I’m sitting in the living room and watching the sunrise… my supervisor called in sick and also called me to offer me the day off. I am already awake and would ordinarily just go in, but I really could use an extra day to work on certification paperwork. So, that’s my day, some relaxing while doing much organizing. I want to clear out a backlog of grading as well.

Jen made a comment on yesterday’s blog about regretting my need to make an early commitment. It’s true that I do have some regret about that, but moving will be an adventure and I don’t have enough adventure in my life. We’ve found a lake house that is very cool, so we just might pull a Lloyd and go live with the loons (not that we have any this far south). One of my ville friends, Lloyd, lives on a lake outside the ville and it’s definitely got some up sides. I actually have a fifteen-foot, aluminum-hull bass boat in storage at my parent’s house.

There is a reality to the work we have chosen for ourselves: to be teachers at a certain level is to be migratory. We do our potential a disservice when we don’t seek out the best in instruction. Jes needs her MFA and I need my Ph.D. As an academic pair we are going to limit our choices to places that serve both our needs, which is a tricky thing to do. We are probably going to have to move several times over the next few years. I have to admit that moving is hard for me.

We moved a great deal when I was a child and it was hard on me, losing friends and having to reinvent my life every three years or so. That’s part of why I stayed in the ville so long, when it was finally up to me I dug in my heels. The thing is, in a place like the ville everyone else leaves so you end up reinventing your life anyway. I had at least three lives there: my undergraduate, my time as a hotel and bar manager (Beth and I met
when we were both managers at the Days Inn), and my graduate student & fellowship teaching years.

I just don’t know about horses. Kelly, Jes and I have been talking about getting a place that might allow us to keep one or more of your horses. The problem is, we don’t know how long we’ll be staying there. Getting Jes her advanced degree will be our next move/priority and it’s sounding like that could be in Ohio.

Does your stuff own you or do you own your stuff? We took a huge load of clothing and kitchen stuff to goodwill last weekend. Another move so soon on the heels of the last one really might encourage a useful shedding of stuff. Jes and I are both pack rats of a sort, and like any forest we made need these occasional fire sales to keep us healthy. All the PBS pledge drive pseudo-science gurus are in agreement, the path to wisdom and bliss starts with simplification. “It’s so bizarre,” said my sister V, “that you could have so much clothing and yet always look the same.” It’s true. I own a lot of brown and black pants. I’m heavy into earth tones.

That reminds me, our wedding colors are red and taupe. The wedding bird will be the New Guinean bird of paradise and the wedding fish will be a koi. The wedding invertebrate will be the slug and the wedding WWII bomber will be the B-29. I feel like an existential Noah picking pairs of cultural markers to safely shelter during the coming wedding flood. Ok, best get to work. Have a good day and thanks for checking in.