Rip Van Winkle

We were only gone from Kansas City for about five years so the changes here haven’t been tremendous. Some have been surprising—areas that got really built up or buildings that got torn down, businesses that changed hands or just disappeared, those kinds of things. So it’s still really familiar here, mostly.

Yesterday I called to make an appointment with the accountant we’d used while living here. Turns out he is no longer with that practice. I found that odd since he was the only owner as far as I knew. After I made the appointment, I asked the receptionist if he’d retired. “No,” she said. I waited, thinking she would add more information but she didn’t.

After I got off the phone, I turned to Google and learned that my accountant had been charged and convicted of two counts of federal tax fraud. He’s been in prison since 2010 serving a four year sentence.

I guess it wasn’t big news in KC then, which is a little surprising. He had a large practice, something like 4,000 clients, but all I found online were a couple of short articles.

This change is the one that’s made me feel like we were gone a really long time. 

Pizza of mixed emotions*

Last week I received a job offer from a company in Overland Park, Kansas (map here). Last night I accepted the offer and I start May 14 (gulp).

I’m excited about being employed again (you should have seen me dancing around the apartment last week), and I’m tickled to be returning to the Kansas City area. The job is squarely in my field and should remain that way, unlike my last job. Plus the company is very stable, also unlike my last job.


 

 But I am sad to leave Boston.

I’ve learned a lot about myself (holes in my walls and ceilings no longer scare me), Kent and I are even closer which I wouldn’t have thought was possible, and we manage money now like no one's business (comes from mostly one income in a very high cost of living area).  More than that, though, I’ve made some really good friends here. While leaving the apartment will be easy-peasy, leaving these friends just flat sucks.


 

I kept in good contact with my KC friends while I lived here so I'm confident I can do the same thing with my Boston friends. It's just hard because so much of what we've enjoyed is the ease of hanging out that comes from an urban environment. Our friends pretty much all live within blocks of each other so getting together never involves anything more than a 15 minute walk and perhaps a stop at the liquor store for a bottle of wine. I will miss that a lot.

*Sunday night I posted on Facebook that Kent and I were having pizza of comfort for dinner. A friend asked me via private message what that meant so I told her I was considering this job offer. When I posted a link to the Kansas City song  last night, she commented pizza of mixed emotions.

New traditions

I've loved seeing what my sons want to continue for their holiday traditions--for the most part, they've taken everything I did and incorporated them into their own family celebrations. That makes me feel really good.

This is our fifth Thanksgiving with Ben and Jen and the second year Jordan and Sophie have been able to join us. So we have a couple of new traditions:

• Our Great Pizza Cook-off. This started as a competition between Kent and Ben and now we've decided it's really just a way for us all to have great pizza. This will be our third cook-off.
• Catan Championships. Jordan, Ben and Kent played last year and are playing again this year. I think this will be a new tradition for them.
• Faux Christmas. Ben and Jen graciously put up their tree the Friday after Thanksgiving so we can help and then we open presents. Alison is old enough to know that this isn't the real Christmas celebration and still young enough to enjoy opening all the gifts.
• Pea Tasty. OK it's not really called that, it's called tea pastry but Ben couldn't say that when he was a little kid. We always had the pea tasty for Christmas breakfast and that's a tradition Ben has continued.
• Bake time with Alison. Last year Sophie and Alison made cookies together and this year they are going to make cup cakes. I think Sophie is a saint.

Did you know your adult children develop strong opinions of their own? And that you can really learn from them? Well they do and I most definitely have learned from both sons. This week, Ben told me I shouldn't use the tag "stupid things you're rather not know." He said it's demeaning about what I write and also slightly dismissive toward the people who read this blog. I've thought about it, and I'm going to stop using that tag. It will be hard but I'm going to give it a whirl.