Saturday, May 2, 2009

Destination: Ithaca

I am not so sure this blog should be as much about leaving California as it should be about moving to Ithaca, New York. It's important to clarify Ithaca. When I told some of the people I know that we are moving to New York for a year because Steve (husband) is going to teach at Cornell University, they immediately got worked up about the thrills and adventures that await me in the shopping, theater, museums and restaurants. I eventually realized they were confusing Cornell with Columbia. No one would ever confuse Ithaca with Manhattan. But the good news is that I am really excited about the shopping, theater, museums and restaurants in Ithaca. Bring on the music fests, university lectures, nature centers and hippies that lunch.

We have our date set. The movers come June 15th. It will take two days to pack up the 8 tons of crap we have accumulated over 40 years of life, two days to load it all onto a truck, then 7 days to travel across country. That's for the truck driver, I mean. It will take me something like 8 hours, including a two-hour layover, two semi-wild boys, one cranky husband and a drugged cat under the seat in front of me.

I am hoping to embrace all that is good about moving to a wildly liberal college town, using a compost pile, joining a sustainable food co-op and working out barefoot (yoga). I am planning to release all that is bad about leaving my hairdresser, esthetician, housekeeper, gardener, acupuncturist, handyman, trainer and babysitter...