A Moment of Silence

The kids and I have been in New Jersey for five days. The key to survival here is to be busy, busy, busy-- and on this trip we have been. Not only are our days full, but they are mostly taking place outside, and it is hot! So hot that even I have to get into the pool, and I am a sun LOVER!

Today, after a morning of vigorous manicures (girlicures, as my four year old is quite literal) and pedicures, we headed to mi prima favorita's casa to check out the percolating baby's bedroom. In an amazing twist of fate, BOTH children fell asleep on the ride from Bergenfield to Woodcliff Lake. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I knew if I stopped the car, at the very least, the bro would wake up, and since I knew they both needed a nap, I just took the time and drove around.

I went past my parent's old house, my childhood home, (which I do at least once every time I am here) and shuddered at the fact that it has been painted white (as I do at least once every time I am here). And then I just kept driving, getting lost in the back roads of WCL. First, I scanned the houses wondering if the parent's of "kids" I went to school with still lived there. Then I started to question if those were even the right houses. The houses have changed so much in, er, fourteen years, that I wasn't even sure if I was questioning the right houses. I am not talking insane, Woodcliff Lake style, additions. I mean houses have been leveled and the quaint streets of Rose Ave. and Winding Way have taken on a completely different look and feel. IN FACT, I took a little spin up Carnot Ave, a dead end on which I would roller skate, not roller blade, to find that my cousins, FAMILY, have a new driveway entrance to their house. How much easier my life would have been if I had had a driveway entrance and didn't have to walk, in skates, through the thicket.

I so want everything to be exactly the way I remember it when I actually lived here. But even the houses of the friends I still keep in touch with have changed dramatically. My own natural brown shingled, childhood house, nestled against a brook has been painted white! I feel like there is a larger life metaphor here that I just can't or won't wrap my head around. So, in traditional Kristen fashion, I wrapped my head around things that remain the same no matter where I live.

DPW was repainting the white lines in preparation for the new school year that is just a couple of weeks away.

Some things never change.