Turning 50

On Saturday I turned 50. It has been an incredible sprint to get here, even though I was in no hurry. Since my last posting in July, my family and myself have been through a lot of change and at a very fast pace. Let me recap it for you: when last I posted I was in the Latvian countryside enjoying a very slow and enjoyable 6 weeks. Then my wife, my dog (Capitan Spaulding) and I were driven two days with by my stepson and his girlfriend to Prague. We got Spaulding’s papers in order (from a ministry who was closed but accommodated us anyway) and flew to New York. During the flight we watched Marley and Me, which made my wife and I completely gilt ridden. IN New York we spent 5 days getting Spaulding over the flight by staying at my brother’s house. He has two German Sheppard puppies and the three dogs played and got along well. Spaulding’s healing from a drugged up flight was complete. We then packed again into a car and drove two more days to Florida, our new home. My son joined us the next day and started school the following Monday. My wife began getting her American green card paper work into place as I got our insurances and other necessary items in place. We had one and a half weeks, and then I left for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where a start-up had asked me to help out.
My wife has since gotten her green card and social security card. She has also learned to shop effectively online and is refurnishing a house that used to be a beach house into a Moroccan style villa. My mother moved back from New York to her home down the street from us. She is a valuable shopping companion to my wife, using her twenty five years of aggressive shopping in this part of Florida to teach my wife non- online shopping art forms.
My son and I visited colleges the second trip home which is when we celebrated my 50th birthday. I keep threatening him with me going back to college too. The option is very attractive to me most days. Riyadh is a very tough place to spend a significant amount of time if you are holed up in a hotel. The local social and cultural norms are pretty unsatisfying to a westerner. Perhaps Saudi Arabia will be a future blog entry, but let’s just say American college is looking very attractive.
After these past few months I can hardly believe the level of change in my life. To add more disbelief to the mix, I am half a century old. How the hell did that happen? I am pretty sure I would be in shock if I was not so busy.