status of our kitties

Four months ago, one of our family went missing. At the time, we were looking at other places to move, but when our kitty went missing, we put our search for a new home on hold. 

After Djarfur had been missing a couple of months, we realized we couldn't wait forever, so we started looking again. We found two solid possibilities near where were already living, applied for them both, and got the one we wanted. 

Moving is stressful of course, especially for kitties. Our two remaining kitties, Feiminn (Djarfur's litter mate) and Noodle didn't really get along before we moved. Feiminn was the tender and sensitive kitty and Noodle was the proud, outgoing, athletic kitty. Their roles completely flipped when we moved. Feiminn settled into the new house right away - especially since we have our own private back yard that is fenced in. Noodle was freaked out for days, and by the time we started letting him back outside, he kept going back to the old place. 

Here we are more than a month later, and Noodle still keeps going back to the old place. We have a routine now. If we can go get him before 9am, we do. After 9am he is on his rounds (?) and is not available. If we don't get him in the morning, we get him between 8 and 9pm. 

At first Noodle *hated* being in the car, so we switched to walking the two blocks with our cat carrier and each taking a handle on the way home (Noodle is not a light kitty). Every time we passed Cafe Niche, he meowed in complaint. 

We did that for a few weeks and then it was clear that this wasn't going to keep him at home either, we went back to driving over and bringing him in the car. Weirdly, it has had the effect of habituating him to the car and he no longer complains in the car. That will be useful the next time he goes in for vaccinations. 

Meanwhile, Feiminn is super chill. He has lots of places in the house where he likes to hang out, but he spends a lot of his day underneath the back deck, rolling in the dirt. He has never been happier. It's been wonderful to see, because he was nearly despondent in the months after his brother disappeared. 

Noodle is very lovey and attentive when we are home. He even goes to bed with us sometimes. But then, sometime between 12pm and 1am, he decides to meow loud enough to shake the house and starts bouncing on me and Dan. Between my earplugs and Dan's CPAP machine, it's hard to get us out of bed but that about does it. So we shut Noodle out of our bedroom. By the time we wake up, he is gone. 

I don't know what it will take for Noodle to stay home and get used to his new neighborhood. My animal communicator friend noted that Noodle has a high status in the old neighborhood (he is very popular there among kitties and humans) and no status in the new one. Also, it seems we only have one other kitty on this street, and I believe I saw that kitty leaving out of our pet door last week. 

Dan figures that 'when it gets cold', Noodle will stay home. I want to believe that, but still, that seems like several months away (we have averaged 97 degrees for the last six weeks. Averaged.) 

I welcome your advice. Also with finding Djarfur. We miss him still, and every day I grieve his loss, wishing I knew how to get him home. 

The Story of Samantha Sophia 2002-2015

Okay I think enough time has passed now that I can write about what happened.

We had a holiday party on Saturday, December 19. Sam usually hid in the back room when more than three people came into the house, and when she didn't move for a few hours, we thought that was really strange but wrote it off as her learning to be more social. A couple hours after everyone left, she started behaving very strangely. Constantly walking around the house, walking on parts of us and the bed she doesn't normally go, constant swallowing. At 2am we decided to take her to the emergency vet clinic.

A few very expensive tests later, the vet told Dan that Sam had no platelets - no cause, no cure - and would not live to Christmas. While we were there Sam became very lethargic and went blind. It was so hard to watch. We were given the options of leaving her there for more tests, having her put down, or taking her home. We opted for the latter. We got home at 4am and she was totally unresponsive. She went peacefully an hour later.

It was just so sudden and there was no way we could have prepared ourselves for that, nothing we could have done differently to help. She did not suffer.

It's been a long time since I have had to mourn the loss of a loved one. She was my baby, we were together for 13 years - a long time for her breed as I understand it but I expected her to live at least to 17. That cat has been all over the place though - she was born in Korea, I took her to Canada in 2003, she moved between Alberta & BC for a few years until we settled in BC, Then we immigrated to the United States in 2013, moved to North Carolina and then Utah eleven months later. She lived in Utah just nine days shy of two years.

This all happened at a very interesting time, actually. If it had happened during a semester I would have been completely messed up. Because she died just at the beginning of the Christmas break, I had time to grieve with no work obligations - and we had no social plans for Christmas either (thank the heavens!) If it had happened at the end of this spring semester when we are also planning to move out of the house we are renting, that would have been difficult too. So really, it could not have come at a better time. Kitties know that, I think. Still, it's been hard getting used to our house being really quiet.

In the days that followed her passing, we took out all the kitty supplies. Her two scratching posts were nearly threadbare anyway, and with the mobility ramps that Dan built in 2013, all her paraphernalia took up a lot of space. I gave away her food to neighbours. We had to clean up from the party anyway but we have completely rearranged the house again.

It's also really changed our perspective on things. It was unconscious, but we had planned to stay in Salt Lake after I graduate partly because we didn't want to put her through another move. We don't have to worry about that now. We can also go away for a week or weekend and not need to find someone to look after the kitty. We definitely plan to get cats again in the future but not until we are a bit more stable and we know where I will be working.

During the week around New Year's eve, I looked after my friend Jenn's cats while she was away. She didn't know I had lost my companion. It was so nice to be loved up by her big fluffy kitties - I think they knew I was grieving for my baby.

Because of the full-on winter weather we had for the two weeks over the holidays, we weren't able to find a place to bury Sam. Finally, on New Year's day we found a good place in the western desert and gave her a perfect send off. We did everything we could for her, and now it's time to let her go and move on. I still get sad and cry every day when something reminds me of her, of course. She's the only pet I have ever had in my adult life. But as a gardener, I understand that all things must die that others may live.

December 26: The Day we entered Texas

You don't realize how big Texas is until you have to drive across it.

 Driving through Houston was kind of insane.

 Lots of flat. We were in the flat part of Texas.  Apparently that's funny.

 The tiniest acorns I have ever seen!

 At this rest stop, Dan could not believe how big and tall these RVs were.

 Oh no! We had a tire blow out on the trailer on a stretch of highway that was mercifully not very busy. It was 13 miles west of Ozona, TX.

 The view from where the blowout was.

 This is what happens when you put more than the recommended weight and drive faster than, say, 60mph, as the friction heats these babies up. Both tires were steaming when we stopped.

 We had no choice but to unhook the trailer and drive back to Ozona and find a tire shop. Thank the heavens it was the day after Christmas, we had no trouble finding one.

Scenery!

We spend that night in Kerrville, Texas, where we had amazing Mexican food for dinner. Probably the best beef tacos we have ever had. There was an entire avodado in my salad!

With the blowout, the trip became very tiresome (no pun intended), and Dan decided he would at some point pick up another extra tire for when the other one was about to go. At every gas station and rest stop, the bulge got a bit bigger.

To be continued...

Today I learned what mansplaining is

We are in the last week or so of packing up our house and belongings and getting ready to leave, and as we are divesting ourselves of stuff, we have posted a number of things on Craigslist. Yesterday we sold the Nissan Dan drove here with back in 2011, as well as the picnic table we had been using in lieu of a kitchen table. We have lots of random things up for sale, like you would expect when moving, including a pile of lumber that we got at a going-out-of-business auction in the spring.

It's basically scrap lumber, I don't know if there are any full pieces there, but there is a lot and it is in good shape and we decided to sell the whole lot of it for $50 - a reasonable deal.

I have had two inquiries so far - one fellow wanting to come look at it (and he did, though when he didn't show up at the time he said he would I called to find out he was late). He arrived in a suit driving a car, he's wanting it for his rental properties and pointed out to me what a 2x4 is. Are you kidding me?  Yes I know what a 2x4 is. I spent the summer/fall/winter of 2012 building forms, pouring concrete, and building a foundation for a house thankyouverymuch. Not to mention that I basically grew up with power tools - my parents owned a construction equipment rental company when I was growing up. I was swinging a hammer at age 5. I have probably used more power tools than Mr. Suit. Well, he couldn't decide, wanted to let me know tonight whether he would take it. I said I need to know sooner rather than later because we are moving and I have other people interested.

Enter guy number two. He emailed me last night to tell me he would take the whole lot. When I spoke to him today (at the point where I figured the first guy was a write-off) first he said he would call me back later (which he did) and then when he did call back he was asking how many complete 2x4s there are, and then explained to me what a 2x4 is. Good f***ing grief. As if by nature of being a woman I am somehow deaf to lumberspeak. It's scrap lumber, buddy, I don't know how many complete 2x4s there are, you will have to come see for yourself. But it's all been sitting outside since May and is definitely not going to be suitable for framing in a roof. Even I, a mere woman, know that.

The other issue is that of language. I'm pretty good with piecing together conversations with broken English - I have lived in Korea and Japan and among many people for whom English is their second language. But I tell you what - I cannot seem to grasp the Southern tongue. Whenever we outsiders from other places hear Southerners speak, we refer to it as them "speaking Southern" to each other. I can only grasp about 40% of what is being said, no joke. Sometimes it is the pronunciation that throws me, sometimes it's the jargon or local idioms, and sometimes it is the unexpected repetition. I have to work really hard at paying attention to grasp what is being said to me sometimes.

At any rate, I felt rather insulted at the whole 2x4 thing and decided to share it with y'all. (The other night at the restaurant: "Y'all's meals should be here soon" Why not just say "your"?) I aired my grievances about this on Twitter and had a couple of friends (@ohsweetie and @jellidonut) tell me this was "mansplaining". OH now I get it.

There are no Cockroaches in Utah

So, we're moving to Utah next month.

I can't really go into details at this point but we're doing it for family.

I have lived in a lot of places and moved around a lot (I know some of my readers can relate) and I cling to the dream of one day staying in one place long enough to settle in and unpack, but unfortunately North Carolina is not that place. It's too far away from family who need us.

I have been here nearly ten months now, if you can believe that. In that time I have worked four jobs (furniture store, live music night club, health food store and art gallery), met hundreds of people, swam in the Atlantic Ocean, seen all three of North Carolina's aquariums (and one in South Carolina), visited our nation's capital three times, found every Asian grocery store in a 150-mile radius, saw sorghum, tobacco and cotton growing for the first time, experienced fire ants, killed dozens of cockroaches in my house, and have learned to love the south and all its charms. I will miss being here.

As a result of my jobs (especially managing the bar) and my relationship to the brewery (i.e. my husband's job), I have managed to build a lot of social capital in a way that was never possible in any of the other places I have lived. There are some really amazing people in this community and I have come to develop some great friendships. I am also pretty sure that I speak differently now - I bet if I go visit my people in Canada now they will notice how differently I pronounce vowels...

I have about four weeks to pack up the house, we will be traveling over Christmas. We have family near Salt Lake City, where we are moving to. I haven't been to SLC since our honeymoon in 2009, but certainly the few times I have been through Utah I have enjoyed it there. It is a beautiful state.

It turns out that Salt Lake City is a hotbed of health informatics research, the field I have not been in since I graduated with my Master of Science in 2009 and to which I hope to return. I have already put out some feelers and with any luck will be gainfully employed with the University of Utah in some capacity by my 40th birthday in March. Dan... well, you know, he can do any number of things well so he is extremely employable.

What about the Mormons, you say? I'm sure they won't hurt us. Just now we are in the land of the Free Will Baptists, and I think the Mormons speak a different language entirely, so we are not concerned. Even if we were at risk of converting I'm sure we wouldn't be eligible because we can't have kids and one wife is all Dan can handle. (Though having a second wife in the house to keep up with the housework would be useful, haha!)

So once again we will be divesting ourselves of the stuff we have accumulated and buy ourselves a trailer for the essentials. Dan has some wood and metal tools that will be coming with us, and hopefully one day soon he will have a shop where he can build stuff for us. But it will be, unfortunately, starting over again. We have very little furniture so will have to buy a dining set and living room furniture when we get there - we will have time for thrift store shopping when I get there I hope.

It's a bittersweet move. Just when I feel settled, we need to uproot, but I am happy to be nearer to family (my sister and mother are ecstatic - cheaper flights for them to come visit). I am also happy to be living in a city again that has things like coffee shops that are open evenings and weekends, bookstores, yarn shops, public transit, orchestra concerts, and access to nature. Also: IKEA! (Our nearest one here is clear across the state and is an entire day trip to get there and back).

I'll be sending out holiday greeting cards in the next week - if I don't have your mailing address, please let me know and I will be sure to send you one!

a courier that doesn't work weekends

Hahaha turns out Loomis doesn't work weekends. So on Friday night I darn near squeed with excitement at the fact that they finally were in possession of my passport/visa around midnight, local time. Earlier in the day the person I spoke to on the phone said it's pretty much overnight. What he neglected to tell me was that they don't work weekends.

Thanks, assholes.

Well, we spent most of yesterday packing up the truck which mostly took my mind off the fact that my visa still had not arrived.

We had about 20 cardboard boxes of books which Dan carefully individually wrapped with Saran Wrap, and they went under the platform where the kitty box is.

We don't know what kind of weather we'll be encountering, but we are sure to be driving through snow and rain at some point, so we need to keep things dry. So the big plastic lock box will contain blankets, Sam's litter box, and her food and water. We call it the kitty condo. This serves a number of purposes. It is the only place where the litter box can go. It gives Sam a place to hide, or for us to put her while we are fussing with the cab of the truck. She will come and go through a hole cut in the box, through the sliding glass window in the back of the cab.

Not a great photo with all the reflection, but hopefully you can see where we would slide the window open and the kitty can go in. It will be much more comfy when the blankets are in.

I can be a bit spastic and controlling at times, particularly just before a big move like this, which ends up just paralyzing me. Luckily Dan is here to take the reins and direct me, and I am good at just carrying boxes, especially if they are heavy. Moving is stressful, and I have been receiving tons of phone calls and messages asking "what's happening?" - and fair enough - but it is really just adding to the stress. I have to relax a bit and let events simply happen, since I have no control over when I will get my visa, when we can actually leave. I haven't been sleeping, which at first was due to adjusting to sleeping with someone who snores, but even that fades and I'm just awake awake awake for hours in the early morning, thinking and wondering why the hell this is all taking so long. I'm having a hard time relaxing and it is definitely wearing on me.

So we have another day in Victoria. And it's practically half gone already. Dan is working on the final structure for the truck, which entails plywood and tarp and bungees to secure and rainproof our things. Almost everything is packed, except for the things we'll need for a week of driving. I have time to do another load of laundry. Maybe we'll watch a movie this afternoon - there is no shortage of entertainment in this house.

I'm looking forward to being able to relax, which will hopefully be just after we cross the border tomorrow (please let it be tomorrow). If we do get there, we should be in Missoula by midnight, if the winds are with us.

hurry up and wait - again: more uncertainty

A week ago when I had my immigration visa interview in Montreal, I was told to expect three days for the processing of my visa and up to five days for it to be shipped to me. It's been a week now, or five business days, and it appears it hasn't even arrived at the courier to be sent yet. I don't expect there was a problem, as this was a standard procedure, but goodness, why is it taking so long? Am I looking at the wrong places for my information? Is my visa actually on its way and I'm just checking the wrong websites?

The original plan was for us to start our trip tomorrow. That was based on the assumption that it would have arrived today or before, and if it showed up in tracking, as it should have by now, we would have had a better idea of when to actually expect it. I suppose we were optimistic in anticipating the date of the visa's arrival, but even so, it would be nice to know that it has at least been sent. Good grief.

Thus, we now don't know when we will be leaving, but as Dan prepares the truck and I continue the packing, we will be ready to leave as soon as it comes.

It's still exhausting though. I hate moving, packing, thinking about the thousand details that need to be done. What will we need for our trip? How much clothing to pack and which garments will I need? I've packed most of our clothes now and am just doing a (hopefully) last load of laundry.

At any rate, our departure is once again unknown, alas. Will keep you posted.

Will you see me again before I leave?

I think I have mentioned some time in the past that I have moved away a lot. Moved away from, moved to lots of places. There is always that hectic time in the weeks leading up to my departure when people start asking me if they will see me again before I go. This has happened to me several times this week, and I can only answer "I don't know."

Because I have moved around a lot, I have made lots of friends in each place and in some cases, those friendships stick, others fade away. I don't use facebook anymore (since I think it's a paltry excuse for a tool claiming to help keep you in touch with your friends) (perhaps a separate diatribe on that later) and so the way I keep in touch with people is largely through email and snail mail. Yes I use Twitter - but more often that's been a device for making and building friendships rather than keeping in touch.

This past holiday season I sent out about 50 cards, only one was returned "moved, address unknown". I only got a tiny fraction of that back, but, given I only get around to sending cards every third year, I wasn't expecting much. But I do want to make more of an effort in keeping in touch with people in a way that actually speaks of real connection. Posting a status on facebook doesn't build community. I want to interact with you, not all the people at once.

Thus, because of my rejection of that social media, I think I have lost some friends along the way, and I think I'm okay with that. I am content with the level of connectivity I have and am now committed to building those friendships that I have recently cultivated or am now adding compost to.

If everything goes according to plan, Dan and I will be leaving here on February 1st. That's in 19 days. In that 19 days I will be spending two nights in Vancouver (for my immigration doctor appointment but also a HINF* reunion), two days traveling to and from Montreal with my visa interview in between, a few days when Dan gets here on the 28th doing a last fast round of visits while we get the truck ready and packed up, I have my own packing & cleaning to do, my step-FIL & I are trying to get as much work done in the basement as possible, plus a few other social engagements (mostly family) and I'm pretty much out of time. These first 13 days of January have already galloped past and I feel like the month is gaining momentum. I am also a person who needs a fair amount of down time - time to myself (or to be with Sam!), so I am being protective of my time so as not to overschedule myself & thereby get stressed out.

There will be no party this time around. I have had lots of  farewell parties thrown for me with all my going and returning, and honestly I don't have the energy for it. I expect my doctor appointment and visa interview will go off without a hitch, so my main focus now is getting ready for our big 7-10 day, 3,200 mile journey across the continent and moving into our new home, as well as getting reacquainted with my husband. By the time I get there, we will have been living apart for more than 20 months. I am chomping at the bit to get started in my new life. Get a job, plant a garden, decorate my house, find the knitters, make friends. I am immensely excited about the next chapter in my life, and it's hard for me not to just skip ahead to the end of this chapter. I have 19 days to get myself together - less than that if I'm actually ready by the time Dan gets here (15 days!) 


So, if you are local to me and I don't get to see you before I go, please accept my apology. This is a frenetic time for me and I'm trying to stay sane and healthy. I do hope that you will come visit me/us in North Carolina!



*HINF = Health Information Science, in which I have an M.Sc. and half of a B.Sc. I spent four years in this field of study, graduated in 2009, and am still in touch with a few of my HINF buddies!

the next four and a half weeks

Happy New Year friends and readers!

As I write to you from the house of my in-laws in Victoria, I can finally look on this new year with optimism and hope. I will be flying to Montreal on January 23rd for my visa interview with the US Consulate on January 24th, in which I present all of the documents on paper that they have already received electronically, save for the medical report. On Friday January 18th, I have an appointment with one of two immigration doctors in Canada for which I have to travel to Surrey and where I will have my lungs X-rayed, blood taken, and a physical exam completed.

In the week following my visa interview, Dan will come and, as we expect I will have my visa sent by courier by the 29th or 30th, we will be able to leave soon after that. The plan at the moment is to take the ferry from here in Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington, but given the nature of our trip we may be obliged to go to the Peace Arch instead. Not only will have a visa, but we will also be importing my truck as well as bringing in a feline, so at some point soon I will need to take Sam to a vet to get documents saying she is healthy and fine. I already have the documents for the truck.

I don't know when it will start to feel real, because it is still feeling like I'm reading a book about someone else's life. I go about my day with a sort of a routine, but now that I have an end in sight, I really do have to set to work with packing up my things, deciding what I will wear to Vancouver for the doctor appointment and what to wear to Montreal (where they have below freezing temperatures). What will I wear for our road trip, the 3,200 mile trek to the other side of the continent? I'll want to be comfortable and warm.

My step-father-in-law and I still have work to do in the basement, which we would be hard at except for the round of viruses that has swept through the house. Our resident grad student (my sister-in-law) finished her semester, having pushed hard for thirteen weeks, and the moment she had a chance to relax, BAM, she was hit with a cold. Eventually we all got it, except for the visiting grad student (brother-in-law), who seems to be saving himself for the trip back to get sick. At any rate, this means that the pouring of concrete in the basement will have to wait a little longer.

It occurred to me about six weeks ago that I am in a place where I can go see movies in the theater - my life over the past several years has put me in places where movie theaters were not nearby or easy to get to, so I have been taking advantage of proximity. I first saw Lincoln, which was great. Then I saw Anna Karenina, and despite having Keira Knightley in it, was also good. Then came Flight, which was not so much about airlines as it was about hardcore alcoholism. Then Cloud Atlas, I couldn't really tell you what it was about but it left me wondering about the textiles they were wearing in the last stage of history as they were beautiful and interesting. When my 17-year-old theater-buff niece was here over the holidays, she and I saw Les Miserables, also great and now I know why everyone is talking about Anne Hathaway's solo. Last night I saw Life of Pi - not really high on my list because I couldn't really get into the book but they did a great job of the film. It made me want to come home and hug my cat. This afternoon I saw The Hobbit - on which I have heard mixed reviews from both people who have and have not seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I just told someone on Twitter that while I liked the costuming and set design, I didn't find the story as compelling as LOTR. Maybe it's because I'm just not that into dwarves? Holy crap! That's seven movies in the past six weeks! I've found a great movie buddy in Dan's friend from childhood who lives in Victoria and, like me, prefers to sit in the very back row in the theater. We're going again next week, but haven't decided what to see yet.

Dan has sent me a number of photos, videos and floor plans for the house we are going to be moving into in Kinston. It's in a neighborhood that is being rejuvenated and turned into an arts community, and I am really excited to move in, get settled, decorate how we like and get cracking in the garden. The house sits on .41acre, which will give me LOTS of room to grow food. My three objectives for 2013: install a herb spiral, plant a bed of greens (even if it's in a temporary location), and plant some perennial flowers, especially roses. I have been steeping my brain in permaculture these past few weeks and months, so because there is such a heavy emphasis on design, I can't go too crazy on digging and installing things right away. The first step is to "observe and interact" - see where the winds come from, where the water goes, how much sunlight falls in each place on the property, and what our heating and cooling needs are. I'm reading Gaia's Garden at the moment which happens to be a textbook for an NC State University course on permaculture, available through iTunes University. How convenient that this professor lives in Raleigh - I could meet him and pick his brain!

I also have a stack of visiting to do before my final weeks here. There are some people that I didn't get to visit with over the holiday season because of all the chaos, and a few people I just haven't seen in a while. This could well be my last round of visiting though - I still have a mountain of packing to do and other immigration-related details to attend to. I don't know how much time I will have to blog in the coming weeks before I go - though I will do my best to at least post updates about my situation. Even though my immigration was approved in May 2011, there still exists a slight possibility that the people at the consulate in Montreal could deny me, as could the border agents. I won't be settled until I am across the border with a stamp in my passport, and then after we arrive in Kinston having made the journey in the dead of winter. It's been quite a journey, these past 19 months, but you will never hear me say my life is dull!

I hope you all had a happy holiday season and I look forward to connecting with you in the years to come!

Puttering

Is this a word? I first heard it years ago from Ursa, who meant it in terms of going around the house, tidying up, putting things away, etc. I just checked dictionary.com and they say that the result is 'ineffectual'. Hm. I don't like that. Maybe I need to find a new word. At any rate, that's what I've been doing this morning.

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately, spent most of yesterday outside in the garden, and have been otherwise busy. And you know how when you are busy that you just throw stuff down while you move on to the next thing and eventually all these little piles will get cleaned up? No? That's just me? Well, today I have decided to tackle some of these piles and have been cleaning up.

It's a useful thing, my version of puttering. I want to send a letter I wrote to Dan, but could not find the stamps. I knew if I puttered long enough, the stamps would turn up (they did). I knew that if I puttered long enough I would find the unopened mail from last week (I did). More piles get made, but they are actionable piles. The pile of laundry. The paper recycling. The to-the-thrift-store pile (yes! I'm still downsizing).

I am a great list maker. I make lists and lists and lists. In my puttering this morning, I have found all kinds of lists! List of things to do feature prominently. Lists of things I would like to buy when I have money. Lists of things I would like to knit when I am done with my current projects. Sometimes the act of writing these lists is enough organization that my mind registers that these things need to be done, and I never see the list again. Sometimes I rigidly adhere to the list, do all the things in the order they are written down. Sometimes I will estimate the time it will take me to get the tasks on the lists done (5 min, one hour, etc.) and organize my time that way. I have to do this sometimes if I want to ensure I can get some knitting in there somewhere, or if I need to run to a business before they close.

Today, however, I have no such list. I am just going about my day, doing things as they pop up. You know how it is when you are doing something and you go to pick something up, and you see something else that needs to be done and so you drop thing one and start on thing two? That's how I work sometime. It's good, I think, for me, since I seem to be most effective when I do the thing I feel most compelled to do. Like writing this blog post. I have mentioned before there are often times when I have several blog posts in my head but somehow they never make it to the computer. I really do have lots to say, and I'm hoping that I will be able to manage my time a bit better so I can regale you, dear reader, of all the stuff that is in my head. I'm reading about/listening to all kinds of stuff that has me thinking, such as food security, the current state of economics, my immigration story and it's publishability [sic]. Someone suggested I do a blog post about the use of pendulums, and I think (if in my puttering I can find them both) I will take a photo and do just that.

It's coming down to the time that I'll be leaving, soon, I expect. I am encouraged by last week's letter from Senator Richard Burr, but we may only get a response that says "things are happening in the usual fashion, wait your turn", which will still have us waiting five months (ending in early June). I checked the USCIS average wait times at the website still says five months, so I am not holding my breath for an early departure. But you can bet I will be ready for such a momentous event, in case it happens! So the repacking I mentioned a few posts ago is happening as a part of that puttering. It feels good. It feels like movement.

More on the events, as they happen.

Three things I need to do

My dear readers. I have seriously not had the inclination to write lately, despite having tons of content that I would love to share with you.

My sister has come and gone, and it was a good visit but man does she ever talk A LOT. We were up three nights in a row well past midnight, two of those nights were later than 2am, and we were talking. It took me a few days to recover from her visit.

On Saturday I volunteered for an event at Providence Farm where I wore a chef's coat and made pizza for the wood-fired oven. It was tons of fun and the beginning of my time as a volunteer there.

Last night Toni and the Skipper reduced their chicken flock by one, the bird who was the main rooster. It was hard on all of us, since he was such a good main roo, but when you have two roosters, there will be fighting for the top spot. The remaining roo, Percy, is lovers with Hen, who is currently momma to 16-day old chicks, and we couldn't separate them. Toni is planning to blog about the processing so I won't go into it (not sure my readership wants to know anyway) but it was an emotional thing. It is a powerful thing to literally come face to face with your food. I think it is something everyone should experience, to know that food comes from a place and that place is not just the grocery store.

At any rate, no, we still have not heard anything about my immigration. Apparently through your local congressman there is such a thing as Help with a Federal Agency where you basically register a complaint with a process that is not being handled well. I would say we have a valid complaint. I have written my letter and sent it to Dan, and as he is the one with the supporting documents and file number, he will be submitting this. Fingers crossed this works.

Meanwhile, believing that 'fortune favors the prepared', I have decided that not everything is out of my control: I can do everything in my power to be ready for when the time comes. The first thing I had to do was find my passport. I had actually imposed a lot of stress on myself (why?) about not knowing where it was. And instead of finding a remedy for this stress (i.e. looking for my passport), I continued to berate myself for not knowing where it was. Isn't that silly? So today I finally did it. I looked for my passport. Guess what? It took about five minutes. WHEW. And it's two years away from expiring.

The second thing I want to do is finish knitting the Dan & Stacey Reunion Socks. This is two pairs of socks with the same pattern but different yarn, both shades of green, so that next year when we celebrate St. Patrick's Day together (that's the day we met, 2013 will be six years for us), we'll have green socks to wear. But they will be reunion socks because they will be DONE by the time we are together again. I have set them down, sort of, since I am now working on a cardigan as a knit along with Toni, who has recently picked up her needles again after a long hiatus. The cardi is going swimmingly, and I think I'm far enough ahead of Toni that I can take a break from that and get back to the socks for a while. This is, in effect, a form of sympathetic magic - that is to declare and get these socks done will assure that I will be reunited with My Sweety soon. So I'll be working hard on these.

The third and final thing is that I want to repack and put all the stuff in storage that I'm not using right now. I don't need my winter gear (yay) and there are some books I have finished reading and I certainly don't need ALL my yarn (that will be the subject of another post - I have come into an abundance of yarn recently). So if I am mostly packed and ready, then when the green card comes, I will not have to waste any time in packing.

wooden hangers

Here I go again, into #purgemode

I case you don't know what I'm talking about, I am referring to the beginning of the getting rid of all my stuff that happened in May/June last year, just after Dan left and as I was getting ready to move away from Ucluelet.

Each time I go into Victoria now, it seems I am getting something out of storage. Last week I had a list of a few things I wanted to get. While I was rooting around in my stuff, I couldn't help but notice the wooden hangers.

What an odd thing to keep. I know. After several cullings, somehow those made the cut. But see, I put a lot of thought and effort into those wooden hangers. They symbolized a shift towards more quality items instead of plastic hangers (which, I must point out, are much lighter and take up less space).

So I thought about them for a few days and decided that even though I have a small collection (there are about 20 of them, maybe not as many as that), I'm going to leave them behind. They don't need to travel across the continent. I'm willing to bet I can buy wooden hangers in North Carolina, and for cheaper than I paid for them here.

My consciousness is shifting. I am continuously reconsidering all those things I have packed and repacked. I have yards of fabric that I plan to sew "someday" even though I gave my sewing machine away and I'm not actually excited about the fabric anymore. So that should go too. So should the patterns. I barely know how to use a sewing machine, I'm a knitter for crying out loud.

So here I am, whittling down my stuff even further. I'm not culling my kitchen tools - they are too dear and carefully selected, and besides I don't have that many.

The last thing I may have to reconsider is - gasp - my books.

Dan and I have a lot of books. Not as many as we used to, but at the moment it stands at about 25 boxes, with the majority of them being Dan's science fiction paperbacks. I admit I am not excited about the idea of revisiting our collection and making further decisions about what should go, especially in the middle of winter in a cold, uninsulated basement. Dan and I may have a conversation about the books when he's here. One could argue that because I'm doing further culling of my other things that there will be more room for the books. I'm just thinking about packing all that stuff into the back of my truck and driving across mountain ranges.

Don't tell Dan, but I'm hoping I can convince him to take some things back with him on the plane. Nothing in particular, it would just be nice to have less stuff to pack when, someday in the unforseeble [sic] future, I can cross the border with my green card. Sure do wish I knew when that would be. Yep. That would really help me do things like plan my life.

How much stuff does a person need, anyway?

I am not a person who has a strong personal attachment to things. I don't know where that came from, but I have often credited it with my early pursuit of Buddhism. Not having an attachment to things comes in very handy when, say, getting ready to move house. Throughout my whole adult life I have moved house a lot. I could try to count, but I think I would lose count at about 20. The longest I have lived in one place was two and a half years, in East Sooke.

When we moved from East Sooke to Ucluelet, we did get rid of a lot of stuff but it seems like we took a lot too. We also seemed to acquire rather a lot while we were there. We had a big house to fill, after all. Dan has an amazing ability to scavenge and repair things, such as aluminum boats and theater seats.

When we knew we would be moving to North Carolina, we agreed that we would only take what would fit into the back of his truck (aka the floundertruck), a 1986 Nissan 720, and my truck, a 1999 Ford F150. We spent two weeks getting rid of as much stuff as we could, inviting friends and acquaintances to come by and pick through everything, take it all away, please. The theater seats went first, oddly enough. Sofas and tables and shelves were highly coveted.

Dan left on May 25th. I spent the next several weeks doing further culling, which included (eventually) three trips to the dump, a garage sale, and a trip to the thrift store. I drove away from Ucluelet on July 2. I spent a week on the south end of Vancouver Island and then headed for Alberta, to stay with my sister until immigration came through. We all know how that went. When it came time to leave, I did a further culling and reduced the volume of my stuff by half.

Returned to the Island on September 30th after being rejected at the border, then unloaded all the stuff from my truck into the basement of The Stately, the basement of Dan's mum & stepdad, where I was to reside for just over two months. I have now been in Cowichan Bay for a month, and just today I popped by The Stately to get some things out of storage.

I was looking for a few specific things. I found a new home for my beloved vacuum cleaner, so that's one awkward thing that I won't have to take with me. I will use up the rest of the bag of pine kitty litter. I found a couple of books and magazines that I can read here and then give away. Found a pair of old socks that I am not especially fond of and don't really plan to wear them ever again, wonder how they had made the cut of the first few cullings.

The news from yesterday, the whole 'five months' thing and the possibility of me going to North Carolina on a temporary visa to wait out my immigration has not surprisingly reframed how I am looking at my situation. If I am going to fly there and leave all my stuff (including my truck!) here in British Columbia, what will be the essentials that I take with me; what can I not live without for a few months while I am reestablishing myself in Kinston? Well, I don't know. It will depend on how much I am allowed, and how much extra luggage costs.

The most important thing of course will be the kitty. She hates traveling by plane and is terrified of being in a box/cage/kennel. I didn't want to have to do that to her, but in the bigger picture, it might be better to just get her there in 14-16 hours of travel rather than six or seven days in the truck. Yes she'll hate the trip, bit it will be over quickly.

And then what else? I have been thinking about this all day. Lately, as I have been interested in my Russian roots, I have been watching a lot of films and documentaries about Russia and Europe, many of which are set in the first half of the 20th century. There are so many tales of displacement and evacuation. If you were forced to leave your home forever, what are the important things? I realize that I am not in such a dramatic position, but really, what do you need on a daily basis and what can you live without?

The other night I asked the Skipper about photos of himself when he was younger. He had a massive stash of them and we were able to see what he looked like at all ages. That, and the beautiful photo album Dan's sister gave me for Christmas full of photos of Dan when he was younger, made me realize that there are probably very few photos in existence of me when I was younger. I know I don't have that many - I have moved too many times. The few that my mum had (she fled her crappy marriage with my dad on a day's notice, so didn't have much) may not have been saved from the mold-ridden basement suite she lived in back in the 90s. I doubt my sister would have many of me and well, I'm pretty much done communicating with my father. So probably I'll just have to draw photos of myself.

At any rate, back to the topic at hand, what would I take with me if I was boarding a plane for North Carolina? I'm not sure I would bring my entire yarn stash. Gasp! you say. Well no, I don't actually have that much yarn anymore. I would actually bring all my tools though - all my needles and hooks and notions. I don't own very much clothing anymore. I can't recall if I told you all those months ago - before I left Alberta in the fall, Dan had told me not to buy clothing because everything is cheaper in the States. So I didn't. I just had a small selection of summer clothing. With all the weight I had lost, most of my stuff didn't fit me anymore anyway. So, when I ended up coming back to Vancouver Island to spend the winter here, I had almost no winter clothing. I had one wool sweater and a couple of hoodies and some jeans. (Lots of hand knit wool socks though!) Dan's mum lent me a sweater dress and then decided I should just have it. Zola lent me a pile of sweaters (I still have one of them, and it will be returned to her). Toni had a big stack of clothes she no longer wore or no longer fit, so I have been getting a lot of mileage out of all these lent garments. Most of them will stay here in Canada though, so there will not be a lot of clothing coming with me either.

So then what? My computer, obviously. Dan has a Kindle now, so I don't really need to bring books. I will use the library anyway. Believe it or not, I will probably fill my luggage with small kitchen utensils. Again, we'll see what I'm allowed to bring.

Which leads me to something else - I don't own luggage. I have a 40 litre backpack and that's it. This raises another question then - would I be able to use Rubbermaid bins as my luggage or will I have to go and buy something? I am probably putting the cart before the horse here, because at the moment we aren't even allowed to apply for my temporary visa, so me actually boarding a plane is unimaginable. This is what happens to me when I have lots of time to myself to think, my mind gets me into trouble.

My last consideration in all this is while I'm waiting for immigration in North Carolina, what would I actually be doing? Believe me, I have no problem filling my hours. Between my computer (Twitter, blogging, podcasts & movies) and my knitting, I'm happy as a clam. I can go running (if I'm there by March, my friends-I-haven't-met-yet and I will be running an 8k race). I can be the Queen of My Kitchen! And, I suspect, we'll be doing a lot of entertaining. So that just means I'll need to make sure I also bring my running gear and my party dress.

So... dear reader, if you were in my situation, what would your essentials be, what could you not live without?

One of my most precious possessions: a one-cup pour-over coffee filter cone that I bought in Japan for 100 Yen. That thing goes everywhere with me.

Almost ready

I forgot to tell you! I discussed the mattress issue with Dan and he said ditch it. That got me thinking about what else I can ditch, and further paring down happens.

There were a number of things I needed to get done while I was here, and a few things I was waiting for. I have submitted all the address changes. I have received all the cheques I was waiting for. I have replaced the windshield wipers on my truck. I have done almost all the projects Lori has asked me to do (though her list grows, I am referring to her original list). The last thing for Lori is to help her with their new king sized bed which will be coming this week.

I still have to get the tires on the truck rotated and have the oil changed. I still need to air out & repack all my stuff. I also need a sleeper cap for the truck, but Dan is working on it via a previous employer so he may just get it all taken care of for me and all I have to do is be here when they deliver it and oversee the installation.

Changes are afoot here at Casa del Lori. There are changes for her work as well as her husband's, grade one for my niece and preschool for my nephew are starting soon, and the weather has started to turn cool. I have been *loving* the heat here this summer, and I got rid of most of my warmer layers before leaving the Island because a) they were too big for me and b) I'm moving to a warmer climate. At any rate, change is in the air and I hope that means I will be casting off soon as well. I hope I hope I hope.

Speaking of casting off, I think I'm due soon for an Off the Needles post, as I have completed a number of projects lately and am galloping through a number of Works in Progress. Remember all those Cookie A socks I started in the early spring? I'm just about finished pair #3 out of 5, and I would like to have ALL my sock WIPs turn into FOs (finished objects) before I take my big road trip. I have been catching up on lots of podcasts, as the slow downloading speed of this Internet connection will allow. There are a few I listen to and keep up with as soon as they come out, and a few that I'm weeks or months behind on. I sure wish I could listen to podcasts while I cut the grass, because three hours on a lawn mower is prime time for listening pleasure. Alas, with the noise of the engine, I am left to my thoughts.

yarnsalad goes from Cowichan Bay to Salmon Arm

My alarm went off at 5:50am. I wasn't in any rush to leave really, but I had to say goodbye to the Skipper before he went to work at 6:10. I wasn't entirely awake and I hadn't slept well the night before (woke up sweating, that nervous sort of sleep when it's the eve of something big), so we didn't have lots of words at that hour. But we hugged, and there were tears and sniffs, well wishes, and then he was gone. Then I went downstairs and let some more tears fall.

Toni and the Skipper had helped me to repack my truck last night. With some careful rearranging, and minus a few things, there was a bit of extra space. It was a good thing, because this morning when I went to shove in the final few items, I needed that space.

As I was packing up, Sam was freaking out. She's known that something is up, she knows she's not going to like it, and she knows it probably involves another long stupid car ride. Every time I sat down this morning she was on my lap, purring. Don't leave me behind, she was saying. Then when it came time to put the kitty in the truck, she tried to run away upstairs, so I had to corner her and catch her. Meow meow meow.

Then it came time to say goodbye to Toni as well. We've known each other so long that we are family now. They have been so good to me, to me and Dan, to me and Dan and the kitty. I feel so at home in their house and it was hard to leave that comfy bed and that lovely tall toilet seat in their guest room (I know, it's the small things, right?) Another round of tears and sniffs, then the kitty and I were off.

Meow meow meow. I hate this why are you taking me for a car ride, you know I HATE car rides.

Last night I had my mind made up that I was going to take the Departure Bay - Horseshoe Bay ferry. Then the Skipper had a look at the maps, the routes, the schedules, and advised me to take the Swartz Bay - Tsawassen ferry. He said I wouldn't save any time and by going the southern route I wouldn't have to go through Vancouver *and* it's a route I already know. I decided he was right, and went that way. The ferry only cost me $63. Can that be right? For some reason I was expecting $80 or more. I guess I'm so used to getting gouged by BC Ferries that I always expect ferry fares to hurt. It was nice to have money left over for a change. I could afford to have breakfast!

I mostly stayed in the truck with Sam on the ferry. It was busy upstairs and as I had been crying (a lot), I was in no mood to be around people. I don't know who was in more need of comfort: me or Sam!

Sam decided she liked to be in the foot well on the driver's side. Not going to work for me, far too dangerous, so I put a pillow in the way to block her access. Eventually she settled in to the space on the bench right beside me, meowing only occasionally, and panted. It was warm for much of our drive, and while the air was flowing, she was panting partly from warm and partly from stress. Her poor cute kitty paws were sweating! Not once was she interested in eating or drinking or using the litter box. At one point I put on the halter and leash to see if I could interest her in peeing on some nice bushes but no, she just wanted to climb and get up high. On a rock face. No no kitty. Bad kitty. Meooow. At least she didn't bite or scratch me, just hissed.

I prayed for an uneventful drive. It was more or less uneventful, except I apparently took a wrong turn at Hope. There were options! I could take Highway 1, the TransCanada or Highway 5 to get to Kamloops via the Coquihalla. I do in fact own a road atlas but dang it! I left it at the house of Dan's father when I had dinner there on Monday night. I thought I could make it without it. How hard can it be to follow road signs, after all?

Well, I did make it to Kamloops. It was just before Lytton that Dan messaged me, asking where I was. I sent him my location (not being entirely sure where I was but was admittedly concerned that none of the road signs said "Kamloops XXkm", just Ashcroft and Cache Creek.) He told me I should have taken the Coquihalla...  Ok well make sure you turn right at Cache Creek (that's what the sign said to do anyway)

So even though I didn't get enough sleep last night, I got this crazy idea in my head that I would drink lots of coffee and maybe just drive through the night. Nap at rest stops. Dan did it when he was on his way to North Carolina, I can be just as tough as him! Then Dan astutely pointed out that he had a bed in the back of the truck AND didn't have the kitty with him. Right. Okay okay. He's right. He booked me a room at a Travelodge in Salmon Arm. 319km away from where I was. I rolled in just before 8pm. Had a text chat with Dan, a lovely bath, and now I'm telling you all my story.

The weather conditions where I started were warm, then hot, but overcast for most of the day. It was even muggy, so I was glad to have air conditioning in the truck. So was the kitty. Just after Kamloops it started raining, driving home that fact that I really need new windshield wipers. There comes a time in every woman's life when we need to learn how to do these things. Age 37 is better late than never, right?

Something else also surprised me: mountains. I grew up with family road trips over the Rocky Mountains once or twice a year during my entire childhood. The few times Dan and I have driven in the western United States, I've seen a few mountain ranges. There are mountains on Vancouver Island, but certainly not nearly as impressive as some of the bigger ones I've seen in my life. I'm embarrassed to say I got to a ho hum point in my life where if you've seen one majestic mountain, you've seen them all...  WELL I'm here to tell you I was all wrong. I must have driven through the Cascades before at different points but certainly not this particular route. At one point I came around a corner and saw this rock face of hundreds of years of compressed solidity that spanned for thousands of meters, different coloured rock all running into each other. The mountains started rolling into high desert mounds covered in sage and I knew I must have been nearing Kamloops. I knew I was near Kamloops because of the sage, not the mountains. I've seen mountains like those in the States, which makes sense because the mountain ranges don't stop at the border.

Tomorrow I'll drive through the Rockies, it should take me between 8-10 hours to get to my sister's place. I'm hoping to be on the road by 6am, cross over to Alberta well before noon, be at Lori's place for dinner (or as they say, "supper", since they refer to lunch as "dinner"). I sure hope they let me get some rest before making me start playing Favourite Auntie

I have good people in my life

I have had the opportunity in the past month to visit a lot of friends and family, most of whom I won't get to see again for a long time. I have been hosted for dinners, taken for lunches, and been welcomed as an honoured houseguest for overnight stays. Really, this is where you see the best of people. I have been given a few gifts in my last days on the Island and I am deeply moved by the generosity of people who love me. For those of you who have been so kind to me in these last days and weeks, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks with deepest gratitude. You all know what a stressful time this has been for me these past two months since we first learned that Dan was offered the job in North Carolina. It has been quite emotional and some days it's everything I can do to keep myself together.

Tomorrow I will drive off the Island. I was going to take the Departure Bay - Horseshoe Bay ferry, but Steve convinced me that the Swartz Bay - Tsawassen Run would be easier. I defer, he's probably right given routes and traffic. I might not make the first ferry or even an early ferry, but I'll take two days to get to Edberg, where my sister most anxiously awaits me.

Sam has been pretty good in Steve & Toni's house, but she knows there is more tumult yet to come. I will do my best to make the cab of the truck comfy for her for our long journey.

And now, to pack up the truck tonight!

ps I have gotten a lot of knitting done these past few days, will blog about them separately when I can take good photos of my WIPs.

more purging, packing, cleaning, etc.

One of the three bedrooms is completely cleared out. The front bedroom is where I am putting everything I will be taking with me to North Carolina. So far I have started eight Rubbermaid bins, labeled them, and am compiling a list of the things that are going into them.

I have another big pile of things to take out to the garage, for the garage sale or for friends to pick over. I think I'm almost done with this task, actually, I think I'll be done with the sorting by the end of tomorrow. It is really coming along swimmingly. Someone is coming to look at the house tomorrow, interested in renting, so I am going to bust my butt to make sure it is presentable.

I need to take a trip out to the landfill, but I don't know if I'll be ready tomorrow. I have started filling the truck, so it might just have to wait until after work on Monday, on my way home from Tofino.

I started going through the kitchen, but that's a two-phase process, because I have to decide what tools I will need until I leave & what food I will eat, as opposed to what things I know I'll never use and what foodstuffs are either no longer edible or simply unlikely to get consumed.

Here's what I still have left:
Futon we got from Dean, going to K2 when they get rid of their current couch
Dan's old futon, which might go to a coworker at the hospital or the fish boss if she doesn't want it
The slider rocking chair that was my mum's - no one wants it (really) but I will likely keep it until I leave
Table & chair set from Toni & the Skipper, going to K2
Table & chair set from my mum, going to Faye
Table with drawer from Toni & the Skipper, also going to K2
Spice rack going to K2

And lots of little things. Faye wants the ice cream maker. K2 might be interested in the slow cooker. A few friends who picked through the stuff in the garage last week indicated interest in coming back for another round. By the end of tomorrow, everything that I'm not taking with me will be out there. Maybe I'll have a garage sale next weekend.

The yard needs a bit of tending too. I have been using the push mower, which I love, but it does have its limitations. With a power mower, tall grass is no problem. In this case, I am really going to have to learn to use a weed whacker, because after spending an hour and a half with my little hand snips today, I realized that in that same space of time I could have finished the entire yard, and not just a small fraction of it. I found my protective eyewear today, if I can find some ear plugs or other ear protection, I might have a crack at it tomorrow.

I also need to fill in the newly created raised bed and plant some stuff in it. Darnit! I gave all my seeds away. I will happily go buy some romaine lettuce seeds and plop them in the ground - what doesn't get eaten by deer or slugs will likely not have a chance to bolt here.

There is also the rectangular depression in the back that in the winter fills up with water (there is not much soil above a clay bed here), and that I found a source of free fill for. I need to go through and pick out the big rocks, even it out, and tidy up that area. I thought about planting potatoes there but I might just seed it with grass.

A few other things. Dan wasn't able to part with the diesel engine or the Albacore sailboat. It may well fall to me to find homes for them. I also noticed that the pile of red brick, which our landlord had no use for, is no longer a nice neat stack. What happened to it? I get the lovely task of restacking discarded bricks that in many cases have lots of mortar attached to it. Great.

And O yeah there are the boxes of books in the crawl space, and the trombones. Dan used to play low brass when he was in high school, still has three trombones that he will never ever play again, that he's been dragging around for years. What to do with all this stuff? The horns might come with me. Honestly, I'm going to a place where there is tons of music that requires brass instruments. If there is a place for brass instruments, its the South. The books... I think it will all depend on how much room I have in the truck. I will take all I can, and leave the rest somewhere to be sent at a later date. The 'somewhere' might be Victoria, though friends have offered to ship them from Ucluelet too. I think it would make more sense in Victoria though, because of family who can cart that box across the border and ship them stateside.

Ugh. So many details to think about.

There are a couple of things that I have not come across in my cleaning, purging and packing. I would really like to find my Master's degree. Why did I not frame it? Why isn't in the safe place I thought it was? I absolutely remember packing it last March before we moved here, surely it must be among our things somewhere. (Perhaps in the said boxes of books in the crawl space? Due to lack of shelving, we have never even unpacked them). I might need to present it to the nice US Immigration people when I go for my interview. I could get another one printed but... you know... The other thing I would like to find is my pendulum.

Yes, I use a pendulum. It's nothing at all fancy, just a piece of raw crystal crudely strung up with some red embroidery thread, and it should be inside a little silk bag with the Om symbol on it. I can't recall having seen it in months. It's my quick  & easy divination tool for when I have simple Yes or No questions, when I feel a bit unsettled or need to make a decision about something. I do have other things I can use as a pendulum, but that little rock has been with me a long time. I miss it.

I'll go to bed early again tonight, perhaps get an early start tomorrow and get everything done tomorrow. All that will be left for me then is to wait out my time here, knit & listen to audio books (just finished Voyager, yesterday I started Gone With the Wind), and go swimming in Kennedy Lake as much as I can before I leave.

paring down our life

I have to say it is a really cathartic thing to go through every single thing you own and decide what is worth transporting across the continent. Given the space of only two pick up trucks, one big and one small, what do you take? What gets left behind?

Dan's departure is imminent. He'll be leaving probably on Tuesday now, and I will have the mammoth task of divesting of the rest our things. While it may seem like a horrendous chore, I assure you that this is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, needed only a reason to do it.

We have a massive living room. On Friday night, we decided we would divide the room up into four zones: things going with Dan to NC, things going with me to NC, things to get rid of, things that will go back to or stay in Victoria (at Dan's parents' house).

Another zone that emerged: garbage/recycling. Question of my readers: any idea what I should do with all these jars? There is no glass recycling in Ucluelet or Tofino, and I haven't been able to just throw this stuff away. Now I have a mass of jars that have no destination at the moment. I'm thinking about taking them to a recycling place in Port Alberni the next time I go through.

We were going to have a garage sale on Saturday. But by late Friday night and early Saturday morning it became clear that there was no way we were going to be ready. At first we decided to postpone it for a day, then we just decided to clear out the garage, move all our getting-rid-of-stuff in there, and have a garage sale at some point later, after Dan leaves. I think that is the best way to go. I wasn't looking forward to suddenly having a garage sale this weekend, the last weekend I'll see My Sweety before he goes.

My plan then is this: I have a longish list of people to invite to come pick over the stuff before offering it up for sale. I'm sure I could get good money for lots of these things but really I just want to be rid of them. And I think it will be a good way to get stuff moving fast. Any books that don't sell, I think I'll take them to the library. The book stores around here offer only credit, I hear, and that won't do me any good. Not unless they have a North American road book.

At any rate, as we are going through our things, it is coming clear that we will be taking a lot less stuff than we thought, and we are rather pleased with ourselves about this. Our bare bones minimum will be less than stuffed-to-the-gills. That will mean better gas mileage and an easier drive.

#purgemode

If you are not familiar with Twitter, the subject of this post is what is called a hashtag. Twitter users can make anything they want into a hashtag which makes searching easier. If you search on Twitter for #purgemode, you'll see a bunch of tweets from me and a few from my friend Candice, also known as @felyn on Twitter. She lives in Port aux Basques, NL, and is a lighthouse radio operator. I don't recall how we found each other but I'm sure the friendship has lasted over a year. She is a scream to follow, and I think he is a younger, more adventerous and (dare I say) affluent version of me. The whereabouts of her pants are a frequent topic of conversation.

O gosh, I digressed even before I got into this post!

Today another round of stuff left the house. I didn't take pictures this time, mostly because the stuff that was going has little sentimental value. Except for a few of the houseplants. Dang. There were a few houseplants that had stories, like the kalanchoe that Dave & Charlene gave me for my birthday (was it last year? The year before?). We really liked Phil, the philodendron. We were sad to see him go, and have decided we will get a new Phil as soon as we can. There were the pepper plants that Toni gave me last year are presently bearing their second round of red peppers. Well, I might get a photo of these plants before I leave this place. But it all went to a good home: Kat & Kirsten.

Over the years, my friends Toni & the Skipper have given me tons of things. When I moved in with Dan, they were moving and getting new furniture, etc, so I got a lot of hand-me-downs from them:

1988 Toyota Tercel
fabulous spice rack that the Skipper built himself
hide-a-bed
table
foot stool
leather stuffed recliner
towels
table & chair set
and I'm sure there is more I'm missing but I'm tired & can't think just now. But basically they outfitted me with a houseful and means of transportation.

When they gave us the Tercel, I was only a few months into my relationship with Dan (though were had been engaged already). We weren't entirely sure what we'd do with the car, but we agreed to take it. It was a good thing too, because on the way back from our first big trip together, to Alberta to visit my sister, the van's tranmission went. We drove the Tercel all winter until Dan could fix the van.

The van. For those of you who know the van, this is a sad story. We have to let it go. It was badly injured on our honeymoon in the fall of 2009, and even though Dan could and wanted to repair it, he was short one TIG welder to be able to do it. He had spent three months of evenings and weekends making the van into a super camping vehicle, and now we have to say goodbye. It's terribly sad, for Dan's parents bought it new in 1986; Dan learned to drive in this van. And it's so much fun to drive! But in its current state, it would never make it across the border. We grieve.

I am loving this purging process, though. I've been wanting to do it for a while, needed only a reason. This is the best possible reason: moving across the border. I have figured out that I can fit 18 Rubbermaid bins into the back of the F150, make it 16 if I get a big kennel for Sam from Kat & Kirsten. I have started mapping out how many bins of each type of thing I'll take. At the moment, clothes take up two. So does yarn. I think I allotted two to the kitchen. One for outerwear. Two for bedding. Not sure what I'll take in the way of books, but my plan there is to store them in the basement at the Stately (Dan's parents house in Victoria), clearly marked, with lists of what is in them. Box 1 will have a list of titles, so on the other end when I want a particular book, I can ask to have Box 7 shipped please.

But I'm tired from all the excitement, from working, and then somehow yesterday I hurt my back. I must have twisted the wrong way or turned or something, but it feels like I've been punched just under my shoulder blade. It's not really bad, but enough to make me want to not lift anything heavy for the next couple of days. Dan leaves in a week and I won't see him for at least two months (unless I manage to get a job with an employer who will sponsor me a work visa - then I'll be there much sooner), so I'm trying to keep my game face on.

In the mean time, I continue in #purgemode

Some stuff I gave away

K2 gets first pick of all the stuff we are getting rid of. K came by the other day to put her name on some things, a smattering of which are featured in this post. Ks (partners) came by again for another round. It's good.

Featured above is a fern that we found last November when K2 invited us out to pick black huckleberries. Amazingly, this plant stayed alive in our house all winter. I say amazingly, because it is a rainforest plant and much used to being outside in the cold & wet, not in a warm dry house.

In the summer of 2007, soon after I had met Dan, I had moved out of the Fernwood House and into The Stately (where his mom & stepdad live). We were only there for a couple of months, because we were on our way to getting our own place in East Sooke. One night, while out for a run in Fairfield, I came upon this lovely old chair that someone was giving away for free.

I don't know if this happens in other places; I have only ever seen it on Vancouver Island. Put something out on the side of the road with a FREE sign on it, and most items seem to evaporate within the hour.

This here is a wee mango plant. A friend of mine grew this from a pit, and when I was visiting last fall, she offered me one of her houseplants. This little guy had scale all over it when we got it, and within a few weeks of regular tending, Dan had the scale beat.

This plant has come a long way. It was a small baby from the mother jade plant at Dan's mom's house in Victoria. 

A serger we never used. I think it came from Dan's mom too. 

 One time a long time ago, in what seems a past life, I said to the boyfriend of the time "will you build me a bench?". He pondered, then set to work on building himself a bed frame, a dresser, two end tables, a trunk, closet doors, and then he built me this bench. It's not the prettiest thing (it has been pale green, red, and orange) but it is definitely sturdy. It has served as a shoe rack, a plant stand, a bench.

Soon after the bench, the erstwhile boyfriend also built me this. I didn't ask for this, it was a suprise. He had just come back from hunting deer and we were having a conversation about it. I don't recall if my attitude was of being apalled or curious, but he said something about 'don't go into the pink bedroom, that's where the deer carcass is' and I could not resist bait like that. I went straight to the room and found this amazing piece of furniture. There is even writing on the back.

Fortunately, the shelf has lasted much longer than the relationship did. It too has been pale green, red, and now orange. It is extremely sturdy and has served me very well, and I have moved it more times than I can remember. But you know what? It was time to let it go. Let go of the baggage that the memory of that relationship held. Someday my husband will build me new furniture and it will be way better.

This is another piece I bought in 2005. I had just returned from living in Asia a few months before and had very little in the way of furniture. Everyone needs shelving, and I paid full retail for this at Staples one day. It's been a great plant stand and book case. 

I think I bought this piece when I was living on Richardson Street in Victoria. I know I got it at the second hand store on the corner of Quadra & Cook, kittycorner to the Thrifty's. I paid $30 for it in 2005, if memory serves.