Packing, moving, and leaving

I opened this blog shortly after I got back from Denver, Colorado, where I am now writing this second entry in a Peaberry coffee shop. I opened the blog, fiddled with it that day, and haven't been back since. Now, however, seemed like a good time to add an entry.

In the last month, I've had more meals with friends than I have ever had in such a short time span. Looking back, I think I probably ate out almost every day, for at least one meal. I definitely put on some fat. Not much, maybe, but some. I am certainly going to miss a lot of people in Virginia--perhaps you can't live in a place for almost four years and not get attached to some people--and it was great to see so many people, though I wish I had gotten to see everyone. I guess a few must be missed in any farewell.

In addition to trying to fit as many people as possible into my schedule for goodbye-meals, I also had to (YUCK!) pack. And although I know I've never owned my own home or anything like that, I've still managed to accumulate a fair amount of stuff over the years. I trimmed it down a lot by giving some to friends and donating a bunch to the Salvation Army. I mailed some stuff back to Hawaii, left a few boxes with friends in Virginia, left a few more with my former roommate to mail to me once I get to Japan, and then a bunch went into my car. That packing, though, that's for the birds. I think I might avoid moving forever just so I won't have to pack again. It always goes so smoothly for the first 50 to 75%, then I start getting all sorts of little things I don't want to get rid of. Anyway, all told, I've managed my stuff quite well and it's going to be stored in one place or another. My friends didn't think I'd be able to get all the stuff in my car into it, but I managed and even have small spaces to cram other little things I might pick up along the way.

So, after several very sad goodbyes, especially on Sunday, my last day in Virginia, I got in my car, loaded with all my stuff, and headed west, aiming for I-70 to get to Denver. I did this drive once before, in December of 2005, a mad rush across the US, desparate to avoid any more bad weather--I'd been waylaid by a snow storm my first night out and spent the night sleeping in my car parked under the roof of a bank's drive-thru. That time, after I woke up in the morning, I drove 1500 miles in 26 hours, stopping only for gas and a two-hour nap. That was not a fun drive, so I thought this time I would slow down, stop for some real sleep in a motel and arrive in a not-so-exhausted state. So on Sunday, I got in my car around 5:30 PM, and headed out. I planned to drive until the next morning, get a motel, sleep until that night, and drive into Denver Tuesday morning. Well, I drove until about 2:30, but then I was too tired, so I stopped at a rest area, propped myself up on some pillows (leaning against all my stuff in the passenger seat, with no room at all to recline the seat), and slept for an hour. I drove two more hours after that and then had to stop again, simply too tired to go on. Two more hours of sleep and the sun was up. Then it was easier to stay awake. I thought I'd drive past Kanasas city, another five or six hours of driving, I think Well, get past Kansas City and there's a toll-road all the way to Topeka, another hour or more. So I get past Topeka and start looking for places...but I'm thrifty, so I keep looking, not finding any I'm willing to pay for. So, after another few hours of driving, I find I'm in Salina, Kanasas, and it occurs to me as I leave the fourth hotel asking for too much money, that with the time change to Colorado, if I just started driving, I could get there in 8 or 9 hours, about 9 or 10 Monday evening. I call my friends, they say ok, and off I go. So, with only three hours sleep, somewhere in Illinois or Missouri, I arrived in Denver last night, exhausted but relaxed, pleased to know that I didn't have to go anywhere for four days. And I didn't have to pay for a place to stay.

So here I am, taking advantage of free wi-fi internet at a coffee shop, waiting for a friend to meet me for dinner, and breathing in deeply the exhilarating and slightly frightening feeling of freedom that I've only ever found when moving to a new place, a whole new life in so many ways.

I don't think I'll always be so verbose...I don't think I'll have the time, but who knows...today I guess I just feel like writing.

To those of you in Virginia, I miss you.