I share an office with two other psychologists. There are two therapy rooms. For 8 years, my friend Jennie and I have shared one of the two rooms and our friend, Steve, who sees more patients, has used the other office. Steve has been planning to move to Hawaii for over two years now. He kept telling us that it was happening. Moving a business to another state is no small feat. There are the logistics of moving that everyone deals with plus there’s the drop in income that starts one stops taking new patients in the months leading up to the move, not to mention that a private practice doesn’t instantly fill the day you hang your shingle out.

Jennie and I had made plans awhile back to use both offices instead of continuing to share and finding someone to lease Steve’s office. We decided that I would move to Steve’s office after he left. He told me he was planning to move in May awhile ago, but I’d heard other move dates and with my surgery coming up, I just focused on other things because it was too stressful to think about painting and furnishing an office.

Steve’s leaving this time. I mean he’s really leaving. He’s got his plane ticket. He took out most of his furniture last weekend. And since he was in the office before us, it also means that he took most of the waiting room furniture, too.

So now that my energy is coming back and I am not yet back in the office, I have been doing a frenzy of furniture shopping! Yesterday, I let the day get away from me and didn’t do my morning walk. It was raining and the weather was supposed to improve. Not to worry, though, I managed to put in 2 1/2 miles shopping in IKEA followed by Costco. 1 1/2 miles was done just in IKEA due to my indecision (I kept walking back to the showroom to look at things), poor sense of direction (I got lost at one point between the Swedish meatballs and the kitchen accessories section), and the long walk from the parking lot!

I guess this gives me a little distraction from my stress about starting work next Monday not to mention the fact that I’m sad that Steve is moving. He’s a wonderful person and excellent psychologist. I am so happy for him, though. Steve and his wife, Shirley have been living apart for nearly two years. Shirley is Hawaiian and after she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer two years ago, she moved there to find a job and be with their daughter and grandchildren, while Steve got things squared away here. Although I envy his frequent trips to Hawaii I don’t envy their long distance marriage and I know they are so looking forward to their lives together in the tropics!