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Monday, October 27, 2014

The Beginning of the End

This time last year I was lazing on a beach on the Emerald Coast. The world was perfect. Well, perfect-ish. Close enough for government work.

My husband and I uprooted our Southern family from the glorious land of Eternal Summer to move to Kansas last December. There was snow. There was a Polar Vortex. There was ice. There were many, many tears.

We quickly made plans to retreat to more hospitable territory.

And then came the job offer in Alaska. Yeah... Alaska doesn't have a Polar Vortex because it's the Arctic. Alaska may not actually have a summer. We're not sure yet.

But the count down has begun. My husband graduates from graduate school the second week of December. Plane tickets are being bought. Shipping arrangements for everything from my book collection to the giant Dog to the cars are being made. Hotels are already booked.

This is an end of an era.

I'm moving to a place I've never visited before for the first time in ... um ... look, I traveled a lot as a kid so this isn't really a fair calculation. The number of places I haven't been in the lower 48 States is Maine and the Dakotas. Maybe. I might have been to one of the Daktoas. I forget. But I've never been to Alaska!

I'm going to see the Northern Lights, y'all!  And I might get beat up for saying "Y'all" on the west coast. Anything could happen.

The good news is that I haven't hit the "burn everything to the ground!" stage of packing. Give me another five weeks and I'll probably be threatening to leave everything behind and buy it new on arrival (Pro Tip: don't do this). With everything done all that's left for me to do between now and boarding the plane is write.

November - National Novel Writing Month - is devoted to writing JANE'S SHADOW, book two of the Jane Doe series. Let me tell you, it opens with a bang.

6 comments:

  1. Now, you just need to visit Maine, the Dakotas, and Hawaii. :)

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  2. *chuckles* Alaska has a summer period. It's quite nice too although after the temperatures you're used to, it might still feel like winter. Make sure you have really good cold weather gear for yourself and the family. Really good cold weather gear.

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  3. Pro Tip# 2 Watch the movers when they pack. In Germany we opted to get out of there way and let them do their job. When we got to the states we opened one slightly smelly box and opened it to find the trash can with trash still in it. The upside was they did put it in a large plastic bag before they put it in the box.

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    1. I've heard horror stories like that before. The last time we moved they tried to pack the potatoes. o.0

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  4. P. S. They do have a summer. The days are nice and long at one point 23 1/2 hours of daylight. When the sun does finally go below the horizon you can still read from the light in the sky. Only been there once in 64 and enjoyed.it. Have a cousin near Anchorage. Have considered taking the
    ferry up and driving back. It would be an adventure, it was way back then..

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