Baltimore is our home, now.

OK, after playing Tetris with all our worldly belongings . . .



staying at the beautiful home (not just saying that) of my cousins Patrick & Tamara (& Anna & Donovan), and after some Georgia Guidestones. . .



at the end of four days on the road. . .



we have arrived at Ron Gibbs' home, and our new home. Most of our stuff remains in boxes, creating new little habitrails, but day by day should get us habituated and put away. Our first full day, we were graciously invited over to our new neighbor's home for a BBQ and some of David Millar's tilapia of the gods.



Django & Curtis have habituated quickly and easily. Curtis is already exploring the great outdoors, and thanks to the butter that we put on his paws (it seems to have worked, Delia), he even comes home.

Life is good and hopeful, and we're looking forward to settling down into new routines.

More soon,
Mike

moral obligation

Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all important discovery you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.
Andre Gide

pamplemousse pamplemousse pamplemousse.

not hungover any more

So after a weekend of furious wine drinking with friends starting on either Thursday or Friday (i forget)I have had three hangovers in the course of one looooong weekend. I remember two hangovers in one particular 24 hour period - sobered up and drank again to remove the hangover - and one on some other day that certainly must have happened. At Richards lovely "we will all come visit you in DC" party (Friday night? Saturday night?)i remember 2 glasses of wine and maybe 2 champagnes and a sip of some damp cardboard mulch called scotch. I also remember furious woozles and belly blows mixed in with a totem pole and fresh shrimp on the rocks. Could be i have a bad memory, or that was a very good party... Yesterday was the day i intended to lie on couch the with a brown dog and avoid all light and sound when lo and behold (suddenly? such tension!) friends came to my door bearing food. One could say a plethora of friends. So, no sleep but such, much good company and happiness and joy actually and more food and i did not even attempt to drink wine again. Imagine that.

Today is one week from leaving and I now pack things i am sure I will not be using this week: the cat, a pair of black winter tights with a diamond pattern, a jar of capers.. all the while trying to fill 3.7 billion empty frames (i generally round up) that i promised to populate for my last employer as a result of using a cheap excuse to take pictures instead of manning the front desk. I knew that would come back on me eventually..
less than a week to go now. i have lunches and breakfasts and a happy hours planned with even more friends this week. How did I get so many friends? Must be fall out from the husband. Lord know I don't attempt to be likeable on a consistent basis.
f*** packing. I'm getting wine.

Tension by Billy Collins

“Never use the word suddenly just to
create tension.”

—Writing Fiction



Suddenly, you were planting some yellow petunias

outside in the garden,

and suddenly I was in the study

looking up the word oligarchy for the thirty-seventh time.



When suddenly, without warning,

you planted the last petunia in the flat,

and I suddenly closed the dictionary

now that I was reminded of that vile form of governance.



A moment later, we found ourselves

standing suddenly in the kitchen

where you suddenly opened a can of cat food

and I just as suddenly watched you doing that.



I observed a window of leafy activity

and, beyond that, a bird perched on the edge

of the stone birdbath

when suddenly you announced you were leaving



to pick up a few things at the market

and I stunned you by impulsively

pointing out that we were getting low on butter

and another case of wine would not be a bad idea.



Who could tell what the next moment would hold?

Another drip from the faucet?

Another little spasm of the second hand?

Would the painting of a bowl of pears continue



to hang on the wall from that nail?

Would the heavy anthologies remain on their shelves?

Would the stove hold its position?

Suddenly, it was anyone’s guess.



The sun rose ever higher.

The state capitals remained motionless on the wall map

when suddenly I found myself lying on a couch

where I closed my eyes and without any warning



began to picture the Andes, of all places,

and a path that led over the mountain to another country

with strange customs and eye-catching hats

suddenly fringed with little colorful, dangling balls.

T minus 11 days

Counting down the days 'till we leave Austin is like waiting for your 21st birthday. the opportunities to be irresponsible are getting slimmer and you best get the yayas out of the way because people will be expecting you to be responsible and such very, very soon. Actually, "people" is Ron our new landlord, friend, roomy and all around housing bill collector. "People" can also be loosely interpreted as Visa, Health Insurance and various school loans that are still to be paid 10 years after we still can't use the algebra. In fact, aside from Ron, I'm not sure these people I spoke of are carbon based life forms anyway. Are they the mysterious "they" I have heard so much about? OMG "they" are "people" or vice versa. but i digress..
We (certainly not they)are leaving June 1 and only taking what we own and all living beings besides my son Jer who have had a room or floor space in this condo. Dog- Django- check. Cat- Curtis - check. Son - Chris- check. Husband - upgraded Mike 2.0 version - check. 10396 boxes of clothes i rationalized buying because it may be cold in Baltimore (fromwith herein further will be known as Voldemort) 10k checks. Shoes, sadly only 2 boxes. double check. Must work on shoe purchases as i am well behind most of womankind and a few metros.
Eating everything in the fridge and freezer and throwing out the condiments. Goodbye tangerine garlic marinade, we hardly knew ye...

Not ready to hit the road jack but working on it suspiciously slowly. I been studying Buddhism and mediating and have come to the startling decision there is time for everything in my life and no need to stress the clock. Suddenly there is no suddenly, only now and now and dammit Mike doesn't work in the same way i do and we wont be packed in time and the 1st will come and go and i'll be in the van or car making one more trip upstairs to get the _________ we forgot and have to walk the dog and how does one walk a cat on the road with no AC in Atlanta in June anyhoo?
Hello anxiety my old friend.....

The Stage is Set. . . and cluttered.

It's shaping up to be a busy year. We're planning to move to the DC area (Baltimore to start) at the end of the year. We've got to sell our own condo, which means getting it in shape to move.

Carol is finishing her photoshop certificate, finishing her internship at National Instruments, and I'm working on training myself in conflict resolution and finding a job in a new field, in a new state, in a new year.

I'm also wrapping up my efforts as Chair of our precinct, Treasurer of the Central Austin Democrats, and we'll have to figure out what to do with our membership in our investment club. Then, I'm on the planning committee for the Nat'l Coalition for Deliberation & Dialogue bi-ennial conference in Austin in October, and working to organize a family reunion about the same time. Too many plates spinning, but this is the time to spin them, I suppose.

Enough for now. This is the inaugural post of a blog so friends and family can keep track, and so Carol and I can remember the craziness of our last year in Austin.