It’s already Wednesday? How did that happen? This week feels weird. I think it is my brother-in-law’s impending departure from Florida and our lives (for a while). As mentioned before, he was living in Ohio for college and then decided he’d move down here to be near us while little Elliot grows up. In not so many words he and Ash had a sort of pact that they’d live in the same city and our families could grow up together (when/if he ever settled and had children). And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he decided that he has always wanted to live in Chicago. Is it no small coincidence that his newest girlfriend is attending Loyola in the Fall? Sigh. When he moved down here, his then g/f had just moved back in with her parents just three hours South of us. And yet, on the day before his drive to Tallahassee, he broke up with her. No wonder their dad thinks he has committment issues. (Don’t all most men?)

So there’s an air of sadness and disappointment floating around our house this week as BIL packs his bags, does final laundry and cleaning. He has taken the house key off his keychain and placed it on the kitchen counter. Small items he has borrowed are finding their way back to desks, laundry baskets, and shelves. He bought his dog a new, sturdier collar, cleaned out his storage area, and paid all his outstanding debts. Things feel very final. I keep thinking about getting in that room and reclaiming the space, making it nice and clean. But I am overwhelmed with guilt if I express this out loud, because I know it’s hurting my husband inside to see his best friend – one of the few people who mean the world to him – (in his words) scumbagging us. This feeling will only calm with time; time can heal all wounds, they say.

Meanwhile, work is busy and I am doing last minute preparations for the incoming graduate students. I have to come up with a list of the most pertinent information because every summer I go into the class and talk to them but, inevitably, they forget everything I say. It happens; I know they’re being inundated with information.

For your viewing pleasure, a comic from a site I read daily but seldom actually “get”. Today, it makes sense.