When we moved to Connecticut

We decided Adam would go to graduate school at Yale.  When some of our friends found out we were going there, they said things like, "I didn't know Adam was smart!"  That always made me laugh.  He's a chameleon that one.

Adam's dad flew to Utah and we packed up our meager belongings into a U-haul which Adam and his dad drove across the country.  Braeden and I went to Nevada to visit while they drove, then we flew to join them.

There were a whole lot of firsts going on.

That week in Nevada was the first time I'd spent the night without Adam since we'd been married.  Moving to Connecticut would be the first time I ever lived more than 4 hours away from my parents and the first time I would ever be on the East coast.  It was the first time I flew alone with a baby. 

It was scary.

And it was exciting.

And it was tearful.

Here's Braeden and me at the Salt Lake airport, saying good-bye:

Marianne wasn't there in time to say good-bye before we got on the plane.  This was before September 11, of course.  Braeden and I boarded the plane and were getting settled in when a flight attendant brought a very distraught Marianne onto the plane.  She had convinced them to let her on to say good-bye.

More tears ensued.

Then Marianne got off the plane and Braeden and I were off on our adventure to be reunited with our Adam who, believe it or not, is smart. 

The flights were fairly uneventful--we had several.  We were flying Southwest airlines on free passes from my aunt that worked for Southwest and there were no direct flights.  Even then, Braeden was a very pleasant traveler.  We traveled on the same day Princess Diana died. It was on every TV in every airport.

We met Adam in the airport in Providence airport and I felt like a stranger in a strange land.  Everything about our new home was foreign.  The butter was even shaped differently.  And the cheddar cheese was white.  There were no mountains for navigating.  And we didn't know a soul.

I was lonely and homesick and then, quite gradually, I grew up.  It was painful at times but I became less shy and more adventurous (which to the untrained eye still didn't look very adventurous but for me it was huge).

One of my favorite stories from our first days in New Haven happened at a K-mart.  Adam and I were perusing the aisles looking for supplies for our new apartment.  A man stopped us and asked us if his wife could look at Braeden.  She was pregnant and they'd been observing our little bald headed prince and wanted to investigate closer.  He said neither of them had ever been around babies before.

Adam and I said sure and gave each other a, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" look.

That began our career as being almost celebrities in Connecticut because we had babies.  We were stopped many times because people wanted to see our babies.  They were just sort of rare around there.

When we went to pay for our stuff, I tried the debit card first on the off chance that the student loan I had mailed to our bank in Seattle had made it there yet.

Nope.

Debit card denied.

I tried the credit card on the off chance that would work.

Nope.

Credit card denied.

I asked if I could write a check.  The bored store clerk said yes.  It was the fastest check I've ever written.  I wanted to hurry and get out of there before it occurred to her that maybe she shouldn't take my check.

The check didn't bounce though.  That was back in the stone age when everything took a long time and the student loan check did eventually get to our bank.