Bring On The Snow

First, we would like to thank everyone for their support on our decision to move back to Chicago.  The response has been over-whelming and helps to reaffirm our choice.  However, they’re are quite a few who seem to be questioning our sanity regarding our timing of the move!  So we can answer it with a resounding:  ‘Yes, we know its cold.  And, yes, we know there is loads of snow!’  And we can follow up with a ‘We will take it every day of the week and twice on Sunday as oppose to the earthquakes!’

Notice the plurality of that last statement – earthquakeS – as in multiple.  Obviously, there was the larger one that occurred this past summer prior to Reily’s birth in which marked our first California earthquake.  The experience was rather unnerving as I am a particular for having the ground be rather stable under my feet.  I suppose I just a stickler for certain things!  But everyone assured us that it will become second nature and you’ll learn to not even notice them.

This past Thursday just before I was putting Reily down for his nap, I noticed another little rumbling.  An event that was barely covered in the local news as it only measured 3.4 and originated in ‘the valley’ which I only explain to Midwesterners as a ‘who cares’ if Ann Arbor, Michigan would suddenly fall off the map.  But I felt in never the less.  Last night, having just returned from meeting some high school friends out, we experienced another one.  This time, it was more like a car drove into our apartment complex causing the entire foundation to jump for a brief second.  Prompting Christine to run from the kitchen into the living room asking me ‘what did you do?’  (See I’m married and have learned to where the sacred jacket of blame that seems to materialize shortly after your first year of marriage!)  After a few seconds, we realized what that probably was and had a quick laugh where Christine summed it best with ‘I’m so ready for the snow!’

Last night’s earthquake was centered in Marina Del Rey, a mere 3 miles from Santa Monica and registered 3.4 again.  A mild aftershock was actually centered in Santa Monica but wasn’t really felt (1.9).  It was enough for both of us to long for the sub-zero temperatures that seem to be gripping the midwest.  As we both agree that this is one thing that we don’t really want to ever adjust to – its not that we spend hours worrying about it but we certainly aren’t embracing it either.

So, we say ‘bring on the snow!’  And we’ll simply pack on the layers.  We are about 20 days out from our move and are feverishly putting the plans in motion; fully expecting some things to flop and others to be exactly as planned.  One thing that we’ve learned is to just focus on controlling the controllables…and nature isn’t one of those!