Well, I finished up the "Fun Stuff" file! It lived up to its name - there was definitely some fun stuff in there! Also a bunch of junk. I really have no idea why I felt the need to hang on to some of that stuff.
One file in particular really needed to go away. I had a pretty toxic landlord situation in Hawai'i, and after a really bad dispute between us, I sat down and wrote him a nasty e-mail in the heat of the moment, and before hitting "send" I just saved it to my computer. I guess I wanted to have it to read later so I could get my blood boiling all over again?? I even labeled it "Andy vitriol" because that's all it was - just a string of insults and spite without much purpose. Was it satisfying to bang on the keyboard as I typed it? Sure. Was it helpful to my well-being to keep it after all this time? My goodness, no. So I deleted it. I didn't even open it again to read it before sending it to the recycle bin. Does it mean I've forgotten what happened, or that it won't make me angry if I think about it again later on? Of course not. But it's a symbolic throwing away of the digital "baggage" associated with the whole drama, and that really matters to me.
A bunch of other random crap also went the way of the dodo, and I added some new sub-folders to organize what I decided to keep, like some really hilarious attempts at poetry from college and high school - didn't we all think we were so profound back then??
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
40 Bags in 40 Days: Day 4
Yesterday I dove into the "Fun Stuff" file on my computer - it's really kind of amazing how many random Word documents I had just been holding onto, with very little justification. I didn't finish the job, but the file was certainly much leaner by the time I called it quits for the night. It was so easy to get distracted - I'd open files because the file name didn't actually give me much information, and then get distracted reminiscing about trips taken many years ago, crazy college antics, my own perceived poetic abilities (or lack thereof)...you name it, it was in there.
The file needs at least another half-hour or so of concerted work, so I will probably just continue it tomorrow and then do two straight days of "real stuff" decluttering. I'm eyeing my junk drawer, my car, and the piles of clean laundry that are all over the floor of the bedroom. The problem with the bedroom is that my best shot at a long enough stretch of time to get anything real done is when the baby is asleep, but...you guessed it, she sleeps in the bedroom! So I might just have to put her down for a nap, wait until she's *really* out cold, and then sneak back in and work all stealthy-like. We'll see how that goes!
The file needs at least another half-hour or so of concerted work, so I will probably just continue it tomorrow and then do two straight days of "real stuff" decluttering. I'm eyeing my junk drawer, my car, and the piles of clean laundry that are all over the floor of the bedroom. The problem with the bedroom is that my best shot at a long enough stretch of time to get anything real done is when the baby is asleep, but...you guessed it, she sleeps in the bedroom! So I might just have to put her down for a nap, wait until she's *really* out cold, and then sneak back in and work all stealthy-like. We'll see how that goes!
Monday, March 10, 2014
40 Bags in 40 Days: Day 3
Because this challenge is designed to coincide with Lent, Sundays are a day off (love that!) So even though I started a day late, I'm still giving myself Sundays as a break from both decluttering and blogging about decluttering :-)
Here's the area I tackled on Saturday: It's the corner of our kitchen right near the sink, and because both my husband and I hate doing dishes by hand as well as putting away dishes, you can imagine how easily and quickly the drying rack fills up. There was also just a lot of stuff piled and smooshed into that corner, and the spice rack needed attention.
Here's the area I tackled on Saturday: It's the corner of our kitchen right near the sink, and because both my husband and I hate doing dishes by hand as well as putting away dishes, you can imagine how easily and quickly the drying rack fills up. There was also just a lot of stuff piled and smooshed into that corner, and the spice rack needed attention.
Before:
After:
I didn't have a "bag" per se of stuff when I was done, but I had consolidated some of the spices (there were two containers half-full of stick cinnamon, two of ground ginger, that sort of thing), emptied the drying rack, found homes in the cupboard below for a few large storage containers, and just generally tidied. I'm finding a lot of motivation from folks who post to the Facebook group with their before and after pictures - but mine are really inspiring too!!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
40 Bags in 40 Days: Day 2
This will be a fairly short post, but first of all, let me just say that I really want to stick with this. It needs to happen really badly and I know that I will feel great when it's over. I'm just putting that out there to the universe as a motivation. I might have to come back and read this paragraph every now and then!
Yesterday's accomplishment was the weeding of my e-mail inbox. I'm pretty good about archiving as I go, but there were some really old messages in there that I had been meaning to deal with and/or respond to, but for one reason or another never did. I kept them in my inbox in the faint hope that SOMEDAY I would follow through, and someday finally came in the form of yesterday :-) I can't in all honesty say that I took care of every piece of correspondence, but I did cut my inbox down from 50+ to about 20, which is a really good start, and going forward, I am hereby pledging to do a better job of staying on top of my e-mails. By which I mean:
1) making e-mails from friends and family my highest priority, and responding to them more promptly. Yes, I have a baby now, but I do check fairly regularly, and it's just courteous and the right thing to do
2) cutting down on the number of activism lists to which I am subscribed so that I'm not faced with a bazillion requests to sign petitions every day (let's face it, some causes are worth it, but come ON, you sign one and the next day you get thirty more)
3) unsubscribing from retailmoney suckers newsletters; not only do I really not need the temptation, this will simply whittle down the barrage of e-mails coming in to begin with
I have not yet done today's declutter; confession, I haven't yet decided what today's declutter will be. But the Bug is down for the night (fingers crossed), so I'm going to eat some dinner and then get going on...a pile of stuff somewhere in the house! Yay for non-specificity!
Yesterday's accomplishment was the weeding of my e-mail inbox. I'm pretty good about archiving as I go, but there were some really old messages in there that I had been meaning to deal with and/or respond to, but for one reason or another never did. I kept them in my inbox in the faint hope that SOMEDAY I would follow through, and someday finally came in the form of yesterday :-) I can't in all honesty say that I took care of every piece of correspondence, but I did cut my inbox down from 50+ to about 20, which is a really good start, and going forward, I am hereby pledging to do a better job of staying on top of my e-mails. By which I mean:
1) making e-mails from friends and family my highest priority, and responding to them more promptly. Yes, I have a baby now, but I do check fairly regularly, and it's just courteous and the right thing to do
2) cutting down on the number of activism lists to which I am subscribed so that I'm not faced with a bazillion requests to sign petitions every day (let's face it, some causes are worth it, but come ON, you sign one and the next day you get thirty more)
3) unsubscribing from retail
I have not yet done today's declutter; confession, I haven't yet decided what today's declutter will be. But the Bug is down for the night (fingers crossed), so I'm going to eat some dinner and then get going on...a pile of stuff somewhere in the house! Yay for non-specificity!
Friday, March 7, 2014
Er...um...hi
I like having a blog, I really do. When I was living in Hawai'i on my own it was a great way to write down the things I wanted to be sure to remember from my time there and compile some of my photographs of the scenery, flora and fauna. But as you can see, after I moved to the Washington and reunited with Eamon, the blog just kind of fell by the wayside. It's kind of hard to believe that nearly two years have gone by since the last time I posted here. I had a household to unpack, I was instantly caught up in rehearsals for "Fiddler" (which turned out to be just the thing, with Eamon gone on a really long deployment - a large cast is a terrific instant social circle!) and I was job-hunting to boot! Also, I've managed to use Facebook for a lot of the everyday update type stuff that people tend to blog about, and I never felt the need to document my sewing projects step-by-step (the way lots of costumers keep online "dress diaries") on my blog. I did post some "in-progress" pictures, but largely I just put the finished items on Facebook and/or my Pinterest page. But I never just completely shut down the blog, mostly because it never occurred to me, and also because I figured maybe I would eventually want to use it for costuming stuff or whatever.
I won't worry about giving the rundown of the past two years here, because I generally direct people to this blog from Facebook, so anyone with whom I'm already friends there knows about all the big stuff like the birth of my daughter (referred to herein affectionately as "Bug"). Incidentally, she is yet another reason the blog has been silent - I know, I know, some people keep mommy blogs, but I am not one of those people!
HOWEVER!
I think I may have found something to blog, at least for a little while, and then maybe the blog will sink back into oblivion or I'll figure out another use for it. There's this 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge that a friend posted about on Facebook, and goodness knows I need to declutter! I guess it's designed to line up with Lent - which I don't observe, since I'm not religious in any way, but I do know Wednesday was the first day, so I'm already behind ;-) It's okay though because there's a printable sheet for keeping track that doesn't have specific dates on it, so you can start whenever.
Here's a picture of the area I decluttered yesterday (Thursday). I feel bad because my wonderful friend Diana came to visit in late November of last year so she could meet our little Bug, and one of the things she helped with while she was here was a declutter of this very table. I had every intention of keeping it clear, and obviously that didn't happen. But I must set aside guilt and simply dive in, and hope that this time I do a better job of maintaining a tidy surface.
I haven't done today's declutter yet, and it's already getting on towards bedtime, but there's a suggestion on the challenge website that you can include non-physical spaces in this process, such as e-mail inboxes and computer files. So, I will do a physical area on the odd days and a digital area on the even days, because I think that will help keep me motivated - changing it up is more appealing to me than looking forward to several days in a row of decluttering actual stuff. Oh, and it's looking like I'll put up a blog post each day about the previous day's accomplishment ;-)
Stick with me and keep me honest!
I won't worry about giving the rundown of the past two years here, because I generally direct people to this blog from Facebook, so anyone with whom I'm already friends there knows about all the big stuff like the birth of my daughter (referred to herein affectionately as "Bug"). Incidentally, she is yet another reason the blog has been silent - I know, I know, some people keep mommy blogs, but I am not one of those people!
HOWEVER!
I think I may have found something to blog, at least for a little while, and then maybe the blog will sink back into oblivion or I'll figure out another use for it. There's this 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge that a friend posted about on Facebook, and goodness knows I need to declutter! I guess it's designed to line up with Lent - which I don't observe, since I'm not religious in any way, but I do know Wednesday was the first day, so I'm already behind ;-) It's okay though because there's a printable sheet for keeping track that doesn't have specific dates on it, so you can start whenever.
Here's a picture of the area I decluttered yesterday (Thursday). I feel bad because my wonderful friend Diana came to visit in late November of last year so she could meet our little Bug, and one of the things she helped with while she was here was a declutter of this very table. I had every intention of keeping it clear, and obviously that didn't happen. But I must set aside guilt and simply dive in, and hope that this time I do a better job of maintaining a tidy surface.
So yeah, pretty messy. Here's the "after"!
I did it!! All right, so the things that were hanging off the chairs in the "before" shot are still hanging off the chairs. Those are all the various baby-carrying contraptions we have collected and used, some more than others - there's a sling, an Ergo, a Moby wrap, and on a chair outside the frame there's even a Snugli (plus my purse and diaper bag, which is now also my purse). I didn't even factor them into my declutter since it was really the surface of the table that needed clearing, but some of them could probably get stored away for now - most of the time these days when Bug isn't sleeping, we just carry her around or set her in one of her bouncy seats if we need both hands.
The bag on the table is my First Bag, and everything in it went to the recycling bin (yay!). The other stuff mainly just needed to be given a home, and I think I did a pretty good job of finding places that all of it can live. Not perfect, but at least we have a dining room table again!
Stick with me and keep me honest!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
What a difference two months make!
It's been a little over two months since I wrote my last post, and it's kind of amazing how much has changed. The move to Washington really went very smoothly, thanks in no small part to my tireless and devoted Mama who came to Hawai'i to help me take care of last-minute packing and shipping, and to help me wrangle Finnian and Niamh during our flight to the mainland. Alaska Airlines charges the same amount whether you stow animals in cargo or keep them under the seat, and I judged it best that we travel with them in the cabin so we could monitor them. Getting half a Benadryl down each of their gullets (to subdue them a bit) proved to be the Battle of the Century, but we managed in the end.
We left the apartment (good riddance to my awful landlord there) in the wee hours of a Monday morning in mid-February with our luggage and the two cat carriers, drove the rental car to the airport, and got through security and to our gate with relatively little fuss. The flight was uneventful, though the cats started up a chorus of dejected meowing about an hour before landing; the part that was awesome was when Eamon actually met us at the airport! The crazy thing about this whole operation was that the submarine had actually come back from deployment earlier than scheduled, which kind of threw all of my careful planning out the window, but hey, I wasn't complaining about getting bonus time with my hubby! What was even crazier was that when they did arrive, Eamon had no idea what to expect - he didn't know if I had a job, if I was moving here, or was just going to be visiting, or what! We had left things very much up in the air when the submarine deployed in November; my job situation was tenuous at best and I still hadn't decided whether to stay in Hawai'i through May or move in February. Wives were allowed to send 10 messages of no more than 50 words each throughout the deployment, and I kept track religiously and took a great deal of care to use my full quota to convey only the most crucial information. I told Eamon about the change in my job situation, my successful search for a house, and my arrival date. Oh, and PS, this was just a one-way system; the sailors weren't able to send anything back. Well, the person who was asked to make sure that these messages got sent to the boat completely dropped the ball, and Eamon knew something was up when he stopped getting messages from me - I had been so consistent that I couldn't possibly have just stopped sending them! So obviously, Eamon had a lot of information to process all at once. He had his wife back, not just for a week or two, but for good, and a house to live in with her and their kitties!
We started settling into our house, which we are renting from a very sweet couple who live next door (this town is really a village - everyone knows everyone and looks out for everyone). We had not one, but two moving trucks to wait at home for; the stuff from Hawai'i, AND the stuff that we had packed up when we both left Boston and which had been shipped across the country to a storage unit near my mom's house in L.A. (did I mention my mom has been awesome through all of this??) Both trucks arrived, with our many boxes as well as some hand-me-down furniture, and we began the arduous task of unpacking and deciding where everything should go. We also bought a bunch of furniture, since I sold everything that was mine in the Hawai'i apartment, and the house came completely bare. Some of this could only be done on evenings and weekends, when we could both be home, but poor Eamon - he'd work 12- or 14-hour days and then come home wanting to do nothing but relax, and there'd be furniture to build or boxes to unpack. But the most important thing is that we got to just hang out together again, and we didn't feel like we had to frantically fit in all the things we wanted to do because one of us would have to dash off to the airport again in a matter of days. There will be lots of deployments this year and next, but the time in between is our time again, and that means a lot to us.
Now it's just me again, and a 3-bedroom house is a lot more space to have to myself than a 1-bedroom apartment. I haven't managed to land a job yet (not for lack of trying), but there is more than enough to keep me busy here at home. I am really trying to do one big task a day (or several little tasks) so that the house is less cluttered and more comfortable and livable for when Eamon gets back. He won't be back for long, but I think it will be less overwhelming for the time he will have here if he feels like he can relax a bit.
Rehearsals are well underway for "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Kitsap Forest Theater down in Bremerton. In case you missed this news, I'm playing Tzeitel, the eldest daughter of Tevye and Golde. This is my first lead role in a community theater production, so I'm really excited! I auditioned about 10 days after moving here and was thrilled to be cast, let alone as a principal. It's humbling and yet validating at the same time. Is that even possible?? Most of the cast and production folks live in Seattle, and a few of us live on the peninsula. We actually rehearse in Seattle during the week and then at the theater on weekends, so everyone has to do some commuting across the Puget Sound in some capacity. We had the first Kitsap rehearsal this past Saturday, and the theater space is so beautiful; check it out here. It's a completely outdoor amphitheater and stage - no curtains, no lights! It looks like the forest keeps trying to reclaim the structures that have been built as wings and sets - everything's all mossy and green. They do all of their shows at 2:00 in the afternoon to take advantage of the natural daylight. It was pretty cold in the morning, but then the sun came out and it actually got quite nice. The forecast for this weekend is rainy, though, so I'll be praying to the weather gods to spare us. Cold and rainy is not a fun combination, and the theater has a tradition of never canceling a rehearsal (or show, for that matter) on account of rain. So I guess I'd better suck it up!
Well, that just about covers everything so far! In spite of having to give up that balmy Hawaiian weather, I really am happier to be here. I lucked into a great neighborhood, wonderful landlords, and gorgeous scenery. Boy, when it's clear and you can see the Olympic mountain range, it's quite breathtaking. And when the submarine's in port, being able to give Eamon a hug and a kiss and make him tea when he gets home from work, or knowing that he'll be here when I get back from rehearsal...those are the little things that I missed the most when we were living apart.
Lots of love,
Sarah
We left the apartment (good riddance to my awful landlord there) in the wee hours of a Monday morning in mid-February with our luggage and the two cat carriers, drove the rental car to the airport, and got through security and to our gate with relatively little fuss. The flight was uneventful, though the cats started up a chorus of dejected meowing about an hour before landing; the part that was awesome was when Eamon actually met us at the airport! The crazy thing about this whole operation was that the submarine had actually come back from deployment earlier than scheduled, which kind of threw all of my careful planning out the window, but hey, I wasn't complaining about getting bonus time with my hubby! What was even crazier was that when they did arrive, Eamon had no idea what to expect - he didn't know if I had a job, if I was moving here, or was just going to be visiting, or what! We had left things very much up in the air when the submarine deployed in November; my job situation was tenuous at best and I still hadn't decided whether to stay in Hawai'i through May or move in February. Wives were allowed to send 10 messages of no more than 50 words each throughout the deployment, and I kept track religiously and took a great deal of care to use my full quota to convey only the most crucial information. I told Eamon about the change in my job situation, my successful search for a house, and my arrival date. Oh, and PS, this was just a one-way system; the sailors weren't able to send anything back. Well, the person who was asked to make sure that these messages got sent to the boat completely dropped the ball, and Eamon knew something was up when he stopped getting messages from me - I had been so consistent that I couldn't possibly have just stopped sending them! So obviously, Eamon had a lot of information to process all at once. He had his wife back, not just for a week or two, but for good, and a house to live in with her and their kitties!
We started settling into our house, which we are renting from a very sweet couple who live next door (this town is really a village - everyone knows everyone and looks out for everyone). We had not one, but two moving trucks to wait at home for; the stuff from Hawai'i, AND the stuff that we had packed up when we both left Boston and which had been shipped across the country to a storage unit near my mom's house in L.A. (did I mention my mom has been awesome through all of this??) Both trucks arrived, with our many boxes as well as some hand-me-down furniture, and we began the arduous task of unpacking and deciding where everything should go. We also bought a bunch of furniture, since I sold everything that was mine in the Hawai'i apartment, and the house came completely bare. Some of this could only be done on evenings and weekends, when we could both be home, but poor Eamon - he'd work 12- or 14-hour days and then come home wanting to do nothing but relax, and there'd be furniture to build or boxes to unpack. But the most important thing is that we got to just hang out together again, and we didn't feel like we had to frantically fit in all the things we wanted to do because one of us would have to dash off to the airport again in a matter of days. There will be lots of deployments this year and next, but the time in between is our time again, and that means a lot to us.
Now it's just me again, and a 3-bedroom house is a lot more space to have to myself than a 1-bedroom apartment. I haven't managed to land a job yet (not for lack of trying), but there is more than enough to keep me busy here at home. I am really trying to do one big task a day (or several little tasks) so that the house is less cluttered and more comfortable and livable for when Eamon gets back. He won't be back for long, but I think it will be less overwhelming for the time he will have here if he feels like he can relax a bit.
Rehearsals are well underway for "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Kitsap Forest Theater down in Bremerton. In case you missed this news, I'm playing Tzeitel, the eldest daughter of Tevye and Golde. This is my first lead role in a community theater production, so I'm really excited! I auditioned about 10 days after moving here and was thrilled to be cast, let alone as a principal. It's humbling and yet validating at the same time. Is that even possible?? Most of the cast and production folks live in Seattle, and a few of us live on the peninsula. We actually rehearse in Seattle during the week and then at the theater on weekends, so everyone has to do some commuting across the Puget Sound in some capacity. We had the first Kitsap rehearsal this past Saturday, and the theater space is so beautiful; check it out here. It's a completely outdoor amphitheater and stage - no curtains, no lights! It looks like the forest keeps trying to reclaim the structures that have been built as wings and sets - everything's all mossy and green. They do all of their shows at 2:00 in the afternoon to take advantage of the natural daylight. It was pretty cold in the morning, but then the sun came out and it actually got quite nice. The forecast for this weekend is rainy, though, so I'll be praying to the weather gods to spare us. Cold and rainy is not a fun combination, and the theater has a tradition of never canceling a rehearsal (or show, for that matter) on account of rain. So I guess I'd better suck it up!
Well, that just about covers everything so far! In spite of having to give up that balmy Hawaiian weather, I really am happier to be here. I lucked into a great neighborhood, wonderful landlords, and gorgeous scenery. Boy, when it's clear and you can see the Olympic mountain range, it's quite breathtaking. And when the submarine's in port, being able to give Eamon a hug and a kiss and make him tea when he gets home from work, or knowing that he'll be here when I get back from rehearsal...those are the little things that I missed the most when we were living apart.
Lots of love,
Sarah
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Reflections on an (almost) empty apartment
First off, I did not get the children's librarian job at the public library in Washington, and informing my supervisor at the middle school that I was even considering applying for it basically sealed my doom with *that* job. Whoops. So here I am, a few weeks into the new year, without work and without classes to attend. And now, I have practically no belongings or home comforts to speak of!
I had asked the middle school to let me know by January 15th if they needed me, but then around the 10th I got a good talking-to from my sensible Roomie (that would be Diana Carroll, for those playing the home game) who convinced me that it was better to just make my decision regardless of the school - it was a done deal, and if they were ever going to call me up, it probably already would have happened. Why are our friends always right?? I gave notice to my landlord, set to work packing, and decided on February 13th as my move-out date. When I moved here originally, I sent everything through the mail, which was a pain in the ass, and the stuff arrived really erratically over a period of about two weeks. I was prepared to do the same thing heading back, but then I thought about getting a quote from PODS - their model is that they drop off a shipping container, you fill it at your "leisure" (which is a laugh in itself), and then they pick it up and deliver it to your destination. All well and good, except they quoted me over $4,000 and their fixed shipping schedule was wretched. Then a gal who lives in my building recommended a Hawai'i based company that loads up the truck themselves and ships everything together on a much more flexible schedule. Their quote was $1700, which is reasonable and doesn't involve me having to load everything into my car or into a shipping container all by myself. Works for me!
The movers came yesterday and took away 30+ boxes, Finn and Niamh's kitty condo, and various other accoutrements. Since the apartment came furnished, I'm not sitting on the floor typing this, but it is a bit spartan - no art on the walls, for example. And I signed a lease to rent a beautiful house in a tiny little town called Indianola, which is in the northern part of the Kitsap Peninsula. Eamon and I will finally have a home together again!!
I'm going to try to make the most of these next few weeks that I have in Hawai'i. Certainly the weather is doing everything it can to make me regret leaving for the wintry Northwest, but if living away from Eamon for 2+ years has shown me anything, it's that home is truly where the heart is. I've made wonderful friends, I have some awesome memories and experiences to take away, not to mention a degree! But this is definitely the right thing to do, and I think I've known that in my gut for a while, even when I was considering staying a little longer for the middle school job. Not because I don't think Eamon and I can handle being apart, since we've obviously held up in the face of some pretty tough circumstances, but because I'd rather be with him :-)
The job search continues, but it will get easier to apply for jobs once I'm there and I can just show up in person to interview or ask about openings. All that's left to do now is enjoy the sunshine, say my goodbyes to everyone, sell my car, and send off some last-minute irreplaceable and fragile belongings that I didn't trust to the moving company, like my grandmother's Singer sewing machine.
This may be my last post to the blog in its current incarnation. Perhaps I'll change the name to "A Bear on a Peninsula" once I've moved ;-)
Aloha Hawai'i, and a hui hou!
I had asked the middle school to let me know by January 15th if they needed me, but then around the 10th I got a good talking-to from my sensible Roomie (that would be Diana Carroll, for those playing the home game) who convinced me that it was better to just make my decision regardless of the school - it was a done deal, and if they were ever going to call me up, it probably already would have happened. Why are our friends always right?? I gave notice to my landlord, set to work packing, and decided on February 13th as my move-out date. When I moved here originally, I sent everything through the mail, which was a pain in the ass, and the stuff arrived really erratically over a period of about two weeks. I was prepared to do the same thing heading back, but then I thought about getting a quote from PODS - their model is that they drop off a shipping container, you fill it at your "leisure" (which is a laugh in itself), and then they pick it up and deliver it to your destination. All well and good, except they quoted me over $4,000 and their fixed shipping schedule was wretched. Then a gal who lives in my building recommended a Hawai'i based company that loads up the truck themselves and ships everything together on a much more flexible schedule. Their quote was $1700, which is reasonable and doesn't involve me having to load everything into my car or into a shipping container all by myself. Works for me!
The movers came yesterday and took away 30+ boxes, Finn and Niamh's kitty condo, and various other accoutrements. Since the apartment came furnished, I'm not sitting on the floor typing this, but it is a bit spartan - no art on the walls, for example. And I signed a lease to rent a beautiful house in a tiny little town called Indianola, which is in the northern part of the Kitsap Peninsula. Eamon and I will finally have a home together again!!
I'm going to try to make the most of these next few weeks that I have in Hawai'i. Certainly the weather is doing everything it can to make me regret leaving for the wintry Northwest, but if living away from Eamon for 2+ years has shown me anything, it's that home is truly where the heart is. I've made wonderful friends, I have some awesome memories and experiences to take away, not to mention a degree! But this is definitely the right thing to do, and I think I've known that in my gut for a while, even when I was considering staying a little longer for the middle school job. Not because I don't think Eamon and I can handle being apart, since we've obviously held up in the face of some pretty tough circumstances, but because I'd rather be with him :-)
The job search continues, but it will get easier to apply for jobs once I'm there and I can just show up in person to interview or ask about openings. All that's left to do now is enjoy the sunshine, say my goodbyes to everyone, sell my car, and send off some last-minute irreplaceable and fragile belongings that I didn't trust to the moving company, like my grandmother's Singer sewing machine.
This may be my last post to the blog in its current incarnation. Perhaps I'll change the name to "A Bear on a Peninsula" once I've moved ;-)
Aloha Hawai'i, and a hui hou!
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