SO. New year, new life. Again. We've been "empty nesters" for about 6 months now and still adjusting to that. I have to say I'm probably enjoying it much more than I should. I feel like a really bad mom when I read friends who are absolutely devastated that their kids have moved out and gone to college or are devastated thinking they'll move out in a year or two and I'm just relieved! I love my kids, I truely truely do, but they both needed to get out and experience life on their own to finish the growing up they need to do and I'm all too happy to have the stress and daily strife lifted from my shoulders. Both of my kids were in serious need of a reality check and now that they're getting it, things seem to be starting to fall into place for both of them which is good for our entire family dynamic. So, happy they moved out? Hell yes I'm happy they moved out. And now I feel guilty for being happy about it.

Well, today is my last day in California. I think. We could actually end up staying till Wednesday now, but thats just prolonging the agony of leaving. I'm a rip the bandaid off quickly kinda girl. I've made no secret of my absolute love of California. It's where I belong. The second I crossed the state line moving here I felt like I was home. I don't want to leave. it's the first place I've felt I belonged in my entire life and I only had a year and a half here. Sure, there are a couple of things I miss about the East Coast. Colors for one. Snow on Christmas day (and ONLY Christmas day) and I miss trees. real trees. Tall, drops leaves, changes color in the fall, full of acorns, whirlygigs, (maples) and pine needles, bark on the trunk, bird harboring, huggable trees. I miss them. Sure we have palms here, and the occasional fruit tree, but a forest is a little hard to find around here. Actually, one of my FAVORITE exhibits at the Wild Animal Safari Park is the tree exhibit. I never admitted that out loud to anyone before. But other than that, I don't miss much about the East Coast. Or anywhere else. I'm a Cali girl who had the unfortunate luck to be born and raised in Michigan and didn't make it home till I was 40. And now I have to leave.

I've also made no secret about how much I hate DC with a passion of a thousand fires. Guess where I'm moving? Yep. And so the new adventure begins. Me, Hub, and cat. 10 weeks in hotels and bouncing from family to friend while he goes to school, and then 3 years in Hell. 3 years at a minimum that is. If he gets a job there out of retirement, I'm doomed. My House is packed and the entirety of our belongings are in a warehouse somewhere on the East Coast. We are staying at friends' house for one more night, he jumps out of an airplane in the morning, and then we hit the open road straight into the bowels of Hell. The next 10 weeks will be an adventure. I'm going to be doing some serious road tripping on my own, driving from Norfolk VA (where he'll be for 10 weeks) to Michigan and Alabama and who knows where else. Then we find a house in DC and settle in in March and then I get to have a puppy. Well, in theory I get a puppy. DH is already trying to back his way out of the puppy thing because he wants, and I quote, "a dog that doesn't chew, pee in the house, or shed. Cant' we get an older, smaller, hairless dog? Can't you detooth a dog like you declaw a cat??" I won't repeat here what I told that man, but suffice it to say I'm pretty adamant about getting a puppy, with hair and teeth and lets just leave it at that.

So there you have it. A new adventure beginning with the two of us heading into our "golden years" with a cat and me still fighting tooth and nail for every bit of my sanity.

And people wonder why I'm certifiable....

I'm going to try to keep up with this fairly consistantly, but I know over the next few days I'll be scarce of time and privacy to write as I need to, but I WILL be back if only for a few sentences here and there when I can.