Personal Statement – Iowa Writers’ Workshop

As we clambered over these rocks, they began tumbling into the icy cold river. I was terrified the girls would be hurt or fall in, and looked up to check they were OK. Thankfully, they were. The rocks were falling towards me, and in my maternal moment, I was unhurtable, their wellbeing all that mattered. An enormous boulder hit me in the left hip, causing one of those pains that is so sharp it feels like a scream. I thought my hip was broken and we'd have to be rescued, but my two courageous little ladies and I managed to make our way out, step by step, me limping, them having lots of fun playing in the clay. 

We have been going to these pools all the girls' lives, and have adorable pictures of them covered in gray clay over the years. A rather cross chap met us on the way out, saying it was his private property, and never to go there again. This really upset me - I'm still wondering quite why, as I'm sure in the summer we, as the whole country neighbourhood does, shall swim there. I just don't like the thought of maybe getting in trouble. Reminiscent of Ky High schooldays and the terror we would feel when we thought a teacher would catch us playing backstage. 

Ky High is in my thoughts, as I've reconnected with friends I've not seen or heard hide nor hair of since the '80s. I know this will sound silly, but I really somehow thought they were all there, still being young and high-school-ish and playing the old high school games. They're all grown up too, and real, and alive, with stories now. AND I'll be able to see them when we move to Melbourne at the end of the year!! Oooooh ... Bens' official Aussie visa came today!!!!!!! So it's just Coco's new US passport and my US citizenship (passport, eventually!) we're waiting on! (Good friends here in the USofA, be reassured, the latter shall take a while...)

It's strange, this move will be so sad, leaving dear friends, for them and for us, yet so delightful, seeing dear family and old friends, for them and for us. The ultimate ambivalence.

The girls are playing all around the house, very creatively. It's colder than being in a freezer outside. And it's supposedly the fourth day of spring!