There aren’t really pictures of my husband and I together, even though we’ve been together for eight years. This summer I thought I was determined to change that-but then never really did much about it. EXCEPT for these gems, taken on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. I think they’re more awesome than anything else we’d take, anyhow.
I always find it so fascinating from November through New Years, all the little traditions that have to be observed for the holiday to really count. Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanskgiving without ______-and everyone fills in that blank differently. I remember the year my mother wanted us all to eat a ham on Thanksgiving and throughout the whole day everyone made jokes about how bizarre it was that our Turkey used to oink. “Usually on Thanksgiving we gobble our dinner, but I guess this year we oink?”
What you eat, when you eat, how you decorate, where you gather—all of these things are largely determined by how you were taught to celebrate the holidays. When you get together with someone new for a holiday you have to ask dozens of questions about what they do on their day so you can try to combine the two, hopefully creating new traditions.
My husband and I have created a lot of these over the years, for instance, we always watch the Snoopy holiday specials on Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Christmas Eve we watch Love Actually. We open one present on Christmas Eve and first thing Christmas morning we eat something small and turn on the tree lights before we open any presents. Stockings can be dumped on the floor whenever though—no restraint necessary!
What are your traditions? Does everyone say what they’re thankful for at your table? Do you open presents one at a time, or does everyone just dive in? Do you have necessary foods? Movies that you always watch? Songs that must be heard?
It’s hard to talk about all the things I want to do and get excited about this life change that I’ve waited so long for, because all I can think about are the million things I need to be doing to get ready. But who wants to talk about me taking apart my book shelves? Certainly not me. Instead, lets try and get excited.
We plan to head down highway 101 when we leave, without too much planned for specifics on where we’ll stop. I am really looking forward to going back to Fort Bragg though, and was trying to find things I haven’t done there to go see. We used to vacation there when I was a child, and I always loved watching the movie Overboard and screaming “I know where that is!”. Anyhow, during my brief search, I’ve discovered that these people are absolutely bat shit for mushrooms. I’ve never seen so many mushroom themed events! See what I mean?
Sadly, we won’t be leaving until May 31st, so we will be missing out on the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Humboldt County. I saw this when I was a kid, but always wanted to see it again and show it to Robert.
While I could just go on and on listing all of the places I can’t wait to go and see, the funny thing is that I’m not really excited about particular places, or particularly strange events. I’m excited for the unexpected. For the people we’ll meet and the foods we’ll eat and everything that comes along the way. I keep having lines from “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr Seuss running through my mind, as silly as that is. I’m just ready to wander, to be doing new things, seeing new places, and conquering new mountains.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)
Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
After a very long time full of “When will we?” and “Are we really going to, ever?” and lots of other impatient questions, Robert and I are finally ready to take the plunge. In three months Robert and I are going to be taking off and becoming nomads, vagabonds, drifters!
Over the next three months, we’re going to be selling almost everything and otherwise getting our ducks into rows before we take off. We’re going to begin by (slowly!) traveling around the United States, and then….? A lot of the plan is not to have too specific of plans so that we can follow our guts and not miss opportunities, but the general plan is to live in different places. We’ll stay in places for a few months at a time, meeting great people, and seeing the world. We’ve been waiting to make this lifestyle change for quite a while now, and it’s almost unbelievable that it’s finally becoming a reality.
After a very long time of thinking through logistics and getting all of our finances and everything else straightened out, it feels amazing to finally have a departure date!
I’ve been doing a bit of paper quilling lately, and thought I’d post two of my recent projects. This first one is pretty straight forward, it’s a door hanger painted blue with a design glued on the front.
This next one is a bit…different. I’m working on doing quilling on top of photos. This is something I did on top of a photo from a magazine. I think it turned out pretty well! Next up–doing work on top of my actual photographs.We’ll see how it goes! I need to go get some photos printed to play with…
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