It's official!

Asheville, here we come!



I hope that everybody has a friend as truly magnificent as Hope. See that side mirror in the corner of the picture? That's because it's some drive-by photography of a possible house to rent, this one also came with a picture of the "For Rent" sign and all the phone numbers. Then she even went to the house to check it out and meet the landlords in lieu of us! In more "Hope is incredible!" news, her new book Chiggers is up for sale at Amazon! And it's available in hardcover! Hardcover! I'm pleased to say that all her trouble was well worth it to us: starting July 1 we'll be this little beaut's lucky renters!

From what I hear the interior is pretty spotless and dreamy: yellow living room, gray (that's right) dining room with a gas fireplace, a green bedroom and a beigey bedroom, a laundry room with a ton of storage space and a half bathroom, a normal bathroom with (my dream come true,) a bathtub, clean white kitchen, backyard!, clothesline!, carport!? The house is near an elementary school and pretty close to the neighborhood pool and Hope's!

We're working out little details like when to ship all our stuff, when we're actually going to head out... The idea of leaving is already very very exciting and very very terrifying. And sad. I said it! It'll be sad to go, we really like our neighbors here and I love my job and my boss and my commute, moving away from Liz is going to be by far the most difficult part.

The Lost Boy and Rambling On

I went to my second acupuncture appointment on Thursday for my carpal tunnel and she decided to use my left arm (the first time she used my left foot.) She stuck a series of five needles in the underside of my forearm and said that I could move my hand, but that it would feel pretty weird. Not only did it feel really weird, but it felt like a deep aching soreness. I closed my eyes and tried to think of other things, make lists of stuff to do, come up with an idea for dinner...and slowly I felt lightheaded and dizzy. I opened my eyes and stared at the wall in front of me, breathing in and out slowly and with extra care. After about a half hour she came back and took out the needles, we both agreed that I'd had my fill and that we'd work with the foot from now on.

Boy still isn't home and it's truly breaking my heart. I feel like mostly all I can do is just keep taking deep breaths; like the needles in arm: "It's okay it's okay it's okay..." As crazy and ridiculous as it sounds, I believe (I like to believe) I have an extra preceptive intuition. Feeling it when someone close is in an accident or is seriously ill, like the day Ollie became suddenly and inexplicably ill and the few days later when Jenna showed up in the middle of the night to tell me he'd died - I just knew it. The last few times Boy's been up a tree there's been this feeling of urgency - I have to go home from work because I know I can find him, I know he's looking for me. This time I can't feel anything, he's my best little bud - sleeps on my legs every night, wakes up with me every morning, enjoys being carried to the food dish when he's too sleepy to that early, comes running for a little cream when we pour the coffee - and I can't find any sure feeling to latch onto. It's like he's just...disappeared.

I can't tell whether to be confident that he'll just come back because he's a cat and can fend for himself, he is and animal, or accept that he's gone and that's that, or frantically scavenge the bushes for him in his possibly injured state. Girl is absolutely no help and has peed on the couch twice. Our current working theory is that he got shut in a garage or someone's house and they went away for the weekend (our theory changes about every hour.) Sometimes we think that one of the little brats that walks by and likes to yell "KITTY!!" and chase after him managed to drag him off or their parent, noticing he had no collar, decided that he was fair game for the taking. (And I mean it when I say brats.)

It does feel like this needs to be resolved quickly and definitely because we've decided to move to North Carolina for real. I'll be flying out June 22 to hopefully find us an apartment and possibly scout around for a job (or two). If everything goes as "planned" we'll be driving out sometime in the beginning of July. We're 80% settled on packing up all our stuff in a pod-thing from Door to Door and having it shipped out to us, it's a little pricey, but frankly not that much pricier than a U-Haul would be much less of a hassle (we think.) We're also trying to convince James to fly out to California and hang out, help us pack, and drive with us. It sounds like he's not so keen on the driving, but I'm trying to persuade him, we're hoping to make it in just a few days maybe stopping in Albuquerque and...oh..say... Garland?

We're excited and sad. I don't really want to leave without Boy or at least knowing ... where he is? what happened?

Any support/advice welcome.

P.S.- The acupuncture is helping the carpal tunnel, my wrist doesn't feel as swollen, most of the shooting pains have subsided and there hasn't been any numbness and only manageable aching. I'm optimistic.

Here it is...

We're moving to Asheville, North Carolina.

Clearly we've had no intention of staying in California, and while things keep appearing to be ironing out - finally arranging the apartment so it's comfortably livable, the rabbit runs, we see Liz all the time, we're spending more and more time with George's new co-worker who's awesome, other people from Vermont are popping up in front of us every time we go to the grocery store, when it gets right down to it there's an awkwardness to living here that won't go away. I feel like I'm someone else when I go out to do things, most of my free time is spent checking my email, knitting & listening to Sherlock Holmes podcasts - nothing new, exciting, or progressive is being accomplished and I don't like it.

I do like Liz and Yannick and Dyani and Shannon and Emily and our neighbors and the quaintness of our apartment - but I also like Hope and the east coast and a bedroom I can stand up in and a closet that's not a hallway to the bathroom and antique stores I can afford to shop at...

We did seriously consider moving back to Vermont, but I'm not ready for that, I've got stuff to do. (It is only a 14 hour drive or short JetBlue flight away...)