2000 miles to Graceland

More like 2000 miles to Sacramento! Whew, what a drive!!

And yes, the longest part is trying to get out of Texas. I swear that last 247 miles from Ft. Stockton to El Paso had me thinking someone moved El Paso!

The cool thing about Ft. Stockton is seeing the metal cowboys welcoming you to town. The saddest part of the drive was crossing into Las Cruces, NM and watching the Texas border fade away.  I did a little dance in my seat as I cross the Continental Divide and again when I crossed the Colorado River into California.  I was a bit sad that the CA rest stops weren't open from the border up to Desert Palms :(

But this drive wasn't all roses and blue skies.  I left Phoenix earlier than planned (no Taliesin West on this trip) in order to avoid the rain and make it into California before the temperature dropped. I did hit San Bernardino by 12noon on Saturday (nice timing) only to spend an hour driving around town to find my childhood home. FOUND IT.

Enter the not so smart part of the drive. I deviated from the route thinking that I went north to Barstow and then west to Bakersfield, I would bypass LA traffic.  Oh I bypassed traffic alright, only to hit the steep mountain grades of the San Bernardino National Forest.  Needless to say the warning signs of "Extreme Weather, Reduce Speed, Use Caution, Use Chains in Mountain Areas" scared the ______ out of me. I made it to Junction 58 towards Bakersfield thinking that was smooth sailing - and it was through Edwards AFB and the Mojave.  Then I hit Tehachapi.  Who knew it snowed in the desert? I surely didn't. Who knew Tehachapi is the land of four seasons?  Yeah, me either. I thought the grade was scary along 215, it got worse up 58 and then you add some curving roads that are slick. All I could think of was Kathy Bates dragging my butt out of an embankment. I was white-knucked, radio off, seat upright all the way from Tehachapi to Bakersfield.  I shouted at the top of my lungs when I saw the turn for Bakersfield.

Um, yeah...Bakersfield.  Truly the armpit of America.  If you're from Bakersfield, I hope you moved.

Thank goodness Bakersfield to Sacramento is somewhat flat. No scary mountain grades. No slick roads. Only California Highway Patrol and cruise control set at 80!

So my new adventure begins.  I have a job interview with UC Davis set for Thursday.  My interview with Jackson Labs is being postponed.  I really want the job at Jackson Labs, but UC Davis will do nicely too.

The Fella and I are looking forward to making the best of this move, enjoying what Northern California has to offer and strengthening our relationship.

So a word to the wise...if you have to drive the West Coast anytime soon - stay on I-10.

Gone til November

Almost like the Fugees but not heading to jail and I should only be MIA until early March.

My last day at work was Friday and now I am trying to put the last few items in boxes so the movers can do their thang. Funny how it started out with me neatly packing each box, taping and labeling. Now it's down to the last bit and I'm just tossing stuff willy nilly. Example: I packed some mini speakers with candles and picture frames. But I did the label the box as such.

I was also taking my time to recycle the paper crap. Um yeah, please don't send the eco-nazis after me. It's just too much for me to continue walking over. I've just bagged it all up and tossed in the garbage. I know I know. I will surely pay this crime later - but now, I need to not get bogged down and getter done!

So by the end of next week I will not have computer access. Yes, I live in the stone age and refuse to get a smartphone, tablet PC or the iMaxiPad. Plus, I gave the laptop to the Fella when he left. I promise to play catch up in March.

So ya'll be good between now and then.

Letting Go...

Do you know what's really difficult about packing?  It's not finding the right box or enough paper to wrap up the breakables.  It's not labeling the boxes or making sure the heavy-arsed book boxes aren't shoved in the back corner of a closet.

It's letting go.

I swore I would try to let go of my pack-rat tendencies and let go of stuff that I have been hoarding holding on to for too long to remember.

Case in point:  I have an old IBM Thinkpad 560 that I pulled out of the closet 2 nights ago (when I was so cranked up on coffee that I couldn't sleep at 1am). This thing is so old that it only has serial ports - no USB slots to be found. And I can't remember where to plug in the phone jack in order to connect the dial-up modem to the internet (there isn't a phone slot either).  Anyone with good sense would say: toss/recycle that doorstop.  Oh no, not me. I was thinking: hey, it's still good to use for word processing and such...let me search the net (using my much faster mac) and see how I can connect this wireless-ly.  

WTH!  Really, I should have just taken my butt to bed.Well, I have come to my senses and will make sure that POS makes it to the recycle bin.

But why am I having a difficult time getting rid of stuff that has lived in the dark regions of closets for the past 4 years?  I guess I'm worried that I won't be able to replace it.  I know that's not a smart deduction (especially since I have 2 mac computers which easily replaced that Thinkpad). Hopefully, in the next week I can get over this anxiety of letting go and finish packing my stuff. I am ready to be out of my house. I've even considered just putting what's boxed on a truck in the next week and leaving the rest!

How do you deal with letting go (not just clothes) of stuff?