I had a dream

I think a dream started this entire business. You know, the American Dream of the house, the family, the pet. Then there is that word of advise," Be careful what you wish for".

Well, I got my house, but without my family. Yes , my husband is still with me. We have been married for 33 years. Geez, I can't believe that those number belong to me. My son has recently married, this past April, on the sunniest day New York had to offer I think for the entire year and probably the hottest too. The temperature 85 degrees that day. But alas, he is in New York and I am here in beautiful, sunny southeast Florida. Many people that have been living here call this 'Paradise'. I can understand all the visual reasons. Swaying palm trees are everywhere, grass is always green and manicured. Every day is sunny-even when it is rainy!

My transition hasn't been a gentle one. Many women that I have spoken to over the last few months that I have been living her are also, like myself, transplanted from the northeast. Some are from Chicago, there is a big chunk from Canada, but the bulk of the transplants the I have encountered are from Long Island and the Tri-state area. Living in a suburban area means one thing. You are not in the city! This is part of my transition issue. Even though I lived in a fairly suburban area in NY- Fresh Meadows ,Queens- I was a hop skip and a jump away from THE CITY. How could I not miss NYC.? I worked in the most posh department store on Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman. I hob nobbed with famous people every other day- so many, I lost track of the names of them all. As I walked through the store, happiness and confidence oozing from every pore, I would greet all my friends and co-workers with comfortable conversation. It was just a very happy place for me. My clients trusted me, my company that I worked for for 8 years respected me, my bosses treated me humanely and I loved the product that I sold-sounds like a dream job. Well, except for the usual pressure of every job, it was a perfect culmination of a career in cosmetics since 1984. I vowed that I would work there until it was time for me to retire which I figured was when I was 62 and then take Social Security.

And then it happened. My husband announced that with the falling real estate market we could afford to buy a house in Florida. We had been looking to buy a house somewhere in the country for at least 8 years. My opera major turned cosmetics business manager friend would say wher are you looking this time? We looked at Albuquerque, New Mexico. No good. As my husband put it ,"Too much beige". Yes, Albuquerque is a dessert, but as long as there was some sort of plant life , I could learn to like anything. I am a plant fanatic. I even put edible flowers in my salads.

I kind of fell in love with the mud huts, as the natives call the house structures of adobe . We had a fabulous real estate agent. There was one funnyish incident that actually was a kind of scary introduction to the Wild West. While driving around to look at properties, we spotted a man and woman running around a big blue Chevy or something like that, while screaming at each other. The woman was holding on to the car, half hiding behind it, and the guy was waving a GUN! OMG! The real estate agent apologized profusely saying that this was not the usual way of Albuquerque. This was just the beginning of our trip.