Should I Stay or Should I Go?

If I go there will be trouble
But if I stay it will be double . . .
This indecision’s buggin’ me . . .
So come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Deep thoughts from that incredibly sophisticated band, The Clash. They seem to pretty much sum up the last month or so of our lives. It’s been more intense than any of you probably know. An agonizing thing to consider, really; something not taken lightly. One of these days I’ll chronicle the whole thing out for this vast audience, which I’m sure waits with baited breath on each word.

Either way, I knew it was time for a change in my life, both professionally and personally. Mercer has been a wonderful experience for me, mostly due to the great people I’ve been able to associate with there. That will certainly be the thing I’ll miss most about Mercer. Through all of the nonsense that goes on in a highly political corporate environment, the people I’ve been able to work with have really risen above it all and created quality work. And, more importantly, have remained quality people. So kudos to you.

The personal aspect of it has been the most agonizing. That’s surprising, I’m sure, to many of you who know much about me. I’m not one to wear emotions on my sleeve. Julie always tells me I have my crusty shell and use my sarcasm to ward off people getting close to me. That’s certainly partly true, or maybe fully true, who knows. What I do know is that I won’t argue with her (I know better by now). What I also know is that there have been some wonderful people we’ve been able to meet here in Surprise and elsewhere. It’s comforting to know that there are people so devoted to their families, friends, faith, and communities, and the people here have epitomized that devotion in many ways. If it were the same in just a small fraction of households, I think this cruel world of ours would be a much more inviting, forgiving place.

My family has attempted to disown me. And they probably would have gone ahead and done so if it weren’t for my lovely daughters. It will be a struggle and a huge adjustment. They’ve all been very supportive over the time we’ve been here.

We’ll be heading up to Utah on Monday for the week of Thanksgiving. It should be fun to look around and see what the market has to say. I have communicated with some property owners up there who think that they’re still in a pricing run-up. It’s been interesting to watch them pull back over the last few months. Of course I’ll also experience the other side of that down here. Our home is, of course, wonderful, but no one will ever think it’s as wonderful as we do, which inevitably causes some sort of emotional disconnect, which makes it hard to sell a “home.” We’ll see what happens.

That’s enough sappiness for now. I’ll come through with more details soon.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. It was a cool balmy 70-ish degrees outside tonight when the fesitivities started. Julie made some great clam chowder, salad, dip, and all kinds of fun stuff. The dessert was some sort of free-for-all in the neighborhood. But I guess we made out OK.

Abigail was a cat, Grace was Dorothy, Lucy was TinkerBell, and Gwen was the old standby, the duck. Catherine, Mike and Annie, my parents, and Grandma Eslin came over to join the fun. My mother has always loved Halloween, so seeing our house decked out as it is did her heart good, I’m sure. We went Trick-or-Treating up and down the street. Lucy had some “slippers” (shoes) that were 3 sizes too big and kept falling off, so she was a little slow. I don’t think she minded much, as it just gave her yet another chance to eat a sucker. It was 9 at last count. I had to pry the bag out of her hand.

New pictures are up at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/ and to the right. Enjoy.

Fall Festival at Marley Park

Tonight was the Fall Festival at the girls’ school, Marley Park. Abigail was a cat, Grace was Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz), Lucy was a different cat, and Gwenyth was the requisite duck. The PTA did all kinds of stuff for the carnival and the girls had a great time. Lucy literally ate about 8 suckers, 4 bags of M&M’s, etc. And that’s just the stuff I saw her eat. Every time I looked up, she was off begging the next person for some candy. We were kind of a side show there.

Grace won a prize for her costume. It was really cute. I’ll have some pictures up sometime after Halloween. We didn’t get any tonight. Abigail and Grace loved the cotton candy (as did Julie) and snow cones.

That’s all for now. I’m tired.

Fall Break Ocean Style

We got back tonight from a good break in Oceanside, CA. We stayed at the same place that Julie and I stayed at in June, but this time it was a 2 bedroom so we could lock the 3 girls in together. We went to the beach, had some good food, watched the sunset, went to the San Diego Zoo, played Mouse Trap, fed the fish, and all kinds of stuff. Julie’s sister, Lisa, and her family just happened to be in Oceanside at the same time — and even at the same place. I ran into Taylor at the beach the first morning we were there. So we were able to boogie board and party with them at the beach. We topped it off with an evening at Ruby’s at the end of the pier. Grace was especially excited to play with her new friend from St. George.

The weather was perfect — sunny when we needed it, and not so sunny when we didn’t. We drove all the way up to Knott’s Berry Farm on Friday. We got there around 12:30, and saw a sign that said the park closed at 5:30 for their haunted house thing. We decided against shelling out $140 or whatever it would have been for 5 hours of fun. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the rear of the van, but we all survived.

Saturday we woke up to find a lot of rain had fallen, but we headed out to the Zoo anyway. Once we got there it was nice and overcast throughout most of the day. We had a really good time. Gwenyth started feeling bad and had a fever most of the day and today on the way home.

We brought back lots of treasures from the beach. Grace got a few too many shells — some of them I found this morning had clams in them, so it was a bit of a stench when I got her collection ready to head home. The drive home wasn’t bad; we only stopped about 8 times for potty breaks. Plus Julie read to me from her “fix-your-husband” book collection. A fun trip, plus she had turned me into a kindler, gentler, more sensitive listener. Everyone wins.

New pictures are up. I’ll be labeling them when I can. http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/ It’s back to the grind tomorrow, and it should be quite a grind for the next month or so.

Happy Autumn.