Getting Outta Dodge

With Kyle being on stress-leave from work, thanks to an insecure and difficult boss, and Laura being finished with school, there were no real compelling reasons to hang around town anymore. We had had our court date, I had embarked on the daunting task of packing and chronicling all his possessions, it was summer and I had no job. Why not? Laura really wanted Kyle to meet the fam, and this is definitely the time of year to go north. They were able to get one of their dogs to Kyle's brothers but we needed to take the three other ones with us. I wanted to stay longer. I wanted to take two cars so they could go back home when Kyle had his next doctor's appointment. They didn't like that idea AT ALL. We talked, appointments were changed, dates blocked out, and we headed for Sonoma County. Three drivers make the trip easier, and I was the only designated backseat driver. It was a comfy drive. We let Maya, the Staffornshire terrier, out of her cage for snuggling with whoever was in the backseat. We arrived on Friday evening in time to spend a good amount of time with Mark before he left for Idaho. Beth had planned on going with him but got rehired by the Census Bureau for a third round of Count the Americans, so she had to bow out of the trip at the last minute.

I slept with Beth in the loft above Mark's office while Laura and Kyle slept in the loft in the cottage. Haley had taken to sleeping on the cottage couch, and they got along famously. We introduced Kyle to Haley as a 'different Kyle', not the one who is her cousin. For the entire time, she called him Different Kyle. He was very comfortable with her. She is so like his uncle Manny that he's not the least be phased by her. He could tune into the questions and perseverations she had and understood her need to freeze frames and look at minutiae in her videos. Having Laura and Kyle sleep together was a bit of awkward moment for me. I had told them they couldn't sleep together in Idaho but hadn't thought about it for Petaluma. Mark didn't object, but if I had remembered it for even a moment before, I would have told them they would have to sleep in separate places out of respect for Beth and Mark. I think I dodged a bullet.