It's Michigan out there, but it's Kentucky in our hearts.

Note from 12.28.19

I've been dreading posting this final entry for fear of coming across as a complaining, Michigan-hating whiner (which is mostly accurate), but a surprising number of people --and not just people related to me-- have asked when the next post is coming out. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement as I document this weird, fun 11 months in Louisville. I wrote the blog primarily for me, but I'm glad it's been enjoyed by other people too.

August 8 - September 30 (and a bonus summary to wrap it all up)

The Facts
The last several months have gone by unbelievably fast. While in Louisville, I kept excellent records of places we went and thoughts I had in a note app on my phone. Mid-August meant starting to plan for our next step (our default plan): returning to Michigan. Finding an apartment, putting in my notice at work, starting to repack, and rushing through the rest of our Kentucky bucket list took up a lot of my detailed note taking time. Here's what I remember.

Sometime in August, I mentioned to one of my coworkers that my time in Louisville was going to be ending soon, but I didn't realize one of the residents overheard me. Generally, this wouldn't matter due to the inherent memory issues, but this particular resident latched onto a portion of the information and for the last couple weeks of work, I was in a "'Aren't you leaving?' 'Yes, but not until mid-September.'" loop that would disrupt meal time and reveal my intent to leave to residents' family members before I had a chance to tell them directly. I should have known better. 😅

Places we tried in August and September

• Safai Coffee - This was pretty good. They had a fun selection of books you could read while enjoying your coffee.
• Day's Espresso and Coffee - We wish we didn't wait so long to try this place. It most likely would've become our most visited coffee shop.
• Graeter's - I think I would have liked it more if I didn't feel like I had to try something unique.
• Himalayan Restaurant - We frequently have a hankering for Indian cuisine and this was satisfactory.
• Patel Brothers - Got some Indian snacks.
• Shalimar - See previous two bullet points. This one we found by accident since it was right next to the Patel Brothers grocery store. Of course, we had to go in and try it after shopping. We liked it better than Himalayan.
• Ollie's Trolley - Good burger. Joey didn't get to try it. Sorry.
• Highland Morning - Another place I wish we tried earlier... to get it out of the way. After feasting on Wild Eggs for brunch so often, nothing could compare. 
• Recbar - This is where I enjoyed a last hurrah with some of my coworkers.

Some of my Atria family at Recbar

Banana ice cream with a pretzel cone

We went to Wild Eggs so many times in the week before we left that I almost got tired of it. Looking back, I regret not squeezing it in just one more time. And you can bet your bottom that if I ever get a long weekend off, we're going to Wild Eggs.

Throughout September, we made a couple weekend trips to Michigan in an effort to gradually move our stuff up from Louisville, out of the Michigan storage unit, and into the new apartment. Each trip was emotional because 1) the end of anything is emotional and 2) we experienced downriver culture shock each time. Our final trip was especially emotional... and not just because it took us approximately EIGHTEEN hours.

This is what the last few days in Louisville looked like-
Wednesday- drive up to Michigan (separate cars)
Thursday- drive back to Kentucky (one car)
Friday- keep packing and get ready for wedding in Cincinnati
Saturday- go to Cincinnati for wedding & return to Louisville
Sunday- finish packing, eat at Wild Eggs, drive to Michigan, swap cars, drive back to Kentucky
Monday- finish emptying apartment, make room in the car for the cat, drop off apartment keys, drive back to Michigan, sleep

We underestimated how much stuff we had to move back on our last trip up, but because of various deadlines and limited vehicles, the only option was to the make the trip twice by driving through the night. Basically, we left Kentucky at 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon, got to Michigan around 10:30 pm, swapped vehicles and drove back to Kentucky. We arrived there around 4:00 am, got the cat and the rest of our things and pulled into our apartment parking lot around 9:30 am Monday. Thankfully, we were united in our stress and despair so what could have been the worst 18 hours ever were just long and a little sad.

The Feelings
*sigh* It's complicated.

Look at how cute Iris and Joey are.

The Requests
I don't know.

I guess... pray that our marriage continues on the trajectory it started while we were in Louisville. I think in a previous post I alluded that it's hard not to associate all the difficulties of our first 5 years of marriage with Michigan. Like the stress of that last car journey, we're hoping our looming despair will unite us instead of tear us apart. Seriously, the year away did us good and I pray that we keep growing closer and getting better at conflict resolution and expressing expectations now that life is returning to "normal."

Joey's doctor stuff ended up pretty good and after months of arguing with the insurance company, they covered it like they were supposed to. Now, we've got to find a new doctor for him (yup, even though we're back in the same geographic location we started in) since gastroenterologists don't ever seem to stay in the field. Joey's had 4 since moving away from his Ohio doctors.

Even though it meant very busy days for Joey, I'm thankful we had this Kentucky opportunity.

A word from Joey: "Burned out."

Where We Are Now (as of November 2019)
Believe it or not, I consciously tried not to make this a "Michigan is the worst and we wish we never returned" but that pretty much sums it up. It feels so far away now... kinda like it never even happened. We both miss it more than we realized. We both liked our life there more than we realized. And our attitudes upon returning were not great. As you might imagine.

There are some benefits to being back though.We were able to get back to our usual meet-in-the-middle Thanksgiving arrangement. It was fantastic to have the whole group together again.

This is from the day after Thanksgiving and doesn't reflect the entire Thanksgiving gang. It's a nice picture though, right?

It's been good for us to be back with our church people too. There was a week early in our return that we spent nearly every night with a family from Grace and it was exhausting but terribly needed.

I ended up transferring to an Atria out here. Unfortunately, the one closest to us doesn't offer memory care, so I'm working in assisted living. I'm starting to form relationships with the residents now after having been there a couple months, but I really really really miss my Life Guidance residents, families, and coworkers in Louisville.

Also, we love our new apartment. So that's nice.

I guess that's it. That time we lived in Louisville is officially in the past.