One week to the day of our new life in the Empty Nest. Or so folks keep saying when they hear that not only has Owen returned to college in Oregon (a normal, expected development) but that Hugh is now in boarding school in Mississippi (a really weird, say what? kind of thing). But I'm uncertain. Is it really Empty Nestdom, given that Hugh can come home every weekend? Shoot, it takes me three days to clean up the chaos he leaves behind, and then it's just a brief breath and here he is again, in all his six-foot, 200-pound, chaotic adolescent glory. Not really an Empty Nest as much as a temporarily-vacated-but- soon-to-be-reclaimed-and-reconquered-and-laid-waste nest.
And here I am in the nest, amidst piles of extra tee-shirts and mismatched socks and unnecessary jackets and too-tight khakis as well as bikes and stuffed animals and torn posters and old sports medals and other boy leavings, and I'm online checking Hugh's grades and calling him to remind him to wear his retainer and worrying that he's going to have headaches because he left his contact lens behind and I'm writing myself notes to fill and mail Owen's prescritptions and to check airfares so Owen can come to a family wedding in October and I'm wondering if he has a toaster and a crockpot in the house he's now sharing and should I ship those and is he remembering to irrigate the holes left by his wisdom teeth surgery and I'm reminding Keith that we need to check on the revisions to Owen's financial aid package and did he write the second check for Hugh's youth group trip next summer and and and-- good lord, for an empty nest, it's pretty cluttered in here.
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