Addendum

I know it's hard to imagine that I would have left anything out of my last post but I left out three things.

One is that when the girls and I boarded the flight from Dallas to New York, our seats were in a ROW but not together. As much as I thought about being the one on the other side of the aisle (Just kidding. Really.) (Mostly.) we asked the guy sitting in the window seat if he would mind very much giving up his window seat so that we could all sit together. He was so nice about it, got up, moved all of his stuff and then he slept the entire time on the airplane. We're talking eight hours of sleep. I'm sure it would have been more restful for him to have done that away from the aisle but he never said a word. Isn't that nice? He was SO nice about it that and it was such a non-issue that I forgot to thank him again as we were deplaning.

Then, at one point after we'd been sitting FOREVER and then flying, the flight attendant came by and said how sorry she was that we were having this experience on the flight. She asked if we were on vacation and when I told her we were moving to New York, she said, "Oh. My. Well, I'm from Wisconsin and people up here take some getting used to..." She looked a little worried for me.

From then on, we were BFF. She was so attentive and nice and funny. After the movie when we were still trying to find ways to be excited about this airplane thing (going into our sixth hour on the plane or something), I bought the girls big cookies --$6.00. The attendant said, "Wow, are you sure you want TWO? They're really big." I said, "I know but we haven't had anything since this morning and they've been such good sports."

She said, "What can I get for you?"

I joked, "I'd like a rum and coke the size of Brazil!"

She said, "Oh, me, too!"

I said, "Hey, sit on down!"

She said, "I can't now, but man, after this day at work, as soon as I get home, I know what's on the menu!"

We laughed.

A little while later, she came by with a tiny bottle of rum and a coke for me. "I wanted to be the first one to buy you a drink as a New Yorker. Welcome to New York."

I didn't drink it, which proved fortuitous later when the turbulence got really bad. But I still have it --a little talisman of the kindness of people.

Tiffany will roll her eyes at me here but I gotta say it: most people are solid and good in their instincts for comfort and friendship, even of strangers. I honestly think we just don't act on those instincts enough.

So, then we got home and one set of neighbors had tied a bunch of balloons to our front door that said, "Welcome home!" and the girls ran over to meet the next door neighbors (they have kids the same age although the youngest is a boy) and they had made "Welcome to the Neighborhood!" posters and had little presents for the girls. The next day, ANOTHER set of neighbors (three girls, two the same age and one little one) came by with flowers and a gift certificate for a local take-out place.

Honestly, I felt like crying. I think my biggest fear was that we wouldn't find other families to make friends with here--our old street was so full of good friends. I'm really relieved. Also, very relieved that they've now seen me looking SO bad that any time they see me from here on out will be a vast improvement.
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Two of my good friends, hokgardner and my friend and neighbor Erin lost their beloved grandmothers recently. I just wanted to tell them how sorry I am that I can't be there to give them comfort in person. Love you guys.

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Still no Edward. But I'm not giving up hope.