leaving chicago....

the last few days in chicago were a mixture of enjoyment and sadness, as i expected. it was wonderful to spend time with my family, and we appreciated staying with them for the days before the move (and a special thanks to jonathan for giving up his room to us, and letting kate borrow the space under his bed as her hiding spot for four days), and had a wonderful dinner on monday night with mark's family.



where it really started to get difficult was just before we went to bed on monday night. jonathan was leaving for the airport to pick up his girlfriend, and came to give us hugs goodbye. my eyes started to tear, and the sadness settled in as i finished packing our things. i definitely cried myself to sleep that night.

tuesday morning was a disaster. we were up early, and one of the first things on the agenda was giving kate a sedative for the journey ahead. let me just say, the neither of us has ever sedated a cat, and we debated not doing so, given her calmness over the previous 4 days. that morning, however, she decided that she was finally comfortable with my parents house, and let me on a chase her up the basement stairs, across the house, back down, and then up again as we tried to get her into her carrier. we pretty much knew what had to be done.

10 minutes after fighting with her to take 3/4 of a tiny pill (which was supposed to take 1-2 hours to take effect), she was stumbling around and could barely stand. mark picked her up, and she started to go limp in his arms. i asked to hold her, and immediately started crying as she lay virtually lifeless in my arms. if anyone has ever experienced putting a pet to sleep, you'll understand what i mean when i say that it felt like we were loosing her. i'm sure it was a perfectly normal response to the medicine, but having never administered it before, i thought we had just killed our kitty.

i was just getting over hysterical by 6:45am when melissa and steven stopped by say good-bye, and i honestly believe that composures were kept in an effort to help calm me down. thanks to each of you for being strong for me.

saying goodbye to brandon, shruti, daniel and especially my parents as we got into melissa's car for the airport was painful, but the hugs were wonderful and warm. we tried to hold back more tears, which didn't always work. i miss all of you, already.

brave little kate, nice and calm after the flight

its hard to believe that it has been a whole week since we got on the plane for california. right now, we're just a bit tired of looking at boxes, but are settling in to our new surroundings pretty well. more move stories to follow.....