Penultimate week in PA

As most of our few but faithful readers know, we're rapidly approaching our move from Pennsylvania, a move that we face with varying degrees of anticipation, sadness, dawning nostalgia, and outright denial. (Well, at least Andrew and I will be leaving the state a week from tomorrow; Dan will stick around until for his dissertation defense in August and for a few weeks after that to tie up loose ends). It's hard for me to believe we're actually leaving--sometimes graduate school feels endless, at other times it just seems so much a part of our daily rhythms that it's hard to imagine it will ever end. And now that it has (or nearly so), I'm finding it hard to believe and accept--part of me still seems to feel that all this packing I've been doing all week is merely in preparation for a long trip, something like the summer I spent in Utah last year. Part of me remains convinced that I'll be back again, and not just for short visits. (I can console myself with the fact that I have to come back at least once, for my own defense, whenever that may be). But this place--State College, Centre County--has gotten into our blood, it seems. For a long time I thought of Utah as "home," but gradually, almost imperceptibly sometimes, that feeling has been replaced (or perhaps been complemented by) a feeling of Pennsylvania as home. That's not really so surprising, when you consider how much of our shared life has happened here: we met here, got engaged, got married (well, the marriage itself was in Utah, but you know what I mean!), had a kid . . . I'll be sad to leave, even while at the same time I recognize that it's time for us to move on to real jobs, and we're looking forward to being closer to family. I suppose change is never really a simple thing, even when it's a good change.



Anyway. There's really not a lot to report for this week--I've begun packing in earnest, packing a few boxes during the day while Andrew runs around or watches his Baby Einstein videos (the only thing that will get him to sit still for more than five minutes), and then packing more at night. Dan has really been working hard on his dissertation--I don't think he was home before nine or ten any night this week: Thursday night he didn't come home until after Andrew woke up in the morning, just before 5 a.m.! (Luckily, both he and Andrew went right to sleep after that). But his marathon sessions seem to be bearing fruit--he finished his last major experiment Thursday night (thus the late return), and now he just has to finish writing.








Andrew has been getting more chatty: I picked up some animal flashcards and we've been working on animal recognition--of the 29 cards, he probably knows at least 20, even if he can only say the first syllable or so. He's also become increasingly fascinated with the local wildlife--he's taken to running off down the street any time he sees a bunny rabbit (often he spots them before we do). So far, he hasn't been able to get near one (for some reason, they always run off when he approaches), but that doesn't stop him from trying.



Late Saturday morning, we wandered down to the end of our street where one of our neighbors was holding a yard sale. I picked up some dinosaur books and some Disney movies and Andrew discovered a box containing some of the old style Fisher Price little people. The woman told me that little kids are her "favorite kind of shopper," and proceeded to give Andrew all of the little people she had. It never ceases to amaze me what kinds of things fascinate Andrew. I wouldn't have expected the Little People to hold his interest for more than the few minutes he devotes to any new thing, but on the contrary, these Little People have repeatedly held his rapt attention for a full fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. Mostly, he just likes to put them all on the table (or any other flat surface) and then rearrange them according to some obscure Andrew system. And then rearrange them again.



Saturday afternoon Dan played hooky from work for a little while, and Andrew and I walked up to campus and met him at the Creamery, where Andrew helped us make short work of our ice cream cones. There's no question that this kid likes ice cream.



And of course, our lives were inevitably affected by the Harry Potter phenomenon. Friday night one of my friends organized a "Harry Potter" party, held just prior to her departure to the official Barnes and Noble party. Although I admit that I'm a fan of the series, I went mostly to see friends who I may not see again before we leave. Still, I couldn't quite contain the thrill that went through me when the mailman delivered our copy of Book 7 yesterday morning. However, in an act of serious self-restraint, I've resisted reading all but a few pages of the first chapter. I have to finish reading book 6 again (the one disadvantage to reading books as quickly as I usually do is that I often forget a lot of details), and besides, Dan's reading it now . . .

Till next week's fascinating installment: "That's all folks."