Domestically Challenged

For those of you who know me well, you’re probably thinking, “What? Baby crazed mommy wanna-be Kate, who enjoys, baking, sewing, laundry and canoodling children, how could you be domestically challenged?” And on the surface, I know this is all very true. I just spent a year up to my ears in Asian babies so precious, so amazing and so cute, I wanted to eat them like some kind of demented hamster. I also spent this past year day dreaming about what bliss my life back at home in the arms of the love of my life, creating a home together, would be like. I’ll admit I was craigslisting apartments months in advance, even online shopping for new duvet covers and beside lamps. I couldn’t wait for a more balanced, scheduled and ‘normal’ life to begin. So how could I, be domestically challenged?

Well, at some point in the past year, normal became this weird life in Asia, setting off on adventures to unknown towns and cities throughout Taiwan each weekend. A normal Saturday wasn’t a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond, but to a new beach, mountain, pottery village or restaurant I heard of that served something utterly and visually appalling yet, delicious. Don’t get me wrong, this life was exhausting, teaching all day until late at night, all week long and even waking up each and every Saturday morning to teach bored, overworked and lethargic teenagers at 9am. I’d never been in such a prolonged state of weariness, or phlegminess for that matter, in my life before. But adventures were to be had at every new twist and turn. Hong Kong, Thailand, just a hop, skip and jump away. And then, before I knew it, I was crying tears goodbye, crying tears of excitement to come home and after 20 hours of flying, I was here in NY just where I left, just as I left it. Even my old bar of pink soap, still in the shower, shrunk quite a bit, but there just as I left it a year ago.

So now I’m where I wanted to be, I’m somewhere that feels like home again and life is catching up to me quickly. Each weekend is a friend's wedding or shower and I’ve come to a new realization: I’m old. It only took two weeks of scanning through craigslist to find Mike and myself our dream apartment and upon securing it, it only took me five minutes to begin googling high thread count sheets on overstock. Suddenly its not daydreaming anymore, but reality.

Then this past weekend, I experienced a friend’s bridal shower as though it was a glimpse into my own future. As I watched her smile time and time again for a million photos of her opening house wares and as the crowd of ladies oohed and ahhed at the stunning stainless steel colander and white serving platters, I began to freak.

Long gone are the days of getting lost in a foreign land, long gone is my life in Taiwan that was a mere blip in retrospect. Long gone are the Asian babies of the past and before I know it, it’ll be the ¼ Asian, ¼ Puerto Rican, ½ German, Irish, Greek baby mutts of the future. Life is coming at me like a rabbit caught on fire and I can’t do anything to stop it. I can’t rewind. I can’t pause. I can’t re-do or re-live any of it. I can only take a deep breath, eat some ginseng to enhance my ridiculously poor memory, and hold on tight.

Are place settings and new furniture shopping the end of the world as I know it? In many ways, they are. Is it the end of the world though? I suppose really, it is just the beginning. So maybe I’ll take a break from exploring the world for a bit. I’ll settle down and grow up and become a responsible, domesticated, adult with a 401K and a wardrobe not covered in children’s paint and marker stains. Maybe I won’t be off having adventures in languages I hardly understand or eating local delicacies that some deem unsanitary, but at least I’ll be sleeping in some nice sheets, oh yes, and I’ll be sleeping next to the one person that has always made home feel like home.