Ridgecrest, How I Love Thee!

As we stood outside our Ridgecrest church house, Nate’s arms around me, trying to console my tears I said, “I hope you know how much I love you.  If I didn’t love you more than anything, I could never leave here.”  That was my declaration to him.  He sighed and said, “I know.”  It was hard.

The next day, we pulled up our well established roots, packed up and moved across the country to Durham, NC.  I admit, I left in tears as we pulled away from the Kimblers’ curb and waved to Rachel and her, then small family.  My shoulders shook and audible sobs left my mouth while tears fell down my cheek.  We got about a block when we realized we left Abby’s booster  seat… so I tried to wipe my eyes already red and swollen so that my friend wouldn’t see how much this was hurting.  We got the seat, gave hugs again and sped off.  So much for my graceful exit.

“I will never have friends like I made here again,” were some of my thoughts.  “I hope we are doing the right thing,” were some others. 

Living in Durham was better than I expected.  I did make some good friends there too, enjoyed our ward there, and we accidentally planted roots again.  I say accidentally because we knew we would only be there 3 years.  We did not plan to get attached.  Of course, who can’t get attached to the beauty of the South.  The green, green, green trees, southern hospitality, and great friends who become like your family… you can’t help but fall in love with NC and the people there.

The time came, and we pulled up roots again, packed up again, and moved across the country again to Salt Lake City, UT.  Again there were tears, goodbyes, and promises to keep in touch.  These are promises I hope to keep.  The girls are affected even more by this move because Abby’s memory is forming and all Iris knows is her “yellow house” and all the friends who live there.  Moving is hard.

It was 3 years and 4 months since we left our little desert paradise, and we wanted to go back to say “Hello”!  Let me just tell you that I wasn’t expecting how hard it was to go back.  I knew I missed my little house, my friends, my ward, the parks etc.  But I didn’t realize how much I missed it until we got back.   But it kind of feels good to miss it, because it means I’ll want to go back.

We have LOTS of friends in Ridgecrest.  So many that it seemed like a good idea to have everyone meet us somewhere instead of trying to drive around visiting everyone.  We met at one of my favorite parks for a Bring Your Own Picnic.  I can’t believe how big Abby’s little friends are now!  Big like her!  But with my friends, it’s like we picked up where we left off!  Facebook has helped… since we keep in touch that way.  Blogs have helped too.   But there’s something about a face to face visit!  I felt so loved and important, I just hope that my friends realized how important they are to me too!  Tears again, while I type this.

It was a short trip.  We arrived Friday afternoon, had dinner at La Fiesta with our hosts The Kimblers, whose small family of four has become a bigger family of six.  Saturday it was the park picnic, a few visits around town, dinner at China Lake Buffet (thanks for putting up with me) with the Kimblers and Peters.  Then a rental movie.  Sunday we got up early and headed back home.  So quick, so sweet, so good!

If you want to know what going back to Ridgecrest after over three years felt like, imagine having an itch in the middle of your back that you just can’t scratch.  You rub up and down on a tree but just can’t get it.  You ask someone else to scratch it, but the directions are all wrong.  You start living with the itch because there is nothing else to do.  You get distracted with this or that and sometimes even forget you have an itch at all.  Then one day, you see the sweetest invention for self indulgence hanging on the wall.  It is 2 ½ feet long with a claw shaped hook on the end.  You start to feel that familiar, uncomfortable itch in the middle of your back, you grab that tool and begin to move it up and down your back, under your shirt and sigh in satisfaction.  Then you have another itch a little to the left, then to the right, a little higher, lower and pretty soon you are scratching your back with a huge grin realizing there isn’t much in life that gives you this much pleasure.  Well, that’s what it was like for me.  And now, I have a Durham itch and a new, blossoming Ridgecrest itch.  But with all the love those itches represent, I can live with that!