16th May 2020
It’ll soon be a month since Will and I moved, and we’re still working out the kinks created by having six adults under one roof. It’s a little arduous, trying our best to figure out a way to blend different routines together. One household a sapling of three years and still learning how to be the family they want to be. The other, thirty years strong and set in its ways. Creating a new routine for all, to adapt habits to avoid a disastrous outcome, is not coming along as gracefully as we had hoped. But it’s still early, which means we have time to figure this out.
Warmer weather has made it easier for Will and I to get out more often. Our evenings after dinner are spent riding our bikes and taking long strolls around the neighbourhood, until dusk fades to night. It’s an effort to make up for what little conversation we have over dinner, and a welcomed break from a full house. We had grown used to our evenings chatting in our apartment kitchen, while dancing and cooking dinner. It’s how we enjoyed each other and made long work days palatable.
Now Will’s return home finds us sitting to an awkward and quiet dinner with the rest of the family. The only conversations playing from a show on the kitchen T.V., or an argument about something that once happened at work and union policies. There’s no room for our voices at the table. Whatever attempt Will, my brother or I make, drowned out by tension.
When I think about it, it’s odd how the introvert in the family, with a preference for peace and quiet, can’t stand silent family dinners. I could gladly eat on my own, enjoying my own company. But dinner at a full table with everyone glued to the T.V. and the ability to slip away unnoticed? I’d pass it up, if I could.
On another note, I’m hopping the weather is warmer tomorrow than the past two days. Will and I have been spending our Sundays and Mondays hiking in the local woods to make up for the closure of parks further north. Trails in Quebec will be open soon and we can’t wait to get our first mountain in for the season. Will and I are already planning what to bring for lunch at the top of our favourite trail.
Write soon.
