Unknown

Have you ever heard that phrase, "the silence was deafening"? Well its a cliche for a reason: its true.

Before bed I turn on two fans just so I can get to sleep. Its not that I cant stand to be alone with my thoughts; that I actually like. It's that we aren't living a couple blocks from the 85 anymore, but in the mountains where Jon and I did a lot of growing up. The loudest noise I can hear right now is the adorable peeping of about 30 less-than-a-week-old chicks that my Mom hatched from her own chickens out in the barn. I can go right out the front door and see nothing but grass and trees. And one sad yellow tulip among a sea of red tulips. I can go out the back door, and see mountains that sprawl out into the distance. At night, the air is so clean, that I can see more stars than I can count. Where we used to live, I sometimes forgot there were even stars to look for.

But I'm really a cloud gathering for the storm. It's quiet now because the sky is still blue, the air is still warm. But the wind will blow steadily stronger, and I will become lost in the squall. Just one more cloud in a sky of clouds. A faceless stranger in a new world. I know I will eventually turn back to this chapter of our story and exclaim,

"How Brave!"
or maybe "How Reckless!"
or even "What Were We Thinking?" 
Ill have to remind myself then, that right now all I'm thinking is, "Hurry Up!"

God has gifted me these quiet few weeks on purpose. So I embrace this interval. I am thankful for the eye of the storm, but am also thankful for the storm. Among all the red tulips, there is a single yellow one. But it doesn't look lonely anymore. I think it looks satisfied.

Wait, should I be scared?

What did you do today? I spent most of my Saturday in the company of Futurama Season 2, and a roll of duct tape. And all these strangers kept interrupting me! I didn't mind though, they all came with money and a car to haul away things like my dressers, cabinets, and shelves. Thanks Craigslist! I pulled what i could into the front "porch" area. I say "porch" because it's a term that also means "community laundry room/mailbox/carport" area.

Anyway, it's not that Im ashamed of people seeing my living space in such disarray, full of newly unearthed dust bunnies and a really fun cardboard box maze. It's my mostly groundless paranoia that the person on the other end of the computer is actually my secret stalker who is using the opportunity to "buy a couch" to get inside my house and kill me. I say mostly groundless because crap like that happens to people. Especially to those poor fools in the first five minutes of Law & Order.

Am i putting myself in danger by giving my address to someone who could be anyone? Maybe. Will that stop me from making over $200 in two days? Hasn't yet. All it's cost me so far is a bit of stress, and time out of my day to meet perfectly nice people who are probably as equally scared that I'm a serial killer luring innocents into my house with the promise of a cheap lamp. So far so good!

Jon spent his Saturday in Aptos surfing. Lucky bum.

Off to Neverland! I mean Ireland!

We have boxes! That's a major step toward moving, no matter where you're moving to. Trader Joe's flower boxes are legit! Except for all the holes. Whatever, those are for packing the stuff we are getting rid of anyway. We have waaaaay too much stuff by the way. Like more than i even thought we had. Our apartment is only 650sq ft, it's not like we have room to collect much. But today as I sat staring at my mounds of clothes, and piles of useless things like rotisserie ovens and empty baskets, I decided I should open my own thrift store. Nah. Ill just have a garage sale and post stuff on Craigslist. All the boxes beginning to overtake my already-tiny living space have brought this whole moving-to-another-country thing into the forefront of my thoughts.

In December we thought, hey wouldnt it be cool to move far away for awhile? How about Ireland? Sweet idea, let's look into it.
In January we thought, holy crap you got the job!
In February we thought, is this real life?

And it's been a roller coaster of emotions since, bringing me to today: the first day of real packing! With boxes and everything! And I made this blog for friends and family who care to check in on me and Jon during this crazy process of moving to Ireland. So with three weeks left to pack, and like three thousand boxes to fill, I better get to it. Goodbye!