After Tomorrow

When you work in the school system, time is inconsistent. January goes quickly there are holidays, exams, teacher workdays, and the beginning of the next semester. February and March drag themselves out because winters can be bleak and frigid and they’re also our snow months. Snow in Charlotte seems to cyclical, more snow every 3 or 4 years, perhaps the effect of El Nino.

Spring break is always welcomed and needed; after which, the brake is taken of the calendar and exams and EOC get closer. May flies. Exam week arrives and the rush is on. Staff have their checklists of things that must be completed, and in the midst of closing tasks, there are retests, retests, and more retests.

Today was the first day that I had no students, no retests. I actually worked on packing and cleaning my room. The staff lunch was planned by the Sunshine Committee, which unfortunately I chair. Mick graciously agreed to pick up the fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, from two different establishments. Naturally Murphy had a hand in it all and the orders for both which were confirmed on Tuesday, had been lost. Mick had to wait for the mac and cheese and then the chicken to be prepared. He was livid, but did make it with the food by the appointed hour.

We switched vehicles, leaving me with the truck to carry my personal, non-instructional belongings home for disposal at the auction. I managed to get everything home with the one load. I left the instructional materials that I’ve collected for the past five years there for my predecessor. Tomorrow is taking care of all the finalities, turning in keys, meetings, discussing next year.

After I had packed the truck, I stood in the doorway, glancing around the room. It was quite a journey, a difficult one at times, that brought me here and it’s almost over. The wisp of sadness was just a fleeting moment, because there is an aspect of our lives that is suspected by some, but yet unknown. No one actually knows that this is my last year. No one even knows about our blog. I will resign at the end of the summer, after all the loose ends have been tied.

After tomorrow, there will be no more daily waking at 5AM, no more beginning the workday at 7:30, no more staff meetings, no more waking Mick 5AM. Although Mick sold his practice and is retired, he has not felt retired since he’s up so early with me. After tomorrow, we will be concentrating on the move.

This weekend we will begin packing for our trip to Cuenca. We’re planning to each bring an extra piece of luggage. The plan is to find an apartment that we can rent and leave the things that we take down for our return in September. Mick has worked diligently on Bob’s estate to have it completed by August 15th. Since I have the summer off, it will be easier for us to dispose of most of our possessions and be totally ready to make our final move in September.

Our excitement is truly beyond words. Our dream is actually becoming a reality. Gabriella has already received our marriage certificate with the consular stamps. We arrive in Quito Wednesday night and meet with Gabriella on Thursday morning; our cedula will be in the works. A van must be hired to take us and all the luggage to Cuenca on Friday morning, June 18th. Graciella is meeting us at the apartment we’ve rented for our stay around 4PM.

We have struck up an internet friendship with three other couples whose blogs we regularly read and avidly follow each new post. We would like to thank Brian and Shelley especially for all the help they have given us with every question we have had. We feel very fortunate to have found their blog, which by the way is always real, down to earth and blatantly honest, plus they have Freddy with which we can identify since we have Nick. By reading their blog we were able to answer our many questions and the ones we could not answer we would just write and ask and they were always so helpful in giving us a straight forward answer. Chuck and Nancy and Rich and Nancy have also been kind and willing to assist. Thanks so much to all of you. We are looking forward to sitting down with you, face to face.

Until next time,
Mick and Kathy