My First 5K and the Great Schlep Part Deux!

So, I ran 3.1 miles last night without stopping to walk. WOO! And I did it in 36 minutes and 56 seconds. See? I'm number 18 out of 22... which means I wasn't last, which is another victory, haha. I'm done running 3.1 miles at a time... gonna stick to 2.5 then maybe move up again, because I thought I was going to die, and I was starting to think the race coordinators were playing a sick, sick joke when that damned finish line just would NOT show up on the horizon. Needless to say, I have some work to do. =P

In {Vaga}Bonding News, we have begun the serious work of schlepping our stuff. I spent the morning unpacking what we had stored in my parent's basement to make room for the stuff I actually want to keep (books mostly, some wedding stuff, and lots of letters & memorabilia from childhood and dating years), then Jamie & I spent a few hours gutting our bookshelves and some dark corners of the closet for things to stash away and things to sell off.

Here is what we're keeping (you can tell which ones I had qualms about keeping by the comments in parentheses):

• a suitcase each of clothing (we are packing shoes, coats and toiletries in a separate bag)
• DVDs, books, music (collector LPs, some CDs)
• my sewing machine
• my scrapbooking stuff (that stuff is expensive and I use it all the time, I'm not replacing it)
• our computers (because we need that much computing power to watch netflix and surf the web)
• some things from the wedding/memorabilia/scrapbooks/letters
• Christmas/holiday decorations (Those ornaments have a lot of meaning to me... yes, even the dinosaur ones we got on a whim two years ago)
• my rat cage (it's a beaut, and I want it full of fuzzy ratties again next year!!)
• a box of art stuff
• a bag of math stuff
• a laptop/drawing tablet
• an Asus tablet
• some camping stuff
• a car

Everything else must go!! It's a little nerve-wracking (I'm not looking forward to re-collecting my spices and wine gadgets) and sometimes like tearing off an enormous band-aid (no, not my David Bowie wall clock!! It is precious to me!) but I think it will be a relief once we have it all GONE.

I can't believe we will be outta here in like a week and a half! Not even! =D CRAZY! I'm super excited... also anxious that our pile of things to take care of is not ever going to get taken care of, but all we can do is try.

This weekend we are having a big sale to get rid of our extra stuff! We will be donating the proceeds. I'm also selling off a bunch of art, but we're keeping those proceeds. And we always accept donations in the form of gas cards, meals at restaurants, and other fun things that cost money. ;)

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.