On the Road Again

Let's play a guessing game.  It will be easy and fun!  Here are some pictures.  You get to guess what they mean!

Is it obvious?  Astute observers probably saw the photo of the For Sale sign in my yard in the last post, and inferred that we are moving.  Again.  But where, you must have wondered.  It ate you up inside.  Or you were indifferent.  But the answer is:  Back East.  Down South.  Upstate South Carolina.  Ten hours from New Jersey.  Four hours from the beach.  Eastern Time Zone.  Humidity - yes!  Warmth - yes!  History - yes!  The fourth cross-country move in our three years of marriage.  Yikes.

I'm really going to miss a lot of the great people we've met here in Utah (except for the clownboats who live behind us).  I will miss being able to run out my front door and be in a national forest in 10 minutes.  I'm sad to leave an area where we can reach easily a dozen national parks in a day's drive.  I will almost certainly miss the fact that it is reliably sunny and warm every day from mid-June to late September.  I'll miss my job, which, all things considered, is pretty great (thanks in no small part to such great mentors and coworkers).  I'll miss our house, which, despite its quirks, has been our first real home.  

But before I start getting sappy and feeling my feelings, let's recount the things I will not miss.  Inversions.  Subzero temperatures.  Snow.  Nearly vacant grocery stores on Sundays.  Not because that's not an awesome phenomenon, but because I have a hunch that moving from a Mormon stronghold to the Bible Belt will have similar ramifications for Sunday shopping situations.

Utterly superficial things that are unreasonably exciting:  We will be within a half-hour drive of Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Target.  My hair will have body again - this arid desert air is bad news bears for my 'do.  My skin will likely resume aging at a normal pace and the fine lines that have been rapidly appearing at approximately the rate of a small child with Progeria will slow their roll.

So our house is for sale now.  Having our house on the market is simultaneously the greatest and worst thing ever.  It has given me the excuse to purge a lot of unnecessary crap.  It means our house has to be spotless and ready for showtime at a moment's notice.  That sounds like a huge chore, and it is because I live with an Andy, two cats, and a dog.  But at the same time, it's validation for my obsessive yearning for order and cleanliness.  It's full-on permission to let my neurotic clean-freak flag flap in the breeze.  I should also mention that our house has been on the market for all of 72 hours, so let's make a note to check back on on that later.

Ohmygod.  So much to do in the next month and a half.