Yah, I for sure wanted to be out of the house, but I always enjoyed going back for holidays and such. It wasn't the family -- it was just time to go.

The work Subaru was fob-only, so the transition to my new used Subaru with a fob-only has been only mildly disorienting. At least I am no longer trying to pull the Sonic's handle (as I did with the work car) or search for the open button on the work Subaru's fob.

Really only mildly missing standard transmission -- but that's also because this is a much better, more powerful car -- and so quiet, especially when it switches into the near-silent EV mode. I've had it about three months and I've only filled up three times, but then I've mostly been keeping close to home and work!

I wanted to be a million miles away and got it.

Wish Mac had the ambition/drive to do what is needed to go out on his own.

Ion, cleaning is exhausting. Parents arrive in just over a week and I’ve still not done all I want to get done prior to their arrival.

When StY was seven he told me "When I get married I'm gonna bring my wife home and live with you and Dad." StE was eager to launch at 18, and did, to community college in another town in state, with his gf. StY couch surfed with friends for a while, moved in with his gf for two or three years, until they broke up and he boomeranged. When we moved out west we left him the house to caretake. When he met the woman who's now his fiancee, she became a stabilizing influence, and we actually love her, we gave him the house. They've renovated and are now living there.

So, you know, it wasn't us. It was the house.

ETA: I couldn't wait to get away. Unfortunately my choice of school was in town. I wheedled until I was able to live in the dorm instead of driving home after midnight on late nights on set, and had a thorough grounding in All Sorts. Theatre, Dance, and Music kids from all over are a fantastic study in sociology. My three semesters was equal to a year in NYC, opening my eyes to the joys of diversity and the expanse of life other than my own little existence. Also to auditions, hard work in classes, and the realization that my talent was less than I'd been led to believe and my ambition and love for the art did not balance my ability to live with rejection. Invaluable. And then I married a military man and spent the next years on accompanied tours in the US and Europe. Eventually, we came "home" and spent the next forty years raising kids and caretaking my elderly parents. So when those jobs were done, we fled to the other side of the continent. Thus leaving the kid with the house.

Timelies all!

I wanted to get far away from my hometown when I chose my college. My parents put a 500 mile distance limit on schools. Out of the schools I got into, I chose the one furthest away. (It also was in a big city, which was appealing to me since my hometown was a smallish suburban town with nothing to do.)

Ugh, I am so tired. We did a two-night overnight with Mr. S, and of course he was up before 6 each morning. And of course he was bored and hungry, so we couldn't go back to sleep.

I went to college in freaking Rochester, New York, just to prevent my parents from visiting me.

I probably would have gone to Wesleyan if it weren’t close enough to my home at the time that my mother could have just DROPPED IN. So Philadelphia it was.

Now I have a 21 year old living with me and she’s lovely but needs to work on her independence. She’s working again now, which is good, but a $20 an hour wage is not enough to pay for an apartment here, or with her friends in Boston. So some of the whole “kids staying home” thing is The Rent Is Too Damn High.

I just had a bunch of friends over for a blind apple taste testing! We tried 11 kinds of apples, and some surprises emerged. Cosmic crisp was not popular at all (maybe I got a bad one?). Honey crisp was just ok. I really liked pink lady but others felt it was too sour. Envy was surprisingly popular. And the real surprise was kanzi apples, which I’d never heard of, but which were many of our #1 or #2!

Pink Lady is my fave but I’ve never had a kanzi !

Dylan and I both couldn't wait to leave home, while Alex is in no hurry. I think it's a combination of the covid generation and the fact that Seattle is good for him in a way that Tulsa and rural Alabama weren't for us. We've discussed it a bit in general terms--basically, that of course he'll stay here until he finishes his associate's degree, and if he goes straight on to get his bachelor's from there, he's welcome to live at home to save money if he gets into either of the two UW campuses that are an easy commute from here. But we've also mutually agreed that he needs to be focused on the goal of becoming a self-supporting person in his own apartment sooner rather than later after that.