Week Three. It’s amazing how puttering around the house manages to pass the day just as well as getting up early and going to work. It usually starts like this: pull myself out of bed around 9am, make coffee, start some laundry, unpack, organize and generally fondle my belongings, exercise, work on art projects, plan dinner and possibly run to the grocery store, read, tidy the kitchen and load the dishwasher, fold clothes and BAM it’s 6pm and Austin’s walking in the door. Sometimes I’ve managed to take a shower by then, but sometimes I’m still in my pajamas. It’s a good life. There was that one time with the fire ants, but still, it’s good.
I feel a satisfying balance between having time to myself and also time with my husband. I’m really excited when he’s on his way home from work – often he’ll hear the first words I’ve spoken all day, unless I’ve been mumbling to the cat. I love that not only can I do the things I want during the day but, because I have my afternoons free I can also help Austin take care of things that are just easier when you have two people. I was able to take his parachute waaaay out to the manufacturer’s location to have it repacked so he can jump again soon. And it felt wonderful to pick him up at work during a nasty, rainy and cold day when he otherwise would have had to ride his motorcycle home in just a jacket and pair of jeans.
Every day I’m more and more grounded and settled in my new Home. Mostly it’s because finally, after three years, I’m physically with my husband every day. All that time I had felt like I was split in two – like some astral projection of me was constantly 1,000 miles away with him. Also, all of my stuff has fit harmoniously to create a real blending of Mine and His into this new thing called Ours. And there are plans in the works for our house – we want to create a rock garden surrounded by fruit trees, and a vegetable garden to grow tomatoes and sugar snap peas upon which I will gorge myself straight from the vine. It’s been a whole new experience for me to envision projects for a home I own rather than the small changes I’ve made while living in rented apartments. There’s a much more personal and meaningful sense of the future, and of creating an environment based on our shared dreams.
We’ve filled these initial weeks with family dinners, picnics on the coast, a glorious sailing lesson, our first dinner guest, a local history tour, twilight walks around the lake, romantic toasts with delicious wine, massages and snuggly movie-watching. My husband is a tremendous pleasure to be with – funny, intelligent, loving to my aforementioned cat (who often doesn’t deserve it), understanding and compassionate, generous and thoughtful. He is a wonderful man to be married to, and a wonderful man to live with. Right now, I just feel very very blessed.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
T-minus 12 days and counting
Moving was so much work that I don't even want to think about it anymore. Now, 90% of my things are in Florida – cozy in their new space, finding corners and shelves and wall space to occupy. I’m finishing up the month of January at my job and then hauling myself, my cat and some odds and ends 1,000 south to Central Florida. I’ve made a list of to-do items and I’m steadily working my way through it: officially change my name (done); tune-up for the car (done); clean the car (er, not done); clean the room I’ve been using at my brother’s place (also not done).
I’ve also made a list of suggestions for myself when I’m feeling bored and lethargic this summer. Something I can look at when I feel like doing something but I’m not sure what and if I don’t come up with an activity soon I’m heading straight back to bed for a nap. This list is going straight on the fridge and I’m going to do at least one thing from it every day:
Unpack – there’s no shortage of this that needs to be done.
Exercise – Cardio Salsa, free weights, boogying to my favorite tunes
Practice dance – Swing, Belly and Burlesque. I put up a wall-full of mirrors to help.
Study Spanish – I have a three-disc audio tutorial. So far I can ask where the bathroom is and tell you that I want the next train.
Ride my motorcycle – The small, quiet town I live in will be perfect for getting to the next level and riding in moderate traffic.
Blog – Hello.
Write letters – I have so many people to write to!
Daytrips – Florida is filled with small coastal towns, art districts, wilderness preserves and I wanna see them all.
Walk around the lake – I’ll visit my neighbors the horses, and the pigs and geese down the street.
Paper crafting – I love paste.
Paint the bathroom – After much serious deliberation I think I’ve settled on blue. Yeah. Blue.
Work on the backyard party barn – Whoo-hoo! This long-unused two-horse stable just needs a string of chili lights and a couple of chairs to make it the swingin’est barn-bar there ever was.
Do laundry – bleh.
Garden – I’m thinking of starting small with some summer herbs on the front patio. We’ll see if the critters will allow me to grow for myself or if they’ll eat everything as it sprouts from the dirt.
Water the trees – I hear this is a beautiful, meditative task. Soaking the leaves and branches with water and watching the droplets meander their way down. Sometimes a couple of birds will shower themselves.
Sew – I have lots of half-finished projects…and I’ll probably start lots more
School enrollment – This is going to take a lot of time at first; enrolling in the Federal TAA program, then with the school. I’m expecting lots of visits to the unemployment department where the program is coordinated, lots of waiting in lines, lots of paperwork. Hopefully it will all go relatively smoothly and then not take too much time till the semester starts.
I’ve also made a list of suggestions for myself when I’m feeling bored and lethargic this summer. Something I can look at when I feel like doing something but I’m not sure what and if I don’t come up with an activity soon I’m heading straight back to bed for a nap. This list is going straight on the fridge and I’m going to do at least one thing from it every day:
Unpack – there’s no shortage of this that needs to be done.
Exercise – Cardio Salsa, free weights, boogying to my favorite tunes
Practice dance – Swing, Belly and Burlesque. I put up a wall-full of mirrors to help.
Study Spanish – I have a three-disc audio tutorial. So far I can ask where the bathroom is and tell you that I want the next train.
Ride my motorcycle – The small, quiet town I live in will be perfect for getting to the next level and riding in moderate traffic.
Blog – Hello.
Write letters – I have so many people to write to!
Daytrips – Florida is filled with small coastal towns, art districts, wilderness preserves and I wanna see them all.
Walk around the lake – I’ll visit my neighbors the horses, and the pigs and geese down the street.
Paper crafting – I love paste.
Paint the bathroom – After much serious deliberation I think I’ve settled on blue. Yeah. Blue.
Work on the backyard party barn – Whoo-hoo! This long-unused two-horse stable just needs a string of chili lights and a couple of chairs to make it the swingin’est barn-bar there ever was.
Do laundry – bleh.
Garden – I’m thinking of starting small with some summer herbs on the front patio. We’ll see if the critters will allow me to grow for myself or if they’ll eat everything as it sprouts from the dirt.
Water the trees – I hear this is a beautiful, meditative task. Soaking the leaves and branches with water and watching the droplets meander their way down. Sometimes a couple of birds will shower themselves.
Sew – I have lots of half-finished projects…and I’ll probably start lots more
School enrollment – This is going to take a lot of time at first; enrolling in the Federal TAA program, then with the school. I’m expecting lots of visits to the unemployment department where the program is coordinated, lots of waiting in lines, lots of paperwork. Hopefully it will all go relatively smoothly and then not take too much time till the semester starts.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Begin at the beginning...
This has been one crazy year. Almost exactly 12 months ago I found out that my 70-year old manufacturing company was going to close down my facility. At that point, everything in my life was tossed in the air like a deck of cards, and I'm finally starting to see how things are landing.
I've been lucky to have so much advance notice. My job will end December 31, so I've had plenty of time to save, ponder and plan. There were a lot of different options on the table, but when my then-boyfriend proposed to me in June my path started to get much clearer. He lives in Florida, I live in Indiana. Our options mostly focused around him moving here or me going there, and practicality soon made it obvious that I should go to Florida. We married in October, it's now November, and I'll be moving down there in February after my job ends and I wrap up some loose ends.
One of those loose ends is enrolling in a very cool federal program that's going to allow me to go to school for FREE for two years and give me extended unemployment benefits during that entire time. It's called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and it's designed for employees of manufacturing companies who lose their jobs due to businesses sending work out of the country.
Sooo, my plan is to move to Florida, begin my life with my new husband, be an unemployed full-time student and hopefully emerge into a recovered job market in 2012. I haven't been out of work for more than a month since I was 15 years old, so this is bound to be quite an adventure. For the first few months, from February until the start of the fall semester in August, I'll be a complete lay-about. I really want to fill those months with creative and enriching activities - and that's part of the inspiration for this blog. I won't have anything interesting to write about if I spend all day watching Firefly. Okay, that *would* make for at least one interesting post, but not every day!
Right now I'm entrenched in the details of moving: packing, painting, change-of-address notifications, etc. By the time that's settled I want to have some goals to work on over the summer. So far I'm thinking about studying Spanish, finishing a couple of history books that I've started twice, working out regularly and riding my motorcycle. That sounds like a good start! But now...back to packing. Ugh.
I've been lucky to have so much advance notice. My job will end December 31, so I've had plenty of time to save, ponder and plan. There were a lot of different options on the table, but when my then-boyfriend proposed to me in June my path started to get much clearer. He lives in Florida, I live in Indiana. Our options mostly focused around him moving here or me going there, and practicality soon made it obvious that I should go to Florida. We married in October, it's now November, and I'll be moving down there in February after my job ends and I wrap up some loose ends.
One of those loose ends is enrolling in a very cool federal program that's going to allow me to go to school for FREE for two years and give me extended unemployment benefits during that entire time. It's called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and it's designed for employees of manufacturing companies who lose their jobs due to businesses sending work out of the country.
Sooo, my plan is to move to Florida, begin my life with my new husband, be an unemployed full-time student and hopefully emerge into a recovered job market in 2012. I haven't been out of work for more than a month since I was 15 years old, so this is bound to be quite an adventure. For the first few months, from February until the start of the fall semester in August, I'll be a complete lay-about. I really want to fill those months with creative and enriching activities - and that's part of the inspiration for this blog. I won't have anything interesting to write about if I spend all day watching Firefly. Okay, that *would* make for at least one interesting post, but not every day!
Right now I'm entrenched in the details of moving: packing, painting, change-of-address notifications, etc. By the time that's settled I want to have some goals to work on over the summer. So far I'm thinking about studying Spanish, finishing a couple of history books that I've started twice, working out regularly and riding my motorcycle. That sounds like a good start! But now...back to packing. Ugh.
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