I read an interesting article in my local paper about an older couple that settled in my town after living and traveling all over the world.  One thing the woman said caught my ear, and it made me think about our move last year.  It might not have been to the other side of the world (this woman moved from South Africa to New Zealand and now to Longmont, CO), but it was a whole new world for me.  I left everything I knew, all my friends, the stores I was comfortable with, all of it.  The woman in the article said “I don’t want to do any more moving” and described her move as “traumatic.”

I can understand that completely.  I was excited about a new opportunity, about going to a place I had been in love with since I’d been a teenager.  But still.  We had to rip ourselves up by the roots, make hard decisions  about what we were going to take with us, and what needed to go.  Even now, more than a year later, I remember something I wish I’d kept instead of getting rid of, and look at something else I dragged across the country and wonder why I did that.

I wonder at what point the woman felt like she was home?  I know for me it’s about being able to run the washer.  When we moved a few months ago from the dreadful duplex to the amazing townhouse that I still love, I didn’t have a washer for three days.  I had sold the old one on Sunday, helping the guy load it into his truck.  And we didn’t move to the new place until Tuesday.  The movers were barely gone, and I had sorted laundry and started my first load.  I was home.

I’ve always been a bit of a Susie Homemaker type.  I like to cook, I like being at home.  And I like doing laundry.  Always have.  That big stack of clean clothes at the end of a day of doing laundry has always given me great satisfaction.  Those clothes smell good, they feel good.  It is nice to open a dresser drawer or closet door and know that I’ve got a dozen things to choose from to wear.

As long as I have a washing machine, I’m fine.  I can make do with lots of other things.  But give me my clean clothes.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2012 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.