Relieving some of the stress referenced here in recent months, things are falling into place that will enable my family and me to relocate from one city to another just 30 minutes south: Hartford, Connecticut. For a while, the uncertainty about the move was driving me to a certain level of personal chaos, because my blogging work, for one thing, is firmly place-based. Or so I have told myself.

It looks for now as though I will extend my place-based-ness to include the new city as well, and we’ll see how well I can continue to examine the old homefront. The sense of responsibility for the current city I’m leaving, which approaches a maternal feeling in sometimes ridiculous fashion, is weighing rather heavily on my shoulders, and I believe explains much of the stress I am in the business of trying to shed. I keep telling myself, “It will all work out alright.”

We close on the new house tomorrow, hopefully averting a temporary financial crisis on the part of the seller, and things are underway for the house we’re vacating. After weeks of rather grueling house-showings, during which I had to accomplish miraculous, last-minute house-cleanings from time to time while keeping children calm and well-behaved in order to avoid anything backfiring before we left the house spotless, I can now breathe easy for a bit. An offer came in that we like, and the potential buyer seems very promising indeed. I am so happy not to be selling to a crack dealer, and all signs are good.

Friends stopped by today and even commented that my street is looking not so scary these days. Houses appear to be getting fixed up. I beamed with pride like a mother of a baby taking his first steps. I really need to get over myself with this neighborhood thing. I keep reminding my ego that it’s okay to let go, and there are plenty of other people who can come in and do good by the city.

In similar news, our family visited the neighborhood school in Hartford we’ve been hoping to get into. It’s a public school, K through 8, with a decent reputation according to the one person’s opinion I was able to get. (Another person told me flat out, “You should homeschool. Hartford schools are not a good option.”) We enjoyed our visit and were pleased to learn that we’re in, after being told by a central office that our chances might be slim. Not only that—my kids adored the school. They weren’t even fazed by the dress code, which up until now had been a significant obstacle.

Now to get through the closing without any big problems, and we can dig in to refinishing floors and repainting some walls at the new place. When we stopped by this week, I was dismayed to find that there are a lot of weeds I wanted to pull, and I had to stop myself from doing it. But I checked myself, too: when I want to pull weeds, it means I’m in.

Posted by Heather B on 24 May 2007 at 4:56 pm.