Last week Huck texted me this passage from a book he loves: “I was a curious child: quick with questions and eager to learn. With acrobats and actors as my teachers, it is little wonder that I never grew to dread lessons as most children do.” It was a simple thank you love note that, as usual, made my day. Then he asked if we could watch a French film together for one of his assignments, and so Friday night many hundreds of miles apart, we three had a Watch Party of “Les Intouchables” followed by a post-movie discussion over FaceTime.

This semester without him has had its ups and downs. Troy and I have had all kinds of fun as empty nesters, often skipping sit-down dinners like a coupla teenagers who don’t have to worry about feeding their kid a proper meal. The tension of senior year stress has completely left our humble home that is now quieter and cleaner. No one’s judging our tech ineptitude or meal plans, I always get my favorite spot on the couch, and Troy’s got his car back that only slightly still smells of old Starbucks drinks.

But I’ve had two terrible colds and a mysterious, intermittent pain in my lower right side when I walk, which led me to the doctor followed by two specialists. After three urine samples, two ultrasounds, and a CT scan, my organs have been declared perfectly healthy and my HSA account depleted. We think it may be a strained psoas muscle after all. Meanwhile Troy’s seen the podiatrist twice and has good ankle days and bad ankle days, which thankfully hasn’t stopped us from taking glorious fall walks. His regular swims at the Center for Exercise mostly used by senior citizens and my recent visit to the Ozark Urology waiting room have done a lot to make us feel very, very young. Maybe not acrobat-young, but still.

Huck will stay in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving along with many other CMU students, enjoying a break from classes and a special dinner with his theatre friends, who are “his people.” Meanwhile these ol’ parents  will keep doing their stretches and counting down the days till he returns home to Fayetteville for a month of car sharing, family meals, and TV watching in the same room.