You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2011.
We went the Blue Ridge Mountains route to Atlanta instead of the dreadful I95. It’s just gotten so congested that the last few times we’ve gone a distance on 95, it’s been somewhat torturous. But this time we went I81 to I77 to I85 and it was beautiful and traffic free! We still got to pass our ceremonious peach in the sky that has had “other” nicknames…
And we arrived in Atlanta just after dinner time on Monday the 17th. We were so hungry, and excited to be back in this amazing city, that we of course made our way over to R. Thomas. It’s a fabulous fresh/healthy restaurant. I had the “Magic Potato” that was smothered in marinated portabella mushrooms, zucchini, onions and melted cheese. It was truly magical!
Happily eating healthy...
My best friend, Tracey, came bouncing in from work after a long “Payroll Monday,” (which meant nothing to me until she began this payroll career…). And the Atlanta trip was off to a great start!
I’m able to do yoga to this every morning…
So far we’ve been to…
Imagine It! - Atlanta's Children's Museum - Great for a day but more geared toward toddlers for repeat visits.
The Music is really alive and really well here! Check these guys out!
saw Scotty Cram and Ben Deignan at Smith’s Olde Bar
a Border’s that’s closing and EVERYTHING is on sale
made dinner for our best friends and Everett’s God Parents
went to a beanless bean bag furniture store where they encourage jumping on the furniture
did some henna
Went to a MOCA opening with Tracey... Look at this hopping Art Scene in Atlanta!!!!!
We went to an art opening at MOCA and I met up with two old ACA (Atlanta College of Art) professors Don Cooper, Corinne Colarusso.
I have a meeting set up with Don Cooper for Monday to catch up and see some of his new works. Corinne has a show coming up at Sandler Hudson in February that I get to go to that as well. So far this trip is coming along PERFECTLY!!!!
Of course the snow storm hit Atlanta the day after our Free-cycle day and we decided to wait out the poor traveling conditions. I made plans for “bowls of bliss” from Lemongrass in Annapolis with two dear friends as a good-bye lunch. It was so heavenly! I mean what is better than great food with great friends? It’s something that is so important to me; it’s been on my vision board for three years in a row!
OK, so now in this story, it’s January 10th and night falls and I get the strangest sensation… Utoh… Watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, and a fever…
It doesn’t surprise me, that after all that letting go of possessions; my body decided to knock itself into bed to rest. I was in bed for roughly 3 days consciously focusing on (it’s OK that we haven’t left yet… it’s OK we haven’t left yet…) That time afforded me the opportunity to slow down and remember what this is all about. We were blessed to be able to stay at my Stepmother’s beautiful home on the Severn River that she shared with my father. Both of my biological parents have passed away and it was such a treat to be in her home feeling that comfortable even though my father is no longer there.
I took some time to go through some old journals and throw them away. It felt good to discard that old, kind of sad – little girl and realize how incredibly blessed and happy I am! Talk about a color shift! Reading all that teenage/young adult heartache just made me diagnose myself as a dark/gray/purple mess. And now I can look at myself and see those intuitive golden rays of sunlight and know that’s me! For someone who has always sort of been turned off by yellow – that’s saying something!!!
Back to the story – I finally felt human again on Friday the 14th and we planned to leave Saturday the 15th. We set about packing and getting ready and before we knew it, it was dinner time on Saturday! “Sunday it is,” we said!!! “We swear!!!!” Well, it happened. Maryland is back there about 350 miles away from this chair and we are here on our way to our new life!
We made sure we stopped in a hotel with an indoor pool, so it wasn’t just a rented bed for the night, but the start to our adventure!
This has been a great day, and I’m full of the hope and anticipation of all that is happening right here and right now! I love life and I’m so happy to be sharing it with you!
The Thule box and roof rack made it on top of the car.
We are only 7 feet tall when all is said and done! That’s exciting because we even fit in some of those underground parking garages!
I figured out how to fit all those clothes into a bag that is versatile and so incredibly handy! I love my Kelty Basecamp Bureau! I’m so excited about it! I can fit so much into these “drawers” and then I’m actually still organized when we get somewhere. I just cant imagine living out of a messy bag for an undisclosed period of time!
Unfortunately, even though we pared down from an entire 4 bedroom house to a Scion XB; we still have a too much stuff and need to get rid of more!!!! Here I am trying to squeeze as much as I can into this contraption!
I still wish my Scion was just a foot longer in the trunk. Boy the amazing things I could do with an extra 12 inches!!!
We did it though, we fit all our possessions into this car. OK, wait, let me be fair… We have 5 boxes stored at a dear friend’s house (temporarily). 2 boxes of pictures and memorabilia, 2 boxes of toys and one box that is mixed toys and memorabilia. Still not bad in my head!
Now the adventure can begin!
I know I’m a little behind in sharing the unfolding of our adventure. I will be posting a few blogs tonight and over the next couple days to catch you up. This one will pick up from the emptying of our home…
We were planning on heading to Atlanta by the 4th of January, and here is it the 16th and we are still not there. (I’m sitting in a wonderfully comfortable Holiday Inn in Salem, VA). But as the emptying of our home proceeded in its own time, we realized how long something like this can take. Luckily, Alex and I allowed ourselves to take the time we needed in order to feel good about leaving. It’s a major change! Granted this is a really exciting adventure we are undertaking and we wouldn’t change our decisions for the world; but we both honor the amount of letting go that we are asking of one another. Alex has allowed me to take time paring down my wardrobe and jewelry and art supplies and memorabilia. I’ve stayed out of Alex’s guitar selling and music collection selling and recording equipment donating. We have allowed Everett to store a lot of his toys! And we gave him two bags (one huge Lego bag and one medium toy box) to bring on the road. We do not expect a 5 year old to comprehend what his life is about to be like, when we barely understand it ourselves! That being said, it’s been a beautiful two extra weeks to get going on our adventure…
It was our goal to have very little to take to the dump when it was time for us to leave our adored home. As you heard in a previous post, it was amazing how word of mouth spread and people came over the past couple months and bought furniture and musical equipment and art work and more. We never really had to do much in the way of advertising or anything. Facebook and social networking took care of all of that for us.
We realized on New Year’s Day that we had a ton more to do!!! When we loosened out departure date, and let the expectant Atlanta folks know we were unsure how this was going to turn out, Alex and I felt an enormous amount of relief. Why put undo pressure and stress on a situation that’s motivated by Joy? It just didn’t make any sense…
By the 5th of January we decided to have a rummage sale on Saturday the 8th in order to get these odds and ends out of the house! That was an amazing day!!! I was blown away by my interactions with people during this process. It was amazing to come across so many kind-hearted people who gave our possessions loving homes. One by one people came to our home (even though it was sort of snowing…) and lovingly picked through our discarded treasures. I told people that whatever they wanted to pay for something we would say yes. The generosity was amazing! By the end of the day there was a lot less in the house, but we still had more!!!
On Sunday the 9th, we had a FREE rummage day and posted it on Free-cycle. What a spiritually uplifting day that was! My artwork left our home in the arms of people who truly treasured the opportunity to hang my work in their homes. My easel and art supplies went to an artist who needs some abundance in her creative life. A mother of four took some of our kitchen ware and she turned out to be a Christmas-time enthusiast and was thrilled about acquiring all our decorations. It was beautiful story, after beautiful story! I even made tea and shared a few cups with “strangers” while we talked about our upcoming adventures.
After a few more trips to some friends and family to drop off specific things, the house was empty! And we NEVER went to the dump!!! Let me say that again! Yes!!! WE NEVER WENT TO THE DUMP!!!!! Granted we had some big trash days, but most of it was recycle and not trash!
Thank you universe for allowing us to reuse SOOOO many things!
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