Winner!

The day my dad arrived at our house for a visit with his grandkids, he would start lamenting the fact that he would have to leave. Obviously, that’s another gene that he passed down to me. I have two weeks left in AZ before I head back home to WI. Two weeks is often a full vacation for some visitors to the desert. Not me. I’ve been here since the end of January, but I’m already feeling sad that I will soon have to pack up and fly home.

I have a comfortable routine staying at my brother and sister-in-law’s home here in AZ: sunny morning walks, yoga and exercise classes at a nearby country club, teaching my weekly class at the local community college, browsing the mall, hanging out at Barnes and Noble, cooking Sunday dinners for my oldest son and family, watching TV with my sister-in-law in the evenings, laughing with my brother. All of this without having to worry about planning dinner or cleaning the house. Not a bad way to spend the winter.

This may be my last winter for this idyllic respite. My brother and sister-in-law’s youngest son and his girlfriend are returning home from Oregon in October. They will move in to my brother and sister-in-law’s house while she completes her rotations in pharmacy grad school. The house will be pretty full. So, I’ve been playing the lottery hoping to win just enough to buy a little winter house here. I’ve already selected a neighborhood close to my family and mentally redecorated a house. I have a vivid imagination, childlike hope, but obviously, Fate has other plans.

I’ll savor the remaining two weeks here and start looking forward to the reunion with my northern family and friends, a return to my own home that I love and the opportunity to watch a Midwest Spring unfold. And, I may just continue to buy those lottery tickets.