Jules Comes For a Visit

My dear friend Julie drove down from Chicago to visit and help me figure out the move. We had good day of shopping in Louisville the first day. We talked alot about how I felt about being in Kentucky and if I could see myself here. I thought I could. But I've been here for a week and Deborah hasn't really talked about my moving here yet. I kept bringing up some aspect of moving here and the conversation would just flop around on the floor and die a quick death. Something wasn't right. We both felt that she really does want me to move here but something was troubling her about it. Deborah absolutely loves Julie and I knew Julie would be able to get it out of her. Julie and I have an exercise we do called 'going to the board' when we need to work out a problem. I had told Deborah we would be doing this and she was interested in joining in. Basically, we talk through a situation throwing out all angles writing them down. So, I went to the board with the move. Why did I want to move? Why now? Why Frankfort? Why leave Portland? If not Frankfort - where? That sort of thing. Originally, when I had talked to Deborah about moving to Kentucky I talked about living with her in Frankfort. She has a large home with lots of acreage. My thinking was that we could support each other financially and emotionally. As we went to the board about it it became clear that Deborah really does want me to live here just not with her. Ok - now we are getting somewhere. I don't know how long it would have taken to get that information without Julie. It was a big relief and gave me a new direction to go. I got me to thinking if the move would still be meaningful if I wasn't living with Deborah. Could we still have a support network? I decided we could.