Defcon 1

Well, I told my parents. My father first, that was hard but, easy compared to my mother. I told my father a week before Easter and he suggested that I shouldn't tell my mom until after Easter, good suggestion.

Monday - April 17th
So Easter comes and goes and now I have no excuses. So I muster up my courage and make the phone call. Okay, I can hear some of you saying, "You did it over the phone?", Yes! I did it over the phone, that was hard enough. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Mom, I was offered a new job in Shanghai! "
Mom : "Oh No!"
Me: "It's an incredible opportunity."
Mom: "Oh No!"
Me: "I can't begin to tell you how much Matthew, Susan and I will get out of it. Matthew will gain this wonderful life experience and Susan and I will be able to include the living and working in China on our resumes which will leapfrog our careers."
Mom: "Oh No!"
Me: "Okay then, bye Mom."
Mom: "Oh No!" Click.

"That went well", I thought to myself, looking for a broken bottle or some sharp object to cut my wrists with. Well, I figured that I would give it some time and she will come around. Yeah, that's it, time cures everything.

Saturday - April 22nd
My father is supposed to come over to help me install some molding around the garage door. I call him up in the morning and said "Hi Dad, are you still coming over to help me out and oh, and is Mom coming?" (I think my heart actually stopped at this point waiting for the answer). He says, "Yeah, we'll be there at ten." Boy, I was worried about nothing. I knew she'd come around and realize what a great opportunity this is.

Saturday, 10:00 AM
Ding Dong, the doorbell rings. I open the door and whack, she punched me. PUNCHED ME! What the hell. Then I see the tears and the nose blowing and the dramatic performance that was worthy of an academy award....(and the winner for most dramatic entrance goes to .... ). Well, needless to say, all hell broke loose. My mother is crying, Matthew is crying, I started yelling "You punched me!". Susan ran away somewhere and my father starts fixing the molding around the door. What insanity!

To make a long story short, after lots of yelling and crying and hammering, things got better. I showed them pictures of the new apartment and Matthew's school and by the end of the day, we were planning our vacations together. You know, sometime you have to break the wall down to build it up stronger .... or sometimes, things just seem to work out.

The Last Ride

Tony sold his motorcycle today and it was very sad. The dealer called and asked that he bring the bike into the shop so it can be inspected. It was a beautiful Spring day and he took a leisurely ride over to the dealer. The dealer took the bike for a test drive, came back and handed the license plates over to Tony. Tony didn't expect the bike to go that same day. It turned out to be his last ride on his bike. Everything seems so surreal right now. I am overwhelmed by what needs to be done. The movers have called to set up an appointment to assess what's going into storage and what's being shipped in the containers. I realize that some essentials will need to get shipped over to our new home in China so Tony would have part of a home up and running until Matthew and I arrive. Problem is, we don't have a signed lease yet and we don't have a residence permit. Which means, we can't send anything until the residence permit is issued and we know where we're living for sure. We're working with the real estate agent to secure the apartment that we all loved and are waiting to hear about our offer. On top of that, we're still trying to figure out what we're doing with our home in Connecticut. Are we going to rent it out or are we going to sell it? A part of me wants to keep the house- it's MY house. We've done some great renovations to it and I want to keep it. The market has softened in the New England area and it is something for me to come home to once this assignment is over. Tony is leaning towards selling the house. He's worried about tenants destroying what we've so painstaking taken care of. There are pros and cons to each. We have a conference call scheduled with the accountants who will be responsible for preparing our tax returns once we move out to China. The only thing we know for sure at this time is Matthew was accepted at the Shanghai American School in Pudong through early admission. He will start school on August 16.