to join him. It’s nice to get away from everything without any pressures at all to do anything except have fun! After Lee picked me up at the airport we drove him back to work and then I took the car and drove to the Getty Center. When the Center opened several years ago I read a review of it in the New Yorker and ever since then I’ve really wanted to see it.


To get to the Getty Center you take the freeway – 101 to 405. I can drive the LA freeways as long as I understand exactly where I want to go and plan out my driving so I know well in advance what lane I need to be in. I drive in the slower lanes and just pay attention. The Getty Center is right off of 405 and easy to find. You drive right in. Parking costs $10 but the museum itself is free. You take a nice tram to the top of the hill and there you are.

The museum(s) are situated around a beautiful courtyard, on a high hill overlooking LA. The buildings are modern, tan stone, blue windows, curved walls, straight walls….many interesting angles and lines of sight. I had a lot of fun playing with my camera, trying for interesting shots. I had read recently about making landscapes more interesting by putting something in the foreground to give perspective. I don’t know how successful I was but it was fun trying!



The buildings were labeled North, South, East and West Pavilion. Sometimes they were linked and sometimes you had to walk out into the courtyard to get from one to another. There were walkways leading off into the sides of the hills, where views and gardens, cafes and seating areas surrounded the pavilions on the outside. This made it easy to spend the day there without getting bored. I would look at art for awhile, then go outside and sit in the courtyard, or walk on a path and take in a view, or enjoy a garden.

The art was a mixture, with nice permanent exhibits and great temporary ones. My favorites were the French tapestries and furniture, the photo exhibit, the Japanese lacquer furniture exhibit, and the impressionists. The French exhibit was, I think Baroque and Rococo. It was over the top in colors and richness and detail. The photos were beautiful, strange and funny. A woman photographer was featured – Jo Ann Callis. There was a wall filled with pictures of confectionery by Callis that just cracked me up. No photographs were allowed in that portion of the exhibit so I bought a t-shirt with the pictures on it instead!



The Japanese lacquer furniture had a strange effect on me. It was beautiful, very ornate and of course, very Japanese. As I wandered through the exhibit I suddenly started crying! It really caught me by surprise. I know it’s because I miss Asia and Hong Kong…its okay. This repatriating thing is just kind of odd. It’s a little like grieving…no it’s a lot like grief, what am I saying! I’ve lost something, I have to mourn it, and eventually I will be able to just remember it fondly. What great memories! I’m looking forward to getting to that point, but I know I can’t force it.

Last night we went out for sushi – it was very, very good; that’s a great thing about LA. Today we’re going to Chinatown for dim sum and then we’re heading down the coast to San Diego to visit an old college friend of Lee’s. I think the sun is even shining now!

Austin March 24th 2009

Let’s do a bit of “flash forward” for a bit, shall we? We’ve been back in Austin for a little over two weeks now. For the first week I was just disgusted by our old house. It was SO dirty, the yard was in shambles, the kitchen and bathrooms looked dingy…it was just a mess! Plus my first job was scrubbing the woodwork so that Lee could paint it so I was at insect level with the floor and the worst of the dirt. But now I’ve gone on to painting the walls, and slowly things are coming together. As each room gets the woodwork and then the walls painted it starts looking brighter, cleaner, and more inhabitable. It’s very satisfying.

This weekend they laid new sod in the yard. The yard was just a horrible mess. Our house sitter had gotten a large dog which just KILLED the grass. There were SIXTY bags of leaves in the yard! Not to mention all the fallen branches from the live oaks…just pitiful. Now with all the trash hauled away and the beautiful sod in place it really looks nice.

As one thing gets done, it makes all the other things that still need doing really stand out. So the green new yard highlights the filthy deck. The clean painted walls point to the dirty, scuffed floors in distain. The new stove and microwave demanded a matching new dishwasher as well. And on it goes…

Today the new carpet was installed in the bed rooms. It REALLY looks nice. I’ve had a bit of a dread and reluctance about moving back into the house. Because of our situation I’m very hesitant to get attached to it again since its entirely possible that we’ll turn right around and move back out of it sometime in the next couple of months. Of course, it is also possible that we’ll be here another five years! It’s a very unsettling situation, but I am getting used to it. Really I think things will get more settled, one way or another in the next few months.

By some sort of crazy blessing from the sports gods we’ve managed to return to the US right in time for the NCAA College Basketball tournament, and this year Mizzou is doing quite well. Their coach is in his third season at Mizzou and this is the team’s first time in the tournament since 2003. We’ve made it to the Sweet 16 and although the last game gave me a headache from the stress I’m totally delighted. Every game we win from here on is just icing on the cake.

I’m having fun with running too. Austin is such a great town to run in, especially this time of year. I’m running in the Capital 10k this Sunday, just for fun. I’m not doing any serious training yet. Once Sarah and I pick a half marathon for late summer / early fall for sure I’ll get myself back on a definite schedule. But I AM starting to introduce myself to some speed and hill training techniques. Its fun - breaks up my weekday runs and makes them more interesting. I’m either running in the neighborhood close to our service apartment or heading to Town Lake on the weekends. There are so many beautiful jogging and hiking trails in this town.

Spring is really underway in Austin. The wildflowers and blooming trees are just starting to appear. They’ve had some rain in past week that has really helped the wildflowers. I’ve taken some pictures, but really want to take pictures of the bluebonnets when they are at their peak. I’m going to be like the Japanese – running out onto the median on The Capital of Texas Highway (the wildflowers bloom all over the highways here) and snapping pictures like a mad lady!

As for my mental state, well it’s funny. Most of the time I feel fine, but little things can set me off and bring either tears or laughter. Last weekend we went to the China Village shopping center for a bowl of Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant there. This shopping center is very Asian, with signs in Chinese and a grocery store that has everything a homesick Asian could possibly want, from red bean ice cream to durian! I got a lump in my throat at the signs in Chinese and could have wandered around the grocery store for hours just drinking in the sights and smells. I wanted to go up to the very few westerners we saw and ask them where they had lived overseas! Ha, what an assumption! But they were all wielding their chopsticks expertly, so I don’t think I was entirely out in left field.

Except for occasionally fearing that I’m about to turn into on-coming traffic, or puzzling shopkeepers by trying to hand them money or credit cards with two hands, I think I’m adjusting pretty well so far. I’m not expecting this to be an overnight affair, but I also don’t think I’ll suffer THAT much…there’s a part of me that misses everywhere I’ve ever lived, and everyone I’ve ever known. There’s a part of me that holds onto everything and hates to let go. I was always the last one at a party to leave the room…

Hello Austin!

We’ve been back in Austin now a little over a week but it doesn’t seem that long. I’ve forgotten how much work is involved in settling into a new place. It’s strange being back here, but not in a bad way. It feels both new and old. It really doesn’t seem like the same city I left three years ago, and I can’t really say why. I don’t think Austin has changed that much, but I HAVE. And that is the tritely profound thing that people tell you over and over about repatriation. But it seems to me that if I look at the changes that have taken place in my psyche and embrace and enjoy them they won’t be harmful to me or those around me. I don’t expect others to have changed in the same way, or even at all. I don’t expect that people will understand what I have experienced; how could they – they haven’t experienced it!

So it’s the little things about returning that have surprised me so far. I forgot how pretty Austin is. Hilly and green, even after the drought they had this winter. Austin is full of green spaces, places to hike and run, even in the middle of the city. Friendly people that talk to strangers (I’m a little un-nerved by this now, when just a few years ago I used to do the same thing!).

The other thing is I really don’t have time right now to be sad. There is so much work to do to get the house ready so that we can move into it when the time comes. Cleaning, painting, carpeting, landscaping…..I don’t see how we will accomplish it all but Lee keeps assuring me that all will be well.

I’ve also decided that I can’t keep saying that we are “living in Austin for now” or “we’re fixing up the house so that we can move into it or sell it”. There is no telling how long it will take for Lee to find another position in 3M or where that job will be when he finds it. So as much as it’s possible, I’m just going to quit thinking about it. We’re fixing the house up to move into it. We’ve moved to Austin. That’s it until it’s not anymore!

As far as this blog goes, well it seems a bit in disarray, even though I have a plan for it. Eventually I will get pictures posted and especially get the entries from our last Asian vacation up here. It may seem funny to start my Austin blog at the end of our journey through Asia, but it just seems right to me. Part of beginning a new journey is completing the old one, so I’m going to start the new with the old and employ a time-old literary tradition – the flashback!