Intervention

There was a brief intervention at the Tampa IKEA today.

It began in the café over a plate of their apple glazed salmon and a side of macaroni and cheese – my absolute favorite cafeteria food ever. Peach crisp comes in a close, close second, but they don’t serve that at IKEA.

My mother had driven over to return Boy from dropping off his truck with my uncle who’s going to sell it at auction. Since she’ll be living in a rental while she oversees the building of the house in Vermont, she wanted to check out IKEA for cheap furnishings for the place she’s renting in town.

So, she began slowly, “Paige, I want to talk with you about leaving your job and going to school fulltime.”

“O-kay,” I said between bites of mac-n-cheese. It was a really, really big side order, so I was trying to pace myself. I was thinking that it was a good thing I’d gone to yoga that morning and could control my breathing to allow myself to take more in than my stomach could possibly hold.

“You’re going through a period of transition right now, and I think that because of that, you’re making a lot of decisions that you don’t necessarily need to make right now.”

“I know,” I acknowledged. “I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. There are all these options right now.”

“And that's a good thing. I'm just saying that you should just take a step back and change one thing at a time, instead of trying to make all these changes at once. You’re in a really good place in your life. Stop trying to rush it.”


By the time we’d gotten through the kitchen displays and into textiles, I’d realized she was right. Now probably isn’t the time to be turning my world upside down. Especially not when I'm so easily swayed. Carrie had brought up the same points only the day before, but it’s a bit harder to stage an intervention over the phone.

It’s just that I’m the kind of person who needs a plan. I can handle anything life throws at me, as long as I can work out a plan to deal with it. I think I just need to pace myself with these changes, and I guess that’ll be my new plan.


I told Lily about my new plan when she came over to help me unbutton my pants. I’d given myself a French manicure and realized too late that I had to pee. Now that’s a good friend. Not a lot of neighbors will drop what they’re doing to help you pee.

Lily’s daughter just went off to college last weekend, so we’re kind of in the same place right now. And she’s also in a flurry of change. Everything from cleaning out her closet to applying for a more challenging job.

Lily nodded while I outlined the pros and cons of my situation. And then she hiked up my jeans and headed home to start her laundry so she could come back over later to watch a movie with me. I walked Dog and fixed a nail that got messed up despite how careful I’d tried to be.

You know, these life changes will screw with you. I’m so lucky that I have friends and family to help guide me through.

I mean right now I can’t even work out on my own that I should probably pee before I do my nails.

So, Lily will come over. I'll make her watch "Eastern Promises" on HBO with me, because Viggo Mortensen is so, so hot in it, even with the tattoos. And I'll fall asleep halfway into the movie, while I sit next to her on the couch stomach still full of cafeteria mac-n-cheese, and dream about what I'm going to do with all these possibilities.