Moving

My cousin Sharon wrote in her email to me this morning "I wish I was moving!!!" Those who know Sharon know that she and her husband Bill tried to move a couple years ago (retire, sell their business, escape from Northern Michigan in the winter to travel to warm states). Again, you know what they say about making plans...they now have their former business back, never sold their house and Sharon has also started an exciting new career. Sometimes the new chapters begin right where you are.

Most people, however, have said "I hate moving" when I've mentioned my plans, meaning the physical act of packing boxes, all the logistics of changing addresses, getting your cable turned off then on again, unpacking, the pain of change. And a couple others (who thankfully are helping me move!) have merely treated it cooly - with the operations-oriented brain cells that I lack - as the necessary step to get from point A to point B; in sailing when the wind shifts, and your sails begin luffing, it is time to tack.

At the moment, even though friends here have said I don't have much 'stuff', I'm surrounded by moving boxes in my small beach cottage that functions as both home/work space - so alternating between feeling claustrophobic and the emotional roller coaster of a cross country relocation, and who and what I am leaving behind. My last two moves happened very quickly - and movers packed and moved me completely in less than 4 hours - so I didn't have the multiple week period of pruning, going through old photos, making decisions, thinking about things...

I have found an apartment in New York but going thru the process of renting from a co-op building, so its not 'official official' yet (much more hoop jumping involved than San Clemente-style "find an apartment in Craigs List and 'we'll take it'! " approach). I have scheduled movers but haven't booked a plane ticket. I am spending QT with people I love here, and all the while scheduling meetings and outings in New York for a period "later in September". Friends are scheduling trips to visit me in New York in October. I am letting my earthquake insurance lapse. People have asked me when I am moving and while I still don't have the exact date on the calendar - or the official address of where I am moving to - the act of moving is mental before it is physical, and it is in motion.