What have you done today?

My bitches aren't going to like this blog, but it can't be helped. As much as I treasure the friendships I've gained through my Knitting Bitches of Jacksonville, the compass of my life points elsewhere and demands attention.

For the last couple of years, I've talked about moving north. My husband and I want to live somewhere that isn't quite so hot, that's a little closer to his folks, in a city or town that isn't known for its murder rate. We want to feel safe walking to the car at night and sending our future kids to public school (if that becomes absolutely necessary—personally, I'm hoping to shell the dough for a Waldorf school). We've been in Jacksonville for going on 9 years, and we're ready for a change. We're thinking of Columbia, SC, for a start, because it's far enough from his folks where we can have our own lives, but close enough where we'll be raising small people near nurturing grandparents. Not saying my folks aren't nurturing, but that's a story for another time.

But Husby has pain management and dental issues that've made it challenging for him to look for work for a couple of years now, so year after year goes by with me talking and us not making it north because we're barely making ends meet as it is.

I've been talking it up much more of late, making some plans and lists, trying to get organized, motivated by a friend who just moved across the country. Husby and I are a couple of packrats, dumpster divers too, so our little apartment is fairly stuffed to the gills with furniture, books, clothes, and the detritus of 8 years in the same house. There's a helluva lot of stuff in that place that goes under the heading of "when we have a real house," never mind the stuff you unearth in a process like this and think, "wait, have I worn this since high school?" And we're both a little lazy, naturally fearful of change, and have a little trouble with the whole "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality of adulthood.

So we've got our work cut out for us.

I keep in touch with a friend I've known since the 4th grade. This amazingly intelligent and creative lady sent me an email the other day with the subject line: Moving. My first thought was that maybe she was moving from her latest niche in New England; then I opened the email. One sentence:

—What have you done today to get yourself closer to moving out of Florida?

What, indeed? Let's see, I whined more than once in my head about how boring work was, but I didn't make any lists on the side while I was working, to better organize myself. I slacked on dinner, heated leftovers, and zoned in front of a TV that had next to nothing on its 60+ channels, when I could've been digging into the mess that is our dining room or pulling down a box that's been closed since we moved in and gone through its contents to ensure everything in it was worth keeping. I could've brought the papasan chair to the dumpster. I could've...

What a shot in the arm it was! What a simple concept! It made me really look at the apartment and mentally cut apron strings on furniture, cull through the videotapes, think about more areas that could be packed now or rearranged. It's not going to happen overnight, but one day at a time will get us into a moving van 9 months from now with a little diligence and a lot of hard work. It's going to mean plenty of sacrifice, like no more eating out or buying yarn ::pause to breathe into paper bag::, but it'll be so worth it when we're finally starting a new life in the Carolinas.

So this blog's to keep me on track for next April, and for anyone else who's curious about a packrat trying to simplify her life. Let's pare it down together!