Some sadness and anticipation

Today was the day of packing. Moving commences tomorrow! Noah and I spent the morning wrangling details. But first, breakfast!



I packed the food for all the cats and Tag in a plastic bin:





The movers arrived at around 9:30. They spent ALL DAY packing... well... one of them did. The other one spent a lot of time talking and answering his cell phone. Almost dropped dead of boredom and stress more than once... and the animals were REALLY confused about the new guys and how noisy they were and why there were more and more boxes appearing in their home. Little did they realize...



We loaded up almost as soon as the door closed on the movers backs this evening. Jack and Gill went in fairly quietly, having no experience with this type of thing and so nothing to dread. But Bangs and the no name kitty protested LOUDLY at being shoved into the same crate.

We left immediately and NNK cried the whole way there... she crowned the adventure by throwing up on Bangs's back. Poor Bangs!

We arrived at La Quinta in Davis for our first night of hotel living... a good break in for the animals. I'm hoping the stress will abate soon, for all our sakes.

Tag is a champ. He was only a bit confused about why there were cats on his car ride. He'll get used to it.

Fed, watered, and littered, we took a little time to hang out with Leslie one last time. We discussed the finale of Lost (cue deep disappointed sigh here) and shed some tears about being parted from one another. How will we live without Leslie?



Tomorrow we drive away! So tonight we're trying to get used to hotel living. Tag and Noah and I are pros at this, but the cats... well... they are going to need some time to adjust. And by the time they adjust, I think we'll be there :) Misery loves company, so I'm fairly certain the cats will bond over this common trauma. They're already doing better about sharing space with Tag!



One thing I am wondering is how well I am going to be able to sleep with so many animals on my bed...

'Twas the night before...

'Twas the night before moving... the house is in disarray... mostly in the area of the kitchen and the bedroom. We got rid of all the food we weren't planning to move (perishables, etc.) so there's nothing to eat and we're reluctant to make dirty dishes given that someone will be packing them for us tomorrow...

I sold my dresser at our yard sale on Saturday, so I have no where to put my clothes! I packed what I will wear over the next week in a suitcase, and filled a couple boxes with the rest of the clothes from the dresser... but that's still weird.

The kittens are confused. Their condo is gone and some of the furniture from their room has disappeared as well. So they're sprinting around the house and calling each other. Tag is oblivious. It'll kick in later, I suppose :) But we've been trying to travel with him some so that things like this would not phase him. Kitty is reproachful, but then, when isn't she? And Bangs... well, Bangs knows that something is up. He's clingy and needy. Poor guy has been through this more than once.

I'm stressed. I shouldn't be. The movers will take care of all the details here. Perhaps there's some of that control freak in me that can't let go. Mostly I'm stressed about the animals and how they will handle the next week's journey. I've done what I can to make their trip as stress free as possible. I packed plenty of yummy canned food... we have a nice new roomy car to travel in with an air conditioner that works. The hotels we're staying at are pet friendly. I have kitty valium in case someone decides they really can't handle it. Still, it's going to be hard on the cats. There's not much else I can do about that.

So tomorrow around one I'll take the pets and go check into our hotel in Davis. And tonight I'll try to sleep. Wish us luck! We'll keep you posted on the journey.

My last lesson

We're moving this week. Had a garage sale today. Got rid of a lot of stuff, actually. Yipee!

Sadly, I had my last riding lesson on Watson this past Wednesday. We had a great ride, though. I was having some anxiety in the morning, probably connected to the emotion of it being my last lesson. But I told myself I was just going to ride and not hold back... and have a good time. So we did. We did pole patterns and a few cross rails (Leslie did one vertical jump). Watson was SO happy... by the end of the lesson we were going VERY fast (for Watson), and somehow I was managing to keep his head up fairly well.

Noah took lots of pictures and some short videos. And by short videos, I mean SHORT videos :) Here they are for your viewing pleasure

A weekend to celebrate the new job

We decided that when Noah got a job, we'd take a mini-vacation to celebrate. And we are celebrating... on the Russian River... in a cabin called Blackberry Bliss.

We spent the morning eating breakfast on the patio and being divebombed by hummingbirds.





Then we went down to the river, which is right behind the cabin. Tag REALLY enjoyed this.













Then we went to the beach to wear the pup out.







After that we were pretty pooped, so we came back and took a nap. When we woke up we decided to take a walk down to the bridge.







Tonight we'll probably relax in the hot tub and drink some wine... a perfect way to relax before heading back into the mayhem of preparing to move at the end of the month.

One last thing... we got a new car this weekend! Ruby* wasn't going to make the journey across country again. So we got a 2009 Subaru Outback with plenty of room for Tag and any brothers or sisters he might acquire in the future. Her name has yet to be decided, but here she is!



*Note: for anyone who doesn't know, Ruby is my 1991 Acura Integra... she has 250,000 miles on her and has served me well for the past 8 years. Now she's going to go back to her previous owner, Good Friend Dan, who will lovingly care for her until the end of her days.

Change is in the air

Some of you are going to like this post... some of you are not... and there's no amount of explaining that will change that... but I will explain anyway for the rest of you... so here it goes...

We're moving! Again. To the Northeast! I can't even believe I just typed that phrase! Yeah. Noah has been done with his credits to graduate since last quarter. He should walk in June. Instead, we're moving!!!

We found out in March that Noah did not get into grad school. Thus endeth the path toward sustainable ag. Any jobs Noah wanted in that field required at least a master's degree. After some discussion back in December we had decided that if it didn't work out for grad school he would look for jobs in his former career again, and he seems to be glad of the chance to go back to something that he excels at anyhow.

He's been job searching for the past few weeks while taking some easy classes. And these two fantastic companies have cropped up to fight over him! They're both East coast... one in Manhattan, NY, the other in Westport, CT. We were a little surprised at these 2 prospects at first, but now we're excited! Needless to say, there are quite a few details that need to be ironed out over the next few weeks and we will be flurrying and scurrying to get our act together and all our ducks (not to mention cats and dog) in a row.

I'm sad to leave here, sure. Our time in Davis/Woodland has been full of pursuing passions that, had we stayed in LA, we would never have had the chance to pursue. And I've made some good friends here that will be sorely missed.

That said, I'm so happy for Noah to have this opportunity before him. He's amazing and such a hard working, supportive husband... it's nice for him to get some external encouragement like this!

I'm looking forward to the idea of being able to do something I like for a while, too, now... and not have to be so focused on being the breadwinner. Having not figured out my own personal path yet, it has been a stressful few years of working at a job I despise (albeit with people I enjoy and appreciated). I'm looking forward to trying out my skills elsewhere and seeing what I can make of them.

Our departure date is not finalized as of this time, but I will keep this blog updated as we go through the process of moving... again :)

Music soothes the savage beast...

I love this song... for reals... Regina Spektor rocks my socks off!

Consumerism/Fundamentalism/Idealism

This is an excerpt from my journal for the class I'm taking on Globalization and Gender... food for thought... not so eloquently executed... but it's a budding idea :)

During lecture on Tuesday, the professor mentioned Hezbollah and the reason it was so hard to extricate that organization from the communities it inhabits being that it provides much needed services to those communities, in effect taking the place of an impotent or weak government. Having read the article from Mother Jones on gold trade in the Congo, an unsettling thought occurred to me… If an organization like Hezbollah, albeit with ideals based on fundamental Islam, can command such loyalty from the community based on its willingness to provide basic needs for the people, why couldn’t… why DOESN’T a corporation such as Anglogold Ashanti attempt to cultivate the same kind of loyalty? And what would the ramifications of successfully doing so be?

If you think about it, the cost of providing those desperately needed goods and services is minimal in a country like DRC… say they set up a school that taught the kind of ideals/information that AA wanted to put forward. They could take over the world! I know it’s a bit of a stretch to think of consumerism and fundamentalism or idealism on the same plane like this, but it already works in the US. A current example would be the coal mines in West Virginia. Even with their horrible track record for safety and the fact that coal energy is grossly polluting the environment, people in the communities where the mining companies operate fiercely defend those companies… because without them, their communities would have no resources at all. They’ve convinced the communities that their lives depend on the protection of the mining companies’ rights to conduct business there, extract resources for a profit from there.