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The hills above Ashland

Ixa and her pouff mamas. :-)



There's hiking abundance here, today we hiked in the hills above Ashland:

LA to Ashland Lift Off, 2 days and counting

Well, things have gotten sillier, if possible :-). Yesterday we anxiously awaited a call from escrow because there was a new issue with the loan and it looked like the whole deal was going to be delayed. Since we still have no domestic destination, it would have been a relief. But at 4:15, we finally got word that the loan funded and we're on for close of escrow on Friday ... erm, that's tomorrow.

The beautiful picture is my post-op pinky. I got the bandages off yesterday. It's been immobilized for 2 weeks, so I can't bend it yet. Good news is that I can finally wash my own hair - and yikes, it needs it!

Just for extra laughs, I awoke with a cold this morning. Nose running everywhere. I predict I will be disgusted when I start opening boxes in Oregon only to find wads of kleenex.

We've decided to go for the retirement house I've been talking about. This kind of house is exactly the kind of house I NEVER want to find myself living - I can honestly say I've even been AFRAID of ending up in a house like this. Had I stayed my conservative Southern Indiana course during college, in the sorority being groomed for a Republican life, this is totally the kind of house that would have suited me. Funny, all the twists and turns my life has taken, and I'll end up in this kind of house afterall. :-)

We've decided that this house is so easy, so unparticipatory, so unremarkable that we can move into it and ignore it. I won't be tempted in any way to alter or enhance it; it will be too invisible to distract me. The house will serve as a humble wet nurse to our recuperation and forward expansion. Under that bland milk-toast roof, I will build my web-site, my marriage, and my business ... well, start to anyway, we only plan to stay there for 6 months. :-)

LA to Ashland Lift Off, 3 days and counting

I've been stressing about my stuff. I've purged a lot, but so very much remains. I understand that clearing the old space for the new, but I don't desire everything to be new! Yes, great changes are underway, but some of the old is wonderful and perfect and not to be lost!

The stress comes in with not knowing which of the old is sacred and which is just noise. I feel a bit like a failed psychic - I can't choose the correct card behind the screen so I simply choose all the cards - it must be one of them!

I just found one of my old and walking sticks in the back corner of the garage. It looks sacred, but is it more sacred than the little orange plastic footstool I bought while on residency in Banff? Or the bamboo poles we used in our wedding canopy? Every object is talking to me! Why have I never learned the code to decipher these mumblings!

I guess all I can do is pack it all up and revive my spiritual radar and sort it out in So. Oregon.

LA to Ashland Lift Off, 4 days and counting

As of 12:39 pm we still have no Oregon destination! We're still waiting to hear about our first choice, and have put in a call to our third choice (the retirement house). Our second choice (a slightly dumpy Ashland house) has already been rented and our fourth choice (the Rogue River Retreat) is out due to lack of internet (!?!?!).

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5:40 PM. Still no house. I think today's theme is "Oops, I forgot I'm a princess" (as in, "Why don't these people just give me what I've asked for - what is wrong with them!?"). When I suffer a moment of rationality, I don't think this move is anymore stressful than anyone else's move. It's just that I've been so good at eliminating stress from my life that to find myself under such hideous pressure is truly shocking and unwelcome.

On the up side: We've had days to pack with no rain in sight! Thank you sunny Southern California! :-) I will miss you!

LA to Ashland Lift Off, 5 days and counting

Yesterday was a whirlwind of final inspections and packing. One problem solved, next one to conquer: the rental house.

At the last minute the rental management company asked me if the dog is a deal breaker - wha' the foo???? I couldn't have been more clear about having a dog, and the girl who showed me the house said there would be no problem. I wonder how many times they've been sworn at for asking how dispensable a client's baby is.

Other than this, I have no recollection of the events that transpired today. There are boxes everywhere - I have no idea where they came from or what's in them. LOL! But who cares, since we have no idea where to move them to!

LA to Ashland Lift Off, 6 days and counting

Because I have a thick mane, and my finger is still recuperating from surgery, It's been too hard to wash my hair and it was getting pretty funky. My knight in shining shampoo (aka dear husband) finally relieved my misery and I now bask in cleanliness and the tingle of my peppermint conditioner. :-)

I read "The Golden Compass" last week on my trip to Ashland, then quickly devoured the movie, too. I've latched onto the fantastical theme of having your soul live outside your body, in the book it's in the form of an animal called your "daemon". I'm likening it to my notion of parts of my soul residing outside my body in my art, which includes a myriad of material objects including my house.

In "The Golden Compass" the deepest form of torture would be separation from your daemon (soul) - it would leave you as a ghost, irredeemably alone in the world in every sense. In this world and in my life, I get to separate from my daemons, yet remain vital, in fact, probably more vital instead.

As I lay in the bath tonight, I memorized my jungle green bathroom ceiling - that I installed, as well as the pine molding, the handpainted glass tiles, the heavy beam painted nude, the wood trim and the lights, that I also installed. I've started to pack my functional and decorative doodads, which is already leaving the house a little alien looking. My extrication from this house, this production, this daemon, is exquisitely self-conscious.