Some Things You Will Learn About Me (Rambling and a List)

I am 5 days from being unemployed and 21 days from being homeless. And I am thrilled.

Jamie came home early (a welcome surprise to me!) yesterday from his little excursion around the country with his friends George and Greg... he was gone for two weeks, which is the longest we’ve been apart as married people. I accomplished absolutely nothing the entire time he was gone, except for maintaining a spotlessly clean apartment with minimal effort (I suspect this has something to do with an absent husband), and spending lots of time with friends and family, with the primary purpose of staving off the misery of missing Jamie, and the secondary purpose of trying to see as many people as I can before we depart! Oh, and I guess because I like to hang out with them, too.

Still on the to-do list (the one I neglected):

• Get a tablet (still hemming and hawing... we’re cheapskates who don’t like to buy into the machine, but we think we may have legitimate uses for one)
• Complete CouchSurfing Profile
• Update Passports (mine still say “Montoya” on them)
• Cancel PG&E (WOOO!)
• Change Verizon Plan (do we keep one cell phone or ditch both?)
• Sell/find homes for all of our crap
• Learn to drive stick shift (blah)
• Change mailing address (to my parent’s house)
• Clean the car
• Pack
• Leave

Some of these things can’t happen yet. But I am an avid list-maker. So I made a list.

I also have this crazy idea that when I quit I’ll be able to make everyone’s Christmas gifts before we leave. But I don’t think that will happen. I’m expecting some down-time when we house-sit and I’m bringing my sewing machine and art stuff with me so I can get those done. Being unemployed means we have to actually spend some time and energy on presents this year, because we will be poor. =D

Last year my “homemade” gifts ended up costing as much as regular store-bought gifts once all the supplies added up... this year I may end up making my favorite dress into a handbag just to give something to someone. It’ll be like the Gift of the Magi. We have considered not doing presents at all. But presents are a good thing. Within reason. Just so everybody is clear, we usually appreciate time spent with you more than getting to unwrap something (though I do love wrapping paper). So cross us off your Christmas shopping list, please, and just invite us to dinner instead!

We are starting to make more concrete plans for our journey! For instance, we know for sure that we will be leaving in the morning on Sunday the 30th of September! Which reminds me, I have qualms about travelling on Sundays... Because I’m really bad at Sabbath-keeping, and the act of travelling is rarely described as “restful.” Vacationing, sure, but not actually getting from place to place. At least, not for me. I do love roadtrips, but I’m exhausted at the end of a full day of driving. So maybe we can try to work around that. But I haven’t talked to Jamie about it. So we will see.


Another habit I want to keep up is running... I’m a day away from completing Week 7 of Couch to 5K, which means I can run 2 and a half miles, which is crazy, because if you know me at all you know that my relationship with running is fraught with a history of deep-rooted hatred. But I can now run over 20 minutes straight without stopping! I’m really slow at it, but I can do it. Jamie is a runner (but he’s like, good at it. He did a half marathon last November). So hosts, expect to have us creeping out of the house in neon shirts and running shoes in the early hours of the morning a few times a week.

Breakfast of 2.5-mile-running Champions!
Via

Another habit I have is breakfast. I eat 2 poached eggs and a piece of whole-wheat toast and Greek yogurt with honey basically every day. I don’t expect you to cater to my food habits. I’m just warning you that you might find your refrigerator full of eggs and yogurt soon after our arrival.

Now I’m just rambling. I apologize. I'm also really hungry. Maybe in my next post I will actually have something useful to share.