Farewell 2025!

As we wrap up another year — perhaps, more fraught with tensions than others — we still have to give thanks for all we have. This year brought me big changes: A new job, a new home in a new city, new neighbors and a new neighborhood to walk the dog! New friends, as well as, new restaurants. Also, changes to my previous Townhouse to prep it for rent and finally new tenants. So many new things. Moving after living in the same place for 26 years was a huge event….

….well maybe even a traumatic event. Not traumatic in the PTSD sense. Traumatic in the sense that strangers are poring over your things and stuffing your life into boxes. Uncovering and exposing things you had forgotten. Things that you thought you had donated to charity but somehow ended up in the back of a cabinet. Maybe it’s like exposing a part of your life you thought had disappeared only to pop up again. Finding all the things you bought at “Tuesday Morning” and really thought you would use.

When you take a new job and agree to move to a new city, it’s exciting with all the focus on the positive “NEWs” and not the impacts of your changes. Yes, some friends were happy and others were “You are going to move? You are moving for a job?!” “You’ll be back!” Others were excited for me and my new adventure. Claiming to visit and especially since I would be an hour away from the beach. So while the move has been interesting, maybe seeing how others react has been more interesting?

As a former Air Force Brat, I moved more than the average bear. After my divorce, within 2 years, I moved several times until I moved into my Townhouse. My then friends were like — you can’t move for a long time as we are tired!! I would say 26 years has been a long time. I was happy there and it was a great place to raise my son. I liked living somewhere long enough to know the staff at the local Fosters, to see the Chiropractor’s child grow from a pre-schooler to a college kid. I liked knowing the neighbors and seeing their children grow up and graduate from high school.

That all said, it was sad to see the major interstate steal a huge swath of our neighborhood, raze the trees and expose us to more noise of the seemingly never ending traffic. Hard to see my “Tuesday Morning” disappear as if killed by COVID. At some point, my home no longer became a haven….. I became restless for a new adventure yet with less noise and less traffic. I found it in a quieter, smaller town that is both historic and a tourist area.

On one end of the town, it’s quieter until Black Friday and folks flock backing up traffic to the outlet mall. On the other side of town it’s as if I never left the busy metropolis and the cranky shoppers at Trader Joe’s. Most of the time I am happy to enjoy the peaceful neighborhood — well, not when the freight rain barrels down the track that can be heard across the divided highway outside of our neighborhood.

My dog enjoys the walks and new sniffs and happily meets the new dog neighbors. I am pleasantly surprised at how well she has acclimated. I have been a bit overwhelmed at how much work it takes to move. It felt like the objects were multiplying whenever I came back for the last “bit.” Along with the decisions to make: paint colors, floor type and colors, new faucets and fixtures. Finally, after a numerous trips back and forth, it was “rent ready” — how I had told the contractor I needed the place to be.”

So how long does it take a life to switch tracks after it had reached homeostasis in one city to jump the tracks or maybe use the turntable like in “Thomas the Tank Engine” to reach a new trajectory. Well, it seems like it took forever but in reality it took a long 3 days of packing, 2 days of unloading and then several days of readying the new place for basic living.

Yet, all these other things remained — the lightbulbs that the movers wouldn’t take — yes, I moved and had a house full of lamps and no bulbs. My palm tree that I had carried home from the Ft. Lauderdale airport in a box the size of a Barbie which after like 12 years is now the size of a recliner. Yes, the moving company said I had to move THAT myself. It remained along with the giant comfy sofa that I no longer had room for or that metal and glass tv stand that I never really wanted but somehow needed?!

So numerous trips to finish excavating my life of stuff in the crawl space and deciding the new future color of the carpet and how best to move that plant. And where are all my knives? Where? In the 3rd rack of the new dishwasher as I had tried out the new “knife” holder before I moved.

So finally, I have the Townhouse rented — while easy to say — it took a while to get there. Now, I can continue with how to pare down all the stuff that did get on the truck and in my car and in my friend’s car. Nothing like a huge move to give you new perspective. And yes, you can part with that sofa that you loved and most people said that it had WAY too many flowers. Flowers or not, I had slept like a baby through countless replays of Home Alone and other kids movies. Ok, so “free” might have been the right price for that sofa along with the suggestion that you can change its look with a throw or a slip cover.

At the end of the day, you can’t cover your life with a slip cover or at least not for long. So while I have chattered on about the things and the major work to move. It is more than that! As you see the end of one’s career getting closer — or is the light in the tunnel that darn train? Nope, as change often is a bit traumatic, it is necessary to move along the journey of life from one challenge to another. To begin the transition from “ladder climber” and single mom to that of someone trying to define the next chapter. As a single lady of a certain age with a fluffy white dog and a bunch stuff, what is the next chapter? Do I have enough funds to last 30 years and do I plan to move to Florida? Just as I had to answer so many questions to get my Townhouse ‘rent ready” now I have to answer so many questions to get me “retirement ready.”