The Stuff of Our Lives

I'm amazed sometimes just how easily I become overwhelmed. Sometimes it's too much bad stuff. Sometimes it is too much good stuff. Times like this, it's just too much stuff.

Today was Daniel's first day at his new job. He had positive things to report about it when we chatted on the phone -- he from his room at the Best Western, I at home wishing he were here. That's good stuff, and bad stuff.

Last night we spent about six and a half hours in the car. Well, that's not quite right. We were outside of the car to visit a shop for 10 minutes, to see the townhouse where we'll probably be spending our weekdays beginning August 2, and to get food and gas. However, the vast majority of the evening was spent in the car surrounded by torrential rain. Daniel pointed out one man who was trying to get his kids into their car in the parking lot during some of the worst of it, and the children were nearly overcome by the wind. The already long drive was lengthened by the weather, as we and the other drivers crawled along with hazards on, able to see only a few feet in any direction. That's scary stuff.

The townhouse is pretty nice, for what it is -- temporary housing that allows us to be together while we figure out where to go next in our lives. I don't like to be separated, so, in that sense, it's fabulous. However, it's right in the middle of the city, so we have a view of the wall that separates us from the street. That will take some getting used to again, though I think I will appreciate the proximity to just about every imaginable kind of shopping and restaurant. That's mixed stuff.

There's other "stuff" I don't want to write about because I wouldn't want venting about details of work or people that happen to be annoying me at present or circumstances I can't change to cause needless alarm when all I need is to blow off steam. Someone left the whistle on my spout and turned up the fire. Suffice it to say that I would like to tell some of the stuff in my life to stuff it.

I look forward to the good changes that are upon us, but I look forward even more to a time when where we are on the planet and what we are doing becomes, well, boring. That's comfortable stuff. Right now, it's the stuff of my sweetest dreams.