times they are a-changing

Thanks for the kind comments and encouragement in my last post. I needed that.

After church on Sunday the word "peace" kept coming to mind. I need to trust that even though I don't know where we're going God does. It might not be where I'm thinking but it's out there. We're going somewhere.

And we're prepping for it. Dan made the appointment for the movers to come get our stuff and take it away, and I am listing things on Craigslist because we're not taking that old hand-me-down couch with us anywhere.

We got that couch after much debate. We already had a futon and used that as the couch but I got tired of the angle that the couch put us in when we were spooning and watching Battlestar (yep, we're nerds). We needed a couch in my opinion. Dan disagreed. It would be heavy, and probably cost money, and just an all over hassle.

I won though. It was cheap and on craigslist and we bought it from this hipster couple that was moving back home to Virginia and they were selling stuff so they'd have gas to get home. Once we got the thing home we realized how stinking uncomfortable that thing was. So I guess I didn't win in all respects. We just started stuffing the couch with more pillows so that we wouldn't fall into the defunct pull out bed. It worked.

I guess we'll be back to the futon at our next place. Which is probably a more sanitary option anyway.

When things don't go the way you planned.

From our first trip together. - San Juan Islands, 2009

In the past couple of years I've realized that I like plans.

I like to have an agenda, to know where I am going, what I'll be doing. I used to think I was a pretty flexible, easy-going person. And, I don't think I'm inflexible. If things change suddenly, I can and do roll with it.

But, as a general preference, I like plans.

Then sometimes I realize that my plans aren't the best. Not in that elusive, "God just knows so much more than you and just laughs and laughs at you because you think you're making plans and you're wrong." (I'm not sure I've ever really liked the idea of God making fun of me as some infantile creature who runs around making stupid mistakes and stupid plans - in fact, I don't think that jives with my belief that God created me with purpose and intelligence and in his image.)

Back to me making plans. The plan was for Dan to be out of the military in October. I would have left some weeks before that to the place that Dan would have accepted his next job and found an apartment and waited for him to join me.

It would have been a place near two or three (or five or ten) really great law schools that I could apply to once I had taken the LSAT.*

It would have been in California. It would have been closer to our family. I would've found an awesome rental with tons of space so I could get a huge dog (the dog was imperative).

It was going to be a really smooth transition, in my head. My plans were perfect.

When I found out that Dan's contract is longer than we had thought I was really upset. I tried to mask it. I didn't want to take it out on Dan because it wasn't his fault. AND it wasn't that much longer, I tried to tell myself.

I was overreacting. And hyperventilating.

I wouldn't be going back to California when I thought. I would be staying in North Carolina for longer than I thought.

So, now we are at the time when we thought the moving process would be starting. When I would've been packing up our apartment and figuring out logistics for our move back across the country.

And, can I tell you, it's a good thing that is not the case.

Finding a job for Dan has been difficult, to say the least. And I can't even imagine what state I would be in if we were moving with no prospects of hire.

It's a good thing my plans didn't work out.


*If you know where this place exists please let me know so Dan can apply there and I can be virtually guaranteed a spot in some Law School. ;)

the perils of moving

As I may have mentioned previously, we are moving (same city, different apartment). 

Obviously, the cat is very excited about the bigger and better things that await us, or at least a bigger and better apartment (and she's not wrong -- it has a fireplace: #romantichomeevenings). However this had led to some very peculiar behavior on my part. We were almost out of toilet paper and I was trying to make it last because it seemed silly to purchase more toilet paper right before a move (because in my head toilet paper doesn't do well in transit) unfortunately, it didn't last so off to the drug store I went. (Did I tell you we had 109 heat index today? And, that I have no air conditioning? Okay, that is my last complaint of the day). 

I have no clue how to pack. You might be wondering how I got to North Carolina and the answer would be: the Marine Corps sent packing people. For liability reasons I could not physically pack a thing, the glamorous military life has its perks. This is not the case now however (seeing as Dan does not take kindly to being declared the packing man and therefore in charge of all box-filling duties) and packing is daunting and long. 

I've also gotten into this mood where I just want to get rid of anything and everything we don't need. Like that big t.v. we ditched for the sleeker, thinner flat screen. Or, the shelf unit we never opened. Or, the three extraneous (no amount of math accounts for that many dvd players) dvd players we have from our respective stockpiles. Some of this stuff is actually sellable so I experienced my first foray in the Craigslist world this week. I sold an unused hamper (cha-ching). I almost sold our old t.v., 32" for $25? Everyone wanted this baby. Until one woman came over to check it out and informed me that it is in fact a 25" t.v. Who knew? I didn't realize you only measured the screen. Oops.