Maine Or Bust!

It was time to take off. Maine was calling us, begging us to leave brown, dreary, land-locked Idaho and come sample their snowy, ocean swept lands for a time.

It's been a rough few weeks prepping for the move but finally, Thursday morning, we gathered the last of the luggage and gave our pets, our kids, really, a last, heartfelt goodbye and left for Salt Lake City, where we would leave on a red eye for New York's JFK and then, Maine. Portland, to be more precise.

For some strange reason, as we loaded our hefty bags into the in-laws car and drove to Utah, it never really clicked that we were MOVING, not just taking a vacation. It was strange to think that such a momentous thing was happening, yet it felt more... exciting than scary. I can't help but think this is a good thing, that it means we're confident about the future and that it's right for us, not that we are making some sort of horrible mistake. We're pretty cautious folks and think things through pretty thoroughly. A lot of people are acting like we may be a bit simple or our heads are in the clouds, but the timing seems right to us.

We have someone to live in the house (HI mom and Ben!) we have no human children, we are young and energetic - what's to keep us from trying a new adventure, one that may prove to be the place of our dreams?

So we went for it. Broken arm and all, we said yes to my transfer and took off, with fifty pounds of life in black bags each (Plus a carry-on, of course!) to start a life three thousand miles away.

No car, no home, one of two jobs... We've got some days ahead that should be pretty interesting!



The first day was.... Less  heartwarming and loving farewell than we thought it would be.

We planned to spend it in Salt Lake with Lindsay's brother, sister in law, their son, her sister and her parents. We managed some of that. Her sis in law, Cami was amazing! She took the day off, took James, her son out of school, all to spend the day with us, and it was a blast! We went shopping, inadvertently spent a while at the thrilling and well designed Children's Museum without paying for the privilege, looked at wallpaper so that Sue could re-do her dining room, bought craft supplies, all with a good amount of giggling and enjoyment.


I do have to say that it was a combination of bad planning and a generally crappy city, bit some of the thrill was sapped by the long drives between the stops, often seemingly circling the entire city and driving past previous stops to get to the next destination, but overall, the first part of the day was really nice.

The dinner was delicious, though bittersweet. There were a few things that kind of annoyed me, but nothing worth noting, not here. Afterwards, Marissa and her BFF, Ron left. He had to work the next day and she declined to stay with us. So we headed over to the Barnes and Novble where I hoped to fondle a nook, my new item that I covet openly, gently poking at it in public, eyes tearing up with joy.

There was a pretty amusing moment in the book store when a wide eyed manic librarian type tried to convince me that I MUSTMUSTMUST read Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and that my son (James, who looks nothing even remotely like me) and I would adore it! She even shouted at us from across the store at one point, agreeing with a whispered conversation we were having together. Those library types have ears like bats!

Anyway, we tussled with a haunted trash bin and eventually met up with Dylan and Rich and we headed to D's house. We were a bit worried about our luggage. We could each only bring one carry on and one checked bag. The Carry-on had to be a certain size and the checked had to be under fifty pounds.  When you are bringing everything you'll need for at least 3 months in two bags, it's incredibly hard to limit yourself like that, especially when you read as much as I am wont to do.

Luckily, according to extremely unscientific method of crookedly setting a bag on the bathroom scale, each weighed in at just under the limit. Which was good cause otherwise, I was gonna have to line my pants with Hard Case Crime books and shove a couple of William Lashner novels into my underpants.

They don't really leave you a lot of room for tearful goodbyes in airports any more. In SLC, you have around a hundred feet that common folk can be before you enter the exclusive realm of the ticket holder. Rich and Dylan dropped us off and lingered as we loaded our (Barely) under fifty pound bags, then we were on our own, ready to fly to a different part of the world. Yeah, same country, but no one can tell me it's the same part of the world. I mean, their ocean starts with an "A" and no one knows what fry sauce is!

And that's all ya get for now!  I'll try and write more later, but we're off to dinner now!

Hahahhahahah Serialized cliff-hangery! I love it!

(Well, that and the fact that typing still hurts my arm and I have a LOT of ground to cover....)