understanding (n.)

Savvy Eastern Washingtonians will recognize that this landscape is not Bellingham (I.E. - "Almost Canada")


Savvy Eastern Washingtonians will recognize this as the beautiful Washington State University Campus.  (This picture was taken from the hill Shoes' parents live on).



I fully expect no one from Eastern Washington to recognize this landscape, (heyyyyy - there's the back of Shoes' head!  Woo hoo.  There's a little bonus I hadn't counted on ...).  Because no normal person could recognize this garage, I will just tell you.

I will tell you that this garage belongs to Shoes' parents and those belongings are Shoes'.  They are not in Bellingham.  They are in Eastern Washington.  They are in Eastern Washington because Shoes is moving back to the Vineyard Town (but until he finds a home, he will be commuting from the Palouse - hence the Palouse pictures ....). 

The Vineyard Town.  The very town I had vehemently accused of crushing my spirit and promised I would never return to. Well. After I put a little salt on the words they didn't taste *quite* so bitter.

That's right.

I ate them.

A long story, very long indeed, but Shoes is moving back to that dreadful place where dreadful things happened. Shoes' apologizing continues. But, goodness. There's nothing he can do about it, extenuating circumstances being what they are. He reclaimed his old job and will be settling down. At least for the next couple of years (hey, don't I have 2 more years of grad school left? Oh, the coincidences ...) And *I* will be working *very* hard on making the vineyard town mean something different for me.

Problem is, I don't care.
Problem is, I don't want to know.
So I changed the subject. Abruptly. Obviously. Hindsight, I probably should have just told her, "Pick something else to talk about, sister. I'm not going there with you." O, Hindsight. How I hate to love you. In any case, the point was made. I went in the house, started violently sweeping the kitchen and threw around a few choice words.

So what do you do? I'm obviously still falling down the rabbit hole and Ralph Wiggum is obviously still the president of Lisa Town ("when I grow up, I want to be a principal. or a caterpillar.")

I always, always tell Shoes, "The universe is supremely balanced." He always, always replies, "It is not. It is not supremely balanced." I always, always say, "Doesn't the fact that you don't believe it is and I do make it, in fact, balanced?"