I have concluded that Changes move in packs. This is based not only on my own life, but on my observations of my friends. For instance, one estimable lady of my acquaintance broke up with her boyfriend of 4 years, moved to a new apartment (note she wasn’t living with him), got a new haircut, got a new job, and changed her legal name in the space of approximately two weeks. More recently, my sister closed on a house and got engaged on the same day, which was her birthday. And now here am I, taking possession of a house November 1 and a job November 5. As my friends and my imaginary floating wiser me have remarked, I better not get pregnant.

Perhaps these flocks of changes do not always alight where they are welcome—but I am glad, excited, frightened, and generally rejoicing. In a way the very fury of the pace is part of exhilaration of the change. I keep saying, “I’m so busy! I’m so busy!” but it is more a chant of celebration than a plaint.