Preview day in Seattle

We are having a great visit with the family... this highly stimulating house is a thrilling change from the very stripped-down existence we've been living for the past few months.  Here, we have energetic cousins and big dog and guinea pigs and gecko and stick bugs and many rooms and many many many toys, and the kids are having a blast.  I'm happy too; it's nice to hang out with folks, and it's easy being a guest here.  All the amenities, and there's nothing to pack.

Dale calls a couple times a day to report on his progress.  Last time I heard from him he was well into Nebraska.  He is not sleeping much, but it's his choice, and I am trusting that he is being safe.  He has been listening to countless episodes of Fresh Air.  He was particularly struck by an interview with interrogation experts talking about the unacceptable strategies in use at Guantanamo Bay, including sleep deprivation.  By their definition, he is officially tortured.  He says it's not so bad.

Today the boys and I made our first foray into the city.  We tried to get into our apartment, but unfortunately, the leasing office was closed.  We cheered ourselves up at the ever-welcoming Whole Foods around the corner, and then went to visit Theo's house.  Theo wasn't home, but his mom was working from home that day, so we visited for a cup of tea and Jordan played with Theo's toys.  We're invited to dinner there later this week.  After that, we stopped by the boys' future school.  It wasn't an official visit, but they let us in, and we peeked around inside the building and played at the playground.  The school shares a courtyard with Temple Beth Am, so we got to enjoy their beautiful sukkah.  (I took a bunch of pictures but lack a cable for uploading them at the moment... Soon.)

Then the long schlep back to Sammamish.  It's about forty minutes, which could be worse, but doing it twice in a morning is more than I prefer.  Everything we did in Seattle, by contrast, seemed fantastically compact.  Apartment/Whole Foods was ten blocks from Theo's, Theo's was ten blocks from school.  How great is that?  Meanwhile poor Kari thinks she drove a total of fifty miles getting her kids to and from various activities today.  This is something we are trying to be purposeful about in our new lives.  There just aren't enough hours in the day for us to feel like we can afford so much time in the car.

It was a tough day for Jordan.  This was his first day here without the cousins' exhilarating company (they went to school), and the first time into the unfamiliar territory of Seattle as our future home.  As we drove to the apartment he said he was feeling a little nervous and a little sad because he misses our friends.  I can really sympathize - there we were on the stoop of our new apartment and we don't even know what it looks like?  That was a strange feeling.  Jordan was quiet much of the day and irritable in the evening.  All the boys went to bed early; maybe that will help.