Transition Thanksgiving

Alison says: 

I really should be unpacking right now as Kurt hangs a new reading light for me and a closet light for tomorrow morning. But now that the panic from yesterday has worn off a bit, the procrastination has set in. So the good and funny things must be recorded right now.

Last night I crashed on the boat after a very busy Thanksgiving weekend. Move out of the suburbs will be complete tomorrow after I pick up the last two piles from my soon to be former home. Sigh. One remaining pile got left behind when loading the truck and the other pile is just going to have to get stored/used at school. There is not enough room in my car or Kurt’s boat for stuff that isn’t needed.

Speaking of needed, this has been an exercise in all of that. From coats to socks, which ones are most necessary? Which ones have I never worn because I really don’t like them? I finally tossed the unwrapped 3-pack of panty hose that I pulled from my mother’s house after she died in 2005. I have never worn them. I will never wear them. It’s okay to put them in the bag for give away. It wasn’t easy, but it was no longer hard. I guess that's what I got from most of the purging. Being a teacher is hazardous and creates pack rats. I admit it. But it’s also true that you never know when you are going to need something. So often there are moments when having that box of 100 Popsicle sticks from years ago saves the lame turkey project and makes it into an awesome puppet project. Happened just last week with our first grade reading buddies. Good thing I didn’t pitch those sticks. So all that stuff at the house just isn’t ready to be released. It’s not yet easy AND is too hard to ponder life without. Besides, there’s tons of room in my brother’s garage.

Between rain showers today we managed to get all my essential hanging clothes into the closet. They fit with a bit of room for Kurt to hang some of his stuff! I found the bag with all my underwear and socks. Some one somewhere on one of the blogs I am following suggested putting all that in magazine files wedged in the skinny shelving along the vee berth (boat word!). We found just the right size at Staples, on clearance and buy 2 get 1 free! Total cost: $4.00. And now Kurt can have two of his drawers back.

All in all, the move was low key. My daughter was home for the Thanksgiving weekend and with her help, my nephew’s help and the very wonderful men-hired-through-U-Haul’s help, the move out to storage was not nearly as painful as I had predicted. The weather was amazing all weekend, sunny and mid-60’s. My brother’s garage was plenty roomy. He promised that if Kurt and I decide to escape to the Caribbean on the boat, he will share the proceeds from auctioning my things off with my three children. Total cost: about $500.00

           

Right now my precious daughter is stuck in I-95S traffic, but has invited us down to her place for Christmas.“Unless you want me to experience Christmas on the boat.” It’ll be a Carolina Christmas! So for the rest of today I need to figure out how to make my phone into a data hot spot. Or maybe just connect to Kurt’s till he runs out of data. Then the three suitcases on the vee berth (!) will be unpacked, organized and stowed somewhere before it gets dark on this rainy, chilly Sunday. I am a live aboard, for now!

Kurt says:

Moving from Arlington was surprisingly easy. Alison did well to reduce her possessions. That is not easy, especially when you have some life at your back. the boat easily absorbed those things that were essential and my worries of tripping over things was clearly unfounded. 

We now have the opportunity to rearrange and redesign the interior space to suit or needs which will help when we go sailing. I never bothered to make the boat a home.  I've never had a home just places where I went to get out of the cold, considering the world my home. I am looking forward to turtleing with Alison. So now I have both sweeties, wife and cat, living with me. All is good in the world. 

Move out weekend.

Words to follow.

Last Land Lubbing Weekend

It has arrived and I am sure that's why I can't bring myself to get out of bed this morning. Last weekend of suburban convenience. Last weekend of city water closet outside my bedroom door. Last weekend of cable t.v. Last weekend of private showers. Last weekend of in-unit laundry facilities. Last weekend of big refrigerator and gas stove with oven. Last weekend of home delivery of the Washington Post. Last weekend of my closet with just my clothes that all fit and don't have to be in part stored in the back of my car. I could go on and include the good restaurants and movie theaters and nearby Washington, DC with its phenomenal live theater, but with saving money these days all of that has been excluded from my weekends. It all just feels a bit tragic.

However, isn't the purpose of this blog to keep me focused on the good and the funny? So look! That must be a gratitude list above. That is good. All I need to do now is remind myself that the boat is just a temporary fix to refill my bank account so that by this time next year we will be preparing for a grand holiday season at our new and cozy Grandma house complete with lots of family and friends. How grateful can a wife be that her husband had the wisdom and foresight to buy a boat in the pretty part of Maryland that has the space for his wife and allows for a simpler way of living to make way for her visions? She can be beyond grateful, which makes her...unable to find an appropriate synonym that doesn't connect with "beholden". So thanks to Kurt, my dreams of Grandma house are in this year's plan.

AND the latest winter forecasts are leaning towards a mild, mild winter. Thank you, El Nino! I choose to be beholden to you provided you do your good El Nino thing.

So now I am ready to crawl out of bed, make coffee in my suburban coffee maker with my city water faucet. And with my cable internet I will order my bulk container of Poo Powder (way cheaper than the other product I posted!). Then I will finish packing the rest of the house that I have put off because I was still using all of it.  Tomorrow will be just any regular Sunday morning. Move out day is Black Friday. Still looking on the bright side with that scheduling detail. Thank goodness for choices that make me laugh! Good and funny, accomplished.

Discovery: Lots of People Live on Boats

Alison says: 

Just a quick post today to tell you that people on Pinterest post about living aboard boats. They have linked me to blogs about live aboards. Kurt isn't the only with the idea to live simply and save a whole lot of money. People with dogs, people who do yoga, people who DECORATE their interior space all live on boats. They smile a lot and often sail to where the water is really blue.

I spent my weekend with my last houseguests till my grandma house opens for business. Shelly, Katie and I walked all around Washington, DC while I quietly inventoried all that I will miss about this city. Living aboard Elizabeth is a temporary gig and I'll be back for plenty of wanderings. For now, thanks to Pinterest, I am a little bit inspired and just might go ahead and adopt a dog once school is out this summer.

In the meantime, I'll start here and continue to collect ideas here. Just give me a minute to get started.

Kurt Says: :)

Alison says: 

Not sure gloating was in the rules.

Weekend packing

Empty Nest Gets Emptier

With less than three weeks till move on date, purging is done, packing is midstream and there is not much of my usual moving melancholy to be found. It may be due to Kurt's decision to take Miss Kitty to the boat today(!) or maybe it's because I don't have as many boxes as I thought I'd have. Or maybe it's because I see the long-distance marriage arrangement coming to an end, finally! 

Remember that poetry book by Merritt Malloy, Beware of Older Men? Yes, no one else had heard of it. But it desperately helped me get over being dumped by my first love in 1984. I threw it in the actual recycle bin! And the jars and bottles I collected because I loved their shapes? Recycled! The holiday coffe cups, gone! My sisters would be proud.

The half gallon of Aunt Jemima's syrup is a whole other deal. Yes, I bought it at Costco when I still had three children in the house, at least 10 years ago. And yes, I have moved it three times. Help me, but I can't bring myself to throw it away. It is sitting on our courtyard's "freecycle" stand. The purple scarves are now in someone else's home as well as the butterfly lamp. The syrup remains. Seems there might be a bit of melancholy left or that would be in the trash, eh? Yes, I did look up recipes with massive amounts of syrup in the ingredients list. Couldn't find one I liked. I'll throw it out tonight. I promise.