Michigan...and Modern Family. Doesn't really make sense, does it? Let me explain.
While we're waiting for school to be over (and for the rest of the family to move with me), I've been spending three weeks in Michigan working in the office and then one week working from home in Florida. Living in a hotel, renting a car, not very fun. And missing my family. A lot. But, the coolest thing has happened.
My wife and I have started watching the show Modern Family "together".
See, I have been hearing amazing things about the show and just have never had the time to catch up...until now. Having three or four hours to kill in a hotel room each night gives you all kinds of time to do these sorts of things. So, I was able to download the first two seasons of the show and began watching. And then, after telling my wife all about it...we ended up watching them, well, together. Each of us starting the show at the same time on our laptops and then texting, laughing and rehashing things as they happened.
It's been...magical. It seems that life is done differently from 1200 miles away. Car rides to school become the one time during the day when I can goof off with my kids on the phone and talk about what happened the day before and the day coming up. Nights are filled with text laughs while watching the same show at the same time with the same girl. It's a routine and it's probably as close to normal as we can get for the time being.
And it just works. We keep saying that this is the great Long adventure and that we can't wait to begin this new chapter of our life. What I now realize is that we're already doing it. It's different and sometimes difficult and never cheap. But, it's part of the journey that's already happening and modern technology makes it all possible to remain so connected, even while sitting "alone" in a hotel room watching TV episodes on my laptop. Or playing Draw Something with my very dearest friends and family. Or sharing the ride to school together with my boys laughing and being ridiculous and feeling missed and loved and so blessed.
Yep, I'm in Michigan. 1200 miles away from my family and friends. But still so very close to each of you. This is part of being a modern family...and enjoying Modern Family. So we're almost done with season 2 and I'm working on getting season 3 ready to go. After that, well, we should be just about ready to settle for simply watching TV together in the same state in the same city in the same house and on the same couch, no more than two feet from each other. And that sounds like my kind of adventure.
