When will I learn?

Frazzled thoughts ahead. Proceed with caution.

I shouldn't be surprised but, all of a sudden we have just over two weeks until we move! See, I told myself not to worry too much about getting things done until I came back from Brother's college graduation. After that, I told myself, that's when you'll buckle down and become a productivity machine. Or, you know, I could sit around doing nothing in a state of blissful denial. I chose poorly. I am no stranger to moving and yet, the process overwhelms me each time. Moving raises so many questions. What should I leave out? Do I actually need this anymore? Did we really move all this crap out here just two years ago? What does a bulldozer rental cost?

This move is particularly overwhelming as it's just Boyfriend and I doing the grunt work while I'm working full-time and he's finishing his Master's thesis. Oh, and we're going away for Memorial Day weekend and apparently, we're still only two human beings. Super powers would be great right now, if you know a guy who could hook us up.

Until then, we have called in reinforcements. Brother is currently basking in an unscheduled, post-grad summer. I put a stop to that! He gets here a few days before we head out. In exchange for dinner at our favorite Charlotte restaurant and a little road-trip adventure, he has agreed to fly out, help close down the apartment and drive back with us. His main duties will be as a sanity-saver/assistant dog-wrangler. Not that being alone in the car with a clingy terrier for two days wasn't going to be awesome...thank you, Brother!

Someday, mark my words, I will perfect the moving process. There will be lists and charts and step-by-step directions! I maaaaay be a bit attached to the idea of being in charge, all the time, always. Back to the wild world of cardboard boxes and sharpies- wish me luck!

Where am I from?

You know the “hometown” space on Facebook? I have no idea what to put there.  Seems like a relatively simple decision, right? But is it where I was born? Where I grew up? Where I live currently? Ok, I know it’s not the last one as I’ve only lived in Charlotte for a couple of years and plus, Facebook has a whole different spot for “current city” so that’s how you know it’s different.

So if my hometown is where I was born then it’s Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

Photo Credit

Both of my parents grew up in Michigan, my mother in a small town not far from the Mackinaw Bridge and my father farther down state, as they say, in Midland. We only lived in Marquette long enough for my younger brother and I to be born there. I don’t think I was quite two years old when we moved. To Salt Lake City, Utah. Right? I’ll explain. My dad is one of those people who actually did the job he daydreamed about when he was twelve, making movies. As he tells it, he read every book in Midland’s little public library about cinema, made monster movies with his friends and learned all he could about any type of camera. It all paid off. After working for a small movie studio in Wisconsin, Hollywood came calling, thus the move.

Salt Lake was the stepping-stone and we spent a few years living in what I’ve been told was the cutest little house with equal views of the neighborhood park and the mountains. But my dad’s gigs in Los Angeles were becoming more and more frequent so we packed up again and moved to Hollywood. We lived in an apartment just a few blocks from Paramount Pictures. Dad worked on movies, commercials and music videos while Mom managed the building where we lived. It was, as the photos demonstrate, a great time. A fabulous variety of fresh foods, unique restaurants and celebrity sightings combine with perfect weather almost outweighed the cost of living and hazards of a large city. Almost. We were living in Hollywood in April of 1992 when the Rodney King riots broke out. My mother put her foot down when she realized the evening news did not have Smell-O-Vision; we could smell the smoke from our home. A brief stay in a hotel and my parents decided to move to Kansas City where my father’s brother and his family were living.

If my hometown is defined by where I grew up, it’s definitely Kansas City, Missouri. We moved to Kansas City just after I turned five years old. We moved around the metro area a couple times but the greater Kansas City area is, I think, the closest thing I have to a hometown. I grew up on great barbecue, terrible sports teams and hundred degree summers.

Photo Credit

Now, as I mentioned way up there, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina while Boyfriend gets his Master's degree. But! We're moving again. Why, you ask? I want to live closer than a plane ride away from the fam and Boyfriend has found a PhD program that tickles his fancy so, we're off to Indiana this summer. Here, I hope to share the adventures of moving and settling once again. Welcome!