Life: Three and a Half Weeks at a Time

Some people consider me to a bit unusual. No one who reads my blog, of course, but people who have to actually put up with me on a day-to-day basis.

Anyway, I was driving home last night at the conclusion of my Transition Friday, and I got to thinking about numbers–specifically numbers of days and how many days I’ve been in different spots and how many days are ahead in certain spots. And I came to an interesting discovery regarding the magical number — three and a half.

Now I realize, most of you may not think of a number with a half added to it as magical, but you can just humor my love of patterns that emerge in life without any manipulation on our part. I mean if you have to manipulate numbers to make them come up with cool patterns, then what’s the point? But ok, I could do whole numbers and just use the number of 24, but I ask you, does 24 sound as magical as 3 1/2?

So brace yourselves, I’m going to take you on a journey of the inner workings of my pattern-seeking brain. It’s not too late to run away.

Oh! You’re still here? (And people think I’m strange and unususal.)

Check out these dates:

November 21 – December 15 (24 days)

December 15 – January 8 (24 days)

January 8 – February 1 (24 days)

They each represent 24 days (or 3 1/2 weeks). And each of those blocks of time represents something fairly significant in terms of the location where I’m spending my time. Regular followers know about two of them, and they may even suspect the third one, but here’s the quick run-down.

November 21 – December 15 (24 days)

November 21 was moving day! Well, the first of a few. But it was the day I got into the house I am living in now after staying with my parents since my return from Taiwan at the end of July.

November 21 was the day I picked up Yumi from the airport, stopped at the grocery store to get us some food, and then drove here to unload stuff and fix dinner for our first evening in the new house. She stayed with me for eight days.

The next 16 days involved me getting through the rest of the semester and doing some tutoring. I left the house on the 15th.

December 15 – January 8 (24 days)

On December 15, I headed to my friend Susan’s house and spent the night, so that I could catch an early flight to Iowa on the 16th. Spent 22 glorious days with my husband. Flew back on the 7th of January and spent the night at Susan’s again. I ran errands for a fair amount of Friday, and got back here last night on the 8th.

So, after spending 24 days or 3 1/2 weeks, in the new place, I then spent the same amount of time away.

January 8 – February 1 (24 days)

January 8 was my first full day back in Michigan. And after working at the coffee shop, helping a colleague with computer stuff, visiting my daughter, making music arrangements for later in the month, and verifying next week’s tutoring schedule, I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from my daughter’s house. That’s when I realized that 24 days from then, it would be February 1, the potential target date for moving into the new place with Dave’s arrival within a couple of days (depending on how things go). But regardless of his arrival date, the lease is likely to begin on February 1 — another 3 1/2 week block of time.

After that, I’m willing to stay in one place for a while. Three blocks of 24 days is enough, but it was kind of interesting to see the pattern of time spent in this house, out of this house, back in this house, until I leave again–more permanently. And I will admit that part of the reason I was thinking about all of this is I got a little disoriented last night unloading the van in the dark and finding my way around the house. That’s when it really hit me. I’d been away from this place as long as I’d been in it, and 24 days isn’t much time to really start to feel like it’s home. But I’m here, and for the next 3 1/2 weeks or 24 days, I’m going to make the most of it.

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This post is for JusJoJan, Day 9.