Tuesday, January 15, 2008

on the cusp

I was leaving from our last day of ECFE class today, driving to meet a friend for lunch, when the thought occurred to me: This is also the last day of my 30s. This whole decade has gone by, and tomorrow I start a new one. Major cause for reflection, I can tell you. I had just turned 30 when I moved from Mississippi to Minnesota, so I can now say that I have lived here for a decade. Where did the time go? I was such a different person then. Not really different inside, I suppose, but the circumstances of my life were so far from where they are now. I had left a love behind in Mississippi — our relationship, never with much future, was essentially over, but feelings for each other still flared up at the end and made my leaving all the harder. I drove up here in my little Ford Escort (may she rest in peace, wherever she is), two yowling cats in the back seat (may they rest in peace, too), spending the first night in a small Illinois town, just past the Missouri border, and the second night with my friend Gina in small-town Wisconsin. I drove into town on I-94, took the Marian Street exit, and pulled up in front of the building where I would work for the next eight-plus years. For the first six weeks that I lived here, I stayed with a coworker while I looked for an apartment, and in April, the cats and I moved into my sweet little one-bedroom Chatsworth Street home, where we would live until I became engaged to Steve four years later.

Of course, I hadn't met my darling husband yet. It took three years for our stars to cross. We met just months before Sept. 11 — the Sept. 11 — and it seemed our destinies were swept up in tandem with that world event. Our first vacation together had been scheduled the same week that the airplanes flew into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania, and the flights were cancelled, and so was our trip to Montreal. Instead, we drove up north to our beloved North Shore and discovered the Cove Point Lodge, where we have gone back time and time again. By the following spring, we had gotten engaged, and a year later, we were married. That was almost half a decade ago. So: For just over half my time in Minnesota — half of my 30s — I was single, and for the other half, I was married. And then, late into the decade, I became a mother. Who would have thought I'd be celebrating my 40th birthday while pregnant? I guess it's not too surprising. I'm a Capricorn, and we are known for being late bloomers. That's a good description for a garden in Minnesota, and it feels right for me, too. I feel like I've found my bloom here in the past few years. I can only wonder what the next 10 will hold in store.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Em!!!! I hope it's a wonderful one!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Em! I loved reading these thoughts looking back at the last 10 years.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Emilie! You really have bloomed, and I look up to you. Why did you say "may she rest in peace" after you mentioned your Ford Escort? Did you sell it or something?

Emilie said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone!

Ellen, I traded the Escort in and bought a Honda Civic a couple of years ago.

Anonymous said...

Oh, duh! I didn't even know that, although I must have ridden in it the last time I visited you (also the last time I have gone anywhere except the coast). Oh, I saw "The Lives of Others" because you recommended it, and I LOVED it!!! I cried at the end. It was gripping and so well-made. Anyway, sorry to make your post all about me now....

Emilie said...

No problem, Ellen. And the flowers arrived this afternoon - they are so beautiful. Thank you! (Thank you, too, Susanne and Mary!)

Emilie said...

Oh, and I'm so glad to hear you loved the movie.