When Getting Things Done Feels Like A Vacation

Superstition Mountains, Arizona
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

I moved over two months ago, and I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to.  I’d hoped to be further along in unpacking and writing than I am.  I had set a goal to get my novel out to as many agents as possible, until I realized that my novel still needed some heavy editing.  *sigh*  I’ve just been “too” to get anything done.  Too tired.  Too busy.  Too unmotivated.  Too everything.

I expected last week, the first week of NaNoWriMo, to be more of the same.  I was determined to keep going through the entire month, even if I didn’t meet the goal of 50,000 words, just not to give up.  I was also determined to get some things done around the house.

I was pleasantly surprised to feel motivated and to get more done than I expected to.  The unpacking went well, and so did working on my novel.  I’m forcing myself to work on it even when I don’t want to, and it will definitely need rewriting, but at least I’m getting the skeleton on paper, which is the point of NaNoWriMo.  I also managed to do some editing on my completed novel.  My writer’s group gave me positive feedback, and I feel really good about the edits.  I’m changing some minor things in the novel to make it better.  Finally, I feel like I’m on the right track.

Getting things done feels good, and for the first time in two months, I actually feel like I’m off work.  I haven’t worked a job for pay since the beginning of August, but I’ve been so busy and stressed that I haven’t felt like I had any “time off.”  Now, it’s finally starting to feel that way.

As an added bonus, I’ve decided to try doing yoga again.  I did my first session last night, and it was wonderful!  At first I had trouble keeping up (for those of you who don’t use yoga, it moves faster than you’d think), but once I got into the groove, I feel like I did pretty well.  I got a very good workout and I stretched out all those achy muscles.  Of course, I have new aches today, but that’s the good workout kind of ache.

Maybe I didn’t get started as quickly as I wanted, but I’m finally doing all the things I wanted to do during my time “off.”  The clock is ticking until it will be time to go back to work, so I’m making the most use of this time that I can!

Be Careful What You Wish For

My former garden had some incredible veggies! That’s a 55 pound dog for reference!

I’m not fond of cooking.  The problem is that I like eating, I like knowing what is in my food, and I like high quality food.  When you add all that up, it means that I get to cook.  I really didn’t want to have to cook all the time, and fervently wished to eat other people’s cooking.

In the weeks leading up to my move, cooking got less and less feasible, as I was trying to make sure everything got done.  Then we drove to Texas over the course of two days.  By the time we pulled into Texas on Monday, I was ready to get set up and start cooking again.  The only problem was that my new refrigerator wasn’t set to be delivered until Thursday.  But I could live with a couple more days, right?

Then we found out that our fridge is apparently special order, and won’t be here until Tuesday!  So I have all of Labor Day weekend without a fridge!  We’ve been using a small cooler to keep a few things on hand, like coffee creamer and yogurt so that I have some breakfast, but I want salad.  And maybe some fajitas.  Lentil loaf with baked potatoes and asparagus sounds awfully good too!

I’m sorry I said I didn’t want to cook anymore, really.  I’m sorry I wished to eat food others made, really.  I promise, I’ll keep my mouth shut in the future!

(Okay, no, I probably won’t.)

Operation Noah’s Ark Complete

My new yard!  Very green…

Sorry for the lack of updates for almost a week.  As some of you know, I completed my move from Arizona to Texas this weekend.  My stuff moved out and into my new house two weeks ago (I’ve been camping in my living room) and this weekend, we moved the last of the things and the animals out.

We have six cats and two dogs, so the only logical and practical way to transport them is by vehicle.  So, we rented a minivan and I drove my Golf, and we took two days to drive  1,008 miles.  I had the two dogs and one cat, and the husband had the other 5 cats plus my plants.  Driving is not my favorite thing, as I consider it to be boring, so there were times on the very loooooooooong drive that I thought I wasn’t going to make it.  I thought I would just pull over to the side of the road and refuse to go any further.

Because we’re brilliant and organized, we didn’t leave until 5p.m. on Sunday.  We got to our hotel around 2 a.m.  Of course, because we got in late, we didn’t leave until late on Monday (noon), and got to our new home around 2 a.m. again!  Needless to say, between sleep deprivation, time changes, and a very long drive, I’m still tired and adjusting.  It’s going to take lots of coffee and naps before I’m back to normal (please note that I’m referring to my “normal,” not “normal normal”).

Last time we moved, the cats seemed traumatized, hiding and acting weird for weeks.  This time around, everyone is exploring, jumping on boxes, and generally having a great time.  Attitude makes a difference, even in cats!  We bought the dogs a tennis ball launcher yesterday, so they, of course, are perfectly fine.

Wish me luck unpacking!

The Truth About Housework

The cat put herself in the box; she’s not for sale!

I’m not a good housekeeper, and I don’t really enjoy it.  I’d much rather be doing pretty much anything else, and one of my favorite poems is Dust If You Must.  My next three weeks is going to be devoted to houseworky type things, and I’d anticipated not being pleased about it.

I turned on my Jambox and started blasting an iTunes playlist.  I had my dogs underfoot, and it was a nice sunny day.  As I sang alone at the top of my lungs (the dogs don’t complain), I realized that it wasn’t horrible.  I actually kind of, sort of, maybe had… fun.  I surprised myself.  I’m in the process of getting ready for my yard sale, purging items I haven’t used in a long time, things that were boxed up to come here and hadn’t seen the light of day again.  And it felt good.  It felt really good to organize and get ready to get rid of things.

I actually like to organize and dispose of items.  Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy it.  Music, sunshine, and dogs… a pretty good recipe for a successful Sunday!

Letting Go

Mystery Castle, Phoenix AZ
Photo Credit: RJS Photos

I’m not very good at letting go when I don’t have to.  I’m good with action, and if I’m forced into a situation, I can get through it.  But if I don’t have to, it’s hard, and I don’t like it.

My husband got an awesome new job, which means in the next month and a half, I’m moving from Phoenix, Arizona, to Austin, Texas.  I’ve been to Austin exactly once now, in a whirlwind house hunting trip that mostly left me with the impression of a lot of green.  Before that, I’d never actually been to Austin, but people keep telling me it’s a great place to live.  I love the fact that the city slogan is “Keep Austin Weird!”  I’m not excited about the humidity.

The move is going to be good for both of us.  I’m a firm believer in the idea that life is a series of adventures, and this is a pretty cool one.  I have a lot of loss ahead of me.  I have to leave my awesomely cool backyard, my friends (though I’ll keep in touch with them), my job, restaurants I eat in and grocery stores I shop in.

When we moved here 7 years ago, we moved fast, and we brought with us a lot of things that we haven’t used since then.  I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t even finished unpacking everything.  So, in an effort to be more efficient this time around, I’ve been trying to get rid of a few things.  Like the Gamecube I haven’t touched in all that time, or the PS2 that’s been gathering dust.  I sold them on eBay, and as I’m packing them up, I’m sad to see them go.

I’m not sure why those things cause me to feel the tug of nostalgia.  I obviously didn’t think about them for long periods of time, but somehow they feel more important than they are. A lot of things in life are like that.  We have no use for them and don’t want them until we try to let them go.  Then suddenly, they become bigger than they are, and we feel as if we want and need them.

I feel better when I let go of the clutter in my life, when I rid myself of things I don’t need anymore.  I’m trying to make an effort to do more of it.

What clutter is holding you back in your life?

It Could Have Been Worse

Look! Green stuff!

Sorry for not posting anything this week… it was kind of a hectic week.  Here’s a story for you though.

I always consider things like Friday the 13^th and full moons to be lucky for me, so when I decided to travel on Thursday the 12^th, I really didn’t think anything of it. As many of you know, I’m in the process of moving to Austin… well, I needed to go on a house hunting trip.

I decided to work on Thursday and fly out after work so that I’d be in Austin bright and early on Friday. From the moment Thursday rolled around, one thing after another went wrong. I couldn’t find my keys, and racing around the house to find them got the dogs excited. I put the dogs in the backyard, eventually found the keys, and decided to load up the car. The dogs jumped at the gate and barked at me from the backyard like they were going to try to jump through.

Finally, car loaded, dogs loaded, and I dropped them off at my parents’ house. Then on to work. I won’t say how late I was to start, but I only got in 10 minutes late. The way our schedules are set up, we have no time between appointments, which is usually okay because at least one person no shows or cancels. EVERY. PERSON. ON. MY. SCHEDULE. SHOWED. UP. I can’t tell you the last time that happened. Amazingly, I managed to leave on time, and then I got lost going to park my car. Yes, I know. I always park my car in the same lot, and for whatever reason, my maps program directed me to the wrong place, and because I am who I am, I thought, “I’ve never gone this way before. Maybe the map is rerouting me around traffic.” Yeah, go ahead and laugh.

I got to the airport one hour before scheduled take off. I figured, “Security at Sky Harbor never takes more than 10 minutes. I can get something to eat, and it’ll be fine.” Except that Sky Harbor did take more than 10 minutes. It was about a half hour, not excessive, but here we are at boarding time. I figured, “No big deal. It’s a two and a half hour flight. I’m hungry, but I’ll snack and eat something on the other end.” (Are you seeing a pattern?)  So I zipped in to one of those places that sells magazines and bought Combos and dried apples. Best decision ever.

We boarded late and got into the air late (if I had known that, I could have gotten real food!). We were about a half hour from Austin when the captain announced that there were bad storms in Austin, so we’d have to circle for a half hour. A half hour later, he announced we were told to circle for 50 minutes, and he didn’t have the fuel, so we’d land in San Antonio.

At this point, all I wanted was to get up and stretch. When we landed in San Antonio though, we had to sit in the plane on the runway for an hour because of the lightning; no ground crews could come out in that. So, then we got to go inside the terminal. The wonderful terminal. The magical terminal. Where I got to walk around and stretch. (Still no food open though.  It was way too late at that point.)

Then we were informed that the crew was at their maximum work hours for the day, so we’d have to wait for a crew to get in from Phoenix (yes, the very place I’d just left.) They got there after weeks… months… years… (it seemed). We were barely in the air before it was time to land (the flight time is 22 minutes).

So… my original arrival time in Austin was about 11 p.m. Actual arrival time was 3:30 a.m. When I got to Austin, it didn’t surprise me even a little bit when I realized that the rental car agency didn’t open until 6. At that point, I just laughed. And laughed. I waited by the baggage carousel, fully expecting my luggage to be gone. Lo and behold, it was there! Honestly, I’d rather wait two and a half hours for Hertz to open than to buy a new swimsuit.

It’s a comedy of errors, and a few times through the night, I found myself annoyed, but I have to keep in mind that I’d much rather have this story to tell than telling a story about a plane crash due to bad weather.

So yeah, it definitely could have been worse.   🙂

Visiting Home

I lived in Pennsylvania until 5 years ago, when a job offer for my husband sent us to Arizona.

There are many things I love about Arizona, and many things I miss about Pennsylvania.  I don’t miss the humidity.  At all.  However, I miss many things that go along with the humidity.  Tall, leafy green trees.  Streams and rivers.  RAIN.  I went to Dorney Park with a friend, and it rained while we were there.  She ducked under it and tried to stay dry.  I soaked it up.

One of the things I miss most about living in Arizona is my dog.  When I moved out, she couldn’t adjust, and ended up staying with my parents.  She’s 13 1/2 years old, pretty ancient for a dog her size.  We shared a Rita’s gelati (another thing that AZ doesn’t have).

I’m getting ready to fly back to AZ today, and I’m happy to be going home, but I’m also going to miss PA.  I’m not sure when I’ll be back.  It’s hard to leave home.  PA will always be home, no matter how much I love AZ.