Saturday, July 11, 2015

Moved! In!

I am now officially in my new house in my new home town. Love it here. It's really friendly, the weather is delightful, my house is lovely and I am away from that hellhole that was Unnamed University. Who just fired 9 faculty - tenured, tenure-track, visiting, you name it. The best was that they offered severance packages to four staff members, hoping one or two would take it. All four took it! Leaving only one admin support working - who then apparently pissed off the acting dean, and got her ass fired. Nothing subdued about my delight in that, as that particular person had lorded her status over everybody, disregarded instructions and advice and tried to boss around her boss. Bad idea, but it was delightful knowing that she'd been ousted.

It's even more delightful to be 2000 miles away. Everything up here is very different from Unnamed City. It's a more liberal place (it wouldn't take much, as UC was right-wing). Completely different political, social, cultural vibe. Weather is radically different, as New Home Town is a sunny place surrounded by a rather rainy environment. I'm in what's called the Olympic Rain shadow - so it might be miserable and dreary in Seattle, but delightful up here. I'm five minutes from a quiet bay off the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, and maybe 10 from the straits. I grew up in Southern California, and remember my parents talking about how they'd come this close to buying a lot in La Jolla, which was one of my favorite places in the world. That was before it got all richie-rich and chic - when it was a quiet artist colony. Their deal had been about 1946-47 - they'd laugh ruefully, wishing they'd bought it so they could live near the sea. I knew, deep in my heart and soul, that living near the ocean was far out of my reach, but my ideal.

When I found this place last year, it was simply too good to be true. Close to the ocean? Affordable? Surely not. Quirky, cool and... decent weather? Impossible. And now.... now I live here. The town is hoping the place will grow by 50% in the next decade - I don't even want to tell you where it is, because I don't want the character of the place to change. I don't want those x people to come here, change things. Even though I am one of those they're working so hard to attract. Contradictory, I know, but I don't want to be priced out of this place. Or have my friends discover they can't afford to come here for retirement. (Yes, some are already planning on joining me!)

Unpacking is the biggest part of my day; I had about 250 boxes/pieces come off the moving van. I've emptied at least 10 boxes per day, and now have two rooms livable! Very proud of that; there's no way i can get it all done before Christmas, so I'm not gonna hurt myself doing it. I can't unpack the books (about 60 boxes, stacked in the garage) until I have bookcases, and I can't find any I like. And I can't think about buying those until I have a place to put them, which means all the painting has to be done before I buy/build the bookcases and then unload. And I can't paint until I get the non-book boxes out of the spaces that need painting! Et voila! My plan: unpack enough and get used to the space, pick the colors, paint, put it all back in place - then get the bookcases etc.. No time line. I don't have to schedule things yet. That will come. At the moment, I'm living each moment and stopping when I get tired or start hurting.

It's a whole new way of living: listening to what I want to do and doing it. Wow.

1 comment:

  1. Bravo--so glad you have started such a wonderful new chapter in your life. And very glad you are now on 'retirement time,' meaning just what you said--listening to what you want to do and doing it!

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