other notes on change

The unexpected thing about this change has been these loooooong blog posts. Oh, my goodness!

Today I would like to start off with a thank you to Jen over at Busy Bee. I enjoyed her latest post, "In Honor of Change" over a mid-day coffee break yesterday. She has written this post in honor of the numerous friends & fellow bloggers who are going through a change in their lives this season. Have a look, theres LOTR quotes and everything!

The move, for me, is just a manifestation of becoming an Aunty, but it reminded me of all of the amazing changes that have unfolded since both Celeste and I started down this path in our own ways. Many places in our lives long held as obstacles have cleared, eased, transformed themselves. I'm really grateful for Jen for opening up a moment as a reminder of what it took to get to this point, and it has been such a pleasure to look through the blogs of her friends and follow their experience as well. Jen, I'm your fan! :)

Some other news about the trip that is an significant difference from what we thought it would be is actually that my sister isn't coming. Yes, this is big news.

Celeste had long planned to take a tour across the states, visiting with her friends and ending up in Portland, Oregon. Back when she agreed I could come along for the ride it never occurred to either of us that she might be having twins by this time. Pregnant? Yes. Twins? Well, wow.

Obviously, the twins are the most exciting and welcome alteration of the plan, but it was inevitable that revisions had to be made. There is sadness around that, too, but I was really proud of her when she decided to fly. She's thinking like a mom with that one. (and we'll have plenty of road trips ahead of us, once I can get used to driving over 25 mph. I'm positive of that). Although there is no medical reason she *has* to fly, we will be around a month without consistent medical care. At least for the good of her own mind, and those of her family and friends, she has chosen the "safety first" option. Bravo!

There was still the matter of her car, home, and sibling to get out to OR. Many options were discussed. But theres only one person I know with whom I could have this conversation:

"I'm so tired of my job, Laurie. I've tried this for three years but I think I'm going to quit. Maybe in April."

"Really? Hmmm, what if by 'think' you mean 'am' and by 'April' you mean 'May'... and by 'quit' you mean 'quit and take a month off from work helping Laurie and her sister drive across the country'... that would be a pretty amazing statement. Isn't that what you meant?"

(glimmer in eye so clear I can hear it over phone)
"Its funny, that is exactly what I meant!"

And so it is that my friend Phil will be joining us on the trip. He usually resides in San Francisco, will be landing in Boston several days after we arrive in Massachusetts. I probably won't see him much while he visits in MA & NY and I do my own visiting (for our mutual friends- he will not be at ice cream day, for example). You know, if I'm posting from the road I didn't want you to get confused as to why all of a sudden my delightful and pregnant sister had transformed into a not-pregnant man. She'll be recording her own journey to a new home and (tears) getting the results from the exciting gender-determining ultrasound as soon as she gets to OR while I'm making my way by car.

I'll introduce you to our other traveling companion (who has his own web site and everything!) at a later date. He may be inanimate, but he's the most well-traveled inanimate object I know.

I really don't know when this trend started, but my last "change" issue is that one awkward thing about the last week of packing: laundry. At some point in recent years I started wearing skirts through my moves. Maybe its because I'm terribly short, so jeans always fit sort of funny. Anyway, I've been wearing this outfit for like a week. Ugh. Yesterday as I was hauling our media mail boxes into the post office in 80 degree weather (yes, that's a wool top) I realized maybe this whole skirt thing was getting a little silly. Time to break down and do some laundry!

This is me goofing around with the camera when I should be packing. La la la.
:)